Oregon 44 Kansas 33 at the half.

The winner of this game takes on the winner of the Kentucky/North Carolina winner.

 

Oregon looks like a one seed against Kansas in the first half. Maybe they can sustain, but I'm betting Kansas will make a run and make this a game in the second half.

 

First time in 78 years since the Oregon Ducks have been to a Final Four. Impressive win against a very good Kansas team.

 

Oregon took Kansas to school. Not bad for a bunch of liberals.

 

74-60 Win. Well done Ducks

The ladies side isn't so lucky, they take on UConn next LOL.

 

My congratulations go out to Gonzaga and I will have to settle for hearing any further good news as work comes first again .

 

South Carolina pulls off the upset with a 77-70 win over Florida ...

 

UNC beat Kentucky 75-73 in what was a good game with a great final minutes ...

So the stage is set for Saturday April 1st:

 

Gonzaga and Oregon in the finals.

 

I guess that means it will be S Carolina and N Carolina in the final then lol ...

I would like to see the Zags take the whole thing. The Ducks are a tight unit right now though so I wouldn't count them out.

 

I think the mid majors have caught up. All the big schools recruit the one and done, while the other schools have built stronger teams with 4 or 5 year players.

I would like to see Gonzaga win it all, but would not be heart broken if Oregon won it all.

 

The 2017 Final Four gets underway on Saturday, April 1, as Gonzaga plays South Carolina in the first game. North Carolina squares off with Oregon in the second game to determine who will play for the 2017 NCAA Tournament championship in Glendale, Ariz. The national title game is April 3.

Gonzaga (-7) and North Carolina (-5) are favored to advance to the championship game.

But you can bet South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell (did you see he missed practice Thursday because he wasn’t feeling well?), who’s scored 29, 24, 24 and 26 points in the Gamecocks’ four NCAA Tournament wins will have something to say about it. The SEC Player of the Year averages 21.6 points this season and since his 44-point game against Alabama on Feb. 7, he’s scored 20 or more points in 11 of the last 13 games.

For Oregon to upset North Carolina, Tyler Dorsey, who’s averaging more than 24 points per game in the tournament, will need to step up big. He’s scored at least 20 points in each of the Ducks’ last seven games.

Here’s a look at the 2017 Final Four and a recap of what’s happened so far in the 2017 NCAA Tournament:

2017 NCAA Tournament Bracket




2017 Final Four: preview

In the first game, Gonzaga, a one-time Cinderella before blossoming into one of the country’s top basketball programs, takes on South Carolina, this year’s Cinderella. The Gamecocks completed an improbable run just to get to the Final Four as they beat the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds in the East Region. The Gamecocks are led by SEC Player of the Year Sindarius Thornwell.

The Bulldogs survived a scare from West Virginia in the Sweet 16 before pummeling Xavier in the Elite Eight. The Bulldogs are led by big man Przemek Karnowski and point guard Nigel Williams-Goss.

This will be the first Final Four for both teams.

The second game features North Carolina, which is looking to avenge a loss to Villanova in the 2016 championship game. The Tar Heels won a classic game against Kentucky in the Elite Eight to advance. Junior Justin Jackson leads the way for the Tar Heels.

And lastly, you’ve got the Oregon Ducks. Oregon is in its first Final Four since 1939, which was the first Final Four. The Ducks have the Pac-12 Player of the Year in Dillon Brooks but have been led in March by Tyler Dorsey and Jordan Bell.

2017 Final Four: Odds, betting lines
Game lines

No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 7 South Carolina | Gonzaga (-6.5)
No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 3 Oregon | North Carolina (-4.5)

Odds to win 2017 Final Four (Vegas Insider)

North Carolina: 5/4
Gonzaga 9/5
Oregon 9/2
South Carolina 8/1

 

Here are eight things to know about Gonzaga-UNC:

1. Gonzaga is the best ATS team in the country

North Carolina opened out in Las Vegas as a narrow (-2) betting favorite, but experts are already starting to line up on Gonzaga’s side and the against-the-spread stats suggest it is wise to be wary of the Bulldogs. Gonzaga had one of the best records against the spread in all of college basketball this season (23-10-2, per TeamRankings.com), beating the oddsmaker’s number 69.7 percent of the time and beating the spread by an average of 4.9 points per game.

