Final Four

I've never heard of Josh Mancuso, but Debbie Panek passed these shorts along. Pretty clever. Both worth a click.

Auburn are the Tigers. So why are they always saying war eagle? Turns out, war eagle is not a mascot, it's a battle cry. Apparently, way back in 1892 Auburn played Georgia for the first time. It wasn't going well for the Tigers. Late in the second half, a Civil War veteran released an old hunting eagle, which circled the field as Auburn drove for the winning touchdown completing a rousing comeback. Auburn fans spontaneously chanted "War Eagle!" to encourage their team. When the game concluded, the eagle plummeted to the ground and died. I am not making this up. Sounds apocryphal, but that's Auburn's story and they're sticking with it.

These teams are, of course, both in the SEC. They met once this season, a Florida win in February.

Florida coach Todd Golden was a pretty good point guard in his day (for St Mary's, the one in California). He played on an all-star team coached by Bruce Pearl, who later hired Golden to be the director of basketball operations at Auburn in 2014. One of Golden's best friends is Bruce's son, Steven Pearl, who is currently an Auburn assistant.

Injury issues for Auburn and Broome's bum right elbow was just the beginning. Chad Baker-Mazara, Auburn's sometimes over-enthusiastic forward, tore a ligament in his thumb. Worrisome, but both looked fine out of the gate. Broome owned the paint and Baker-Mazara nailed two 3s. The refs let the teams pay. It took 19 minutes for Florida to hit the bonus in the first (Auburn didn't at all). Auburn did everything except hit 3s; if they had this one might have gotten out of hand. As it was, Auburn was up 46-38 at the break. Fun first half. The stars played out. Johni Broome had 12 and was unstoppable inside. Walter Clayton just magnificent with a combination of 3s and assertive drives to the cup.

The Gators charged out of the locker room for the second half. Clayton pushed the pace powering Florida on 11-0 run to take the lead. Auburn tried to match the pace, which is not their game. The Tigers went back to running post-ups, mainly Broome but not always. Back and forth they went and then Auburn, and Broome in particular, ran out of gas. In the second, Auburn only made 8 field goals and had 12 turnovers. Brutal. Florida won by six to move on to the national title game.

The officiating was pretty good in the first. It was horrible in the second. Several extended visits to the replay monitors. Some truly terrible calls, almost all of which went against Florida. The refs did their best to ruin a terrific ball game.

Walter Clayton with a pretty decent Steph Curry impression. 34 points, five 3s, broke the defense down at will. Brilliant. As a Kentucky fan, I think he plays more like Jamal Murray. Those are some pretty elite comps!

The last player to score over 30 in two straight games in the Elite 8 or later? Larry Bird in 1979.

Alijah Martin is the first player to start in the Final Four for two different teams: Florida Atlantic (2023) and Florida (2025). He had a couple magnificent slams tonight. His team won, so we'll overlook those three held balls down the stretch. Three! Martin was a difference maker, but that could have been a disaster.

You know the comedian Ken Jeong, from movies (The Hangover), scripted TV (Community), reality TV (Masked Singer), etc. He's a Duke fan, but he's not a bandwagon-jumped having earned a zoology degree in Durham in 1990. While in college, Jeong considered changing his focus to theater. But he stayed the course, and ended up in medical school at UNC, graduating in 1995. He is licensed to practice internal medicine. Mind blown. Throughout his education, Jeong performed stand-up, mainly open mic nights. His residency was in New Orleans, where he won the Big Easy Laff-Off. Two of the judges, NBC president Brandon Tartikoff and The Improv founder Budd Friedman, urged Jeong to move to Los Angeles, where he practiced medicine and became a regular at The Improv. Jeong's big break occurred when Judd Apatow, an Improv regular, cast him as Dr. Kuni in Knocked Up. Did I mention my mind was blown?

Whiplash for the Blue Devils, going against one of the best defenses after just facing one of the best offenses. The Houston defense in the first half was basically best case. Limiting Duke to 34 points and only three 3-pointers. Pace right where the Cougars wanted it. The problem was their offense, of lack thereof. Duke's length is hard to deal with, but Houston runs almost no sets. Too many isolations leading to mid-range fade aways - the absolute worst shot in the game. Houston hit three 3s toward the end of the half to make things interesting. 34-28 Duke at the break. Knueppel with a dozen for the Devils. 

Houston got into more of an offensive flow to start the second, but every time they got close Duke answered with a 3. [Editor's Note: Houston's Uzan, a guard, posted up 7'2" Maluach and scored. I still haven't seen Maluach shoot a jumper this tourney. Not a lottery pick.] Duke seemed firmly in control, but Houston would not go away. With 5:00 minutes to play, Houston pulled to within four. Duke pushed it out to nine on a Flagg 3 with 3:00 to go. I started thinking about how Florida would match up against Duke. You know what happened next. The Blue Devils would not score another field goal. Houston finished on a 13-3 run. Duke had a chance, down a point with 17 seconds to go. They cleared out for Flagg, who settled for a fade away jumper in the lane. You might have heard something about that being the worst shot in the game. It wasn't close. Game for the ages. I'm not sure I believe what I just saw.

Houston's LJ Cryer had 26, going 6-9 from deep. He started college at Baylor. He was a freshman on their national title team, although he barely played.  He'll lead his team into the national title game Monday.

Cooper Flagg finishes his college career with 27 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks. Not bad for an 18 year-old.

Watching that Houston comeback in real time, I was convinced that Duke coach Jon Scheyer had completely blown it. And not just the Final Four game, the whole season. Complete over-reaction, right? Duke made the Final Four and only lost four times this season. Upon reflection, I'm doubling down. The thing that cost Duke an undefeated season was poor coaching.

Bear in mind that Houston gave Duke some huge assists down the stretch. None more so than the administrative technical on Houston's JoJo Tugler. I've seen a tech for knocking the ball out of the hands of the player inbounding the ball before, but it's been a while. Tugler knew he'd screwed up, bad. Just cost his team the game. Gifting Duke a point to stretch their lead to six with just over a minute to go. And they still had the ball. Game over, right?

Basketball 101 and common sense says you foul immediately to preserve the clock. I expected it; Duke expected it; didn't happen. After milking 20 plus seconds of game time, Kon Knueppel ended up with the ball and tried to get fouled on a jump stop in the lane. His defender didn't bite, staying in his stance. Which threw off Knueppel's motion and he got his shot blocked. The defender? JoJo Tugler. [Editor's Note: Seconds of game time later, Houston stole the ball and missed a wide open 3-pointer, which was slammed home off a weak side rebound. The steal, the rebound, the slam? All JoJo Tugler.]

I went off on a tangent there. Had to give JoJo his flowers. Yes, Houston played some terrific defense down the stretch. But they were no match for Duke's offense, if Duke had played their offense. Inexplicably, Scheyer gave the ball to Cooper Flagg down the stretch. Am I losing you? You think putting the game in the hands of the transcendent freshman seems like a great idea. It wasn't. With 10 minutes to go, the Duke offense was clicking on all cylinders. Great ball movement leading to wide open 3s and five out spacing facilitiating the occasional drive. Duke has a bunch of ball handlers. So why have Flagg bring the ball up court? He's got decent handle for his size, but he's not beating Houston off the dribble. How about: Hide him for a few passes, let the kid catch his breath and then set a pick to open him up. Flagg was clearly gassed at the end. His last second shot came up short. Just sayin'.

Speaking of that last second shot, all 68,000 in attendance and everyone watching from home knew what was going to happen. Houston's J’Wan Roberts sure did. Flagg with a spin move in the lane. In the huddle, Kelvin Sampson told Roberts to play Flagg straight up. No double-team, which might leave a shooter open.

The thing is, Duke had been down this road before. Want to see what a good coach does when he knows what the other team has planned?

I love the group of misfit toys Mark Pope coached up this season, but we had no business being in that game much less winning it. Scheyer ran the same script in all of three of Duke's loses and went right back to it against Houston. As I've said, Flagg is terrific. But why ask him to take over every close game? There are players who have taken over a whole tournament. Shabazz Napier. Danny Manning. Ed Pinckney. A freshman? One, and a great one: Carmelo Anthony. Those players had no choice; they were their team. That's one of the fun things about basketball - seeing a player completely take over a game. One day that will be Cooper Flagg but that day is not today.