2. Both teams dominate major statistical categories

Another factor in experts picking the Vegas underdog Gonzaga is KenPom’s projections favoring the title game rookies from the West Coast Conference. Gonzaga is the No. 1 team in KenPom’s ratings, North Carolina is No. 3 and both squads have been among the top teams in the country in several key categories.



Gonzaga North Carolina
KenPom Ranking 1 3
Off. Efficiency 12 7
Def. Efficiency 1 16
Off Reb. % 142 1
Opp. Off Reb % 47 25
Effective FG% 6 101
eFG% Defense 1 77

3. Gonzaga has the hot hand

Gonzaga was on fire in the first half against South Carolina -- 57.6 percent from the field, 55.6 percent from 3-point range and 100 percent from the free-throw line -- and has built confidence in its execution over the course of this season and this tournament that helped it respond after the Gamecocks’ stunning 16-0 run later in the game. Nigel Williams-Goss is playing like a man possessed right now on offense (23 points on 9-of-16 shooting), driven to finish this journey with a national championship. Johnathan Williams has been a sniper-style shooter currently on a streak of saving the team during offensive droughts and 7-foot freshman Zach Collins showed his NBA-ready game on Saturday night with 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks in just 23 minutes.

4. North Carolina, meanwhile ...

Twice in this tournament North Carolina has won despite long stretches of poor offensive production. Against Arkansas Razorbacks in the second round the Tar Heels trailed for most of the second half before finishing the game on a 12-0 run. Saturday night’s win against Oregon was the opposite, with no field goals in the final 5:50 of the game and four missed free throws in the final five seconds. It was the lowest field-goal percentage in a win (.371) for UNC all season and included another cold shooting night for junior guard Joel Berry (2-of-14) and senior forward Isaiah Hicks (1-of-12).

5. Unlikely stars showed up on the big stage for both teams

With North Carolina struggling to get a bucket, senior big man Kennedy Meeks continued what has been an impressive tournament run with one of the best games of his career. Meeks had 25 points, 14 rebounds and, while the rest of the team struggled, he went 11-for-13 from the field. On the other end of the spectrum from the senior chasing a title in his second straight Final Four is the 19-year-old Zach Collins, the NBA lottery pick who has emerged as a secret weapon behind the slightly larger and much more visible Przemek Karnowski . Matt Norlander is on the scene in Phoenix and profiled the performance of both unlikely stars in a must-read pieces for Monday night’s matchup.

6. The battle inside will determine the game


North Carolina has the No. 1 rebounding margin in the country, and is the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the country. But Gonzaga has a pair of rim protectors in Karnowski and Collins that can not only keep Meeks, Isaiah Hicks and UNC off the boards but deny opportunities for those easy put-back buckets that have helped North Carolina power through poor shooting in the past. Gonzaga’s size and depth inside is the great equalizer in this matchup, according to CBS Sports analyst Seth Davis.

“I have a hard time envisioning North Carolina winning the game,” Davis said on Saturday night after the Final Four. “It’s going to be the first time all season they are going up against a team that has as much size and depth in the frontcourt as they have.”


7. Final Four experience edge heavily favors North Carolina

North Carolina has the most NCAA Tournament victories since 2000 (46), while Gonzaga just started making the Sweet 16 in 1999. This is Mark Few’s first Final Four and Roy Williams’ ninth -- only Mike Krzyzewski (12), John Wooden (12) and Dean Smith (11) have more Final Four appearances -- and the top six players in the Tar Heels’ rotation have been on the roster for 14 NCAA Tournament games over the last three years, including last year’s Monday night buzzer-beater loss to Villanova Wildcats .

North Carolina, by the way, is 5-5 in NCAA Tournament title games.

This is the second time North Carolina has reached the title game in back-to-back years. In 1981, the Tar Heels lost to Indiana Hoosiers . The next season, in 1982, Dean Smith captured his first national championship thanks to a game-winner from then-freshman Michael Jordan against Georgetown Hoyas .

8. Chasing John Calipari

If Gonzaga defeats North Carolina it will be just the fourth team in Division I history with 38 wins in a season. All of the other three teams were coached by John Calipari -- 2015 Kentucky Wildcats , 2012 Kentucky, 2008 Memphis Tigers . All three of those teams made the Final Four, but only the 2012 Wildcats team led by Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist finished the season as national champions.

 

So UConn wasn't able to 5-pete afterall as they lost in the semi's to Mississippi State, who in turn had their asses handed to them by SC. Well done on all fronts ladies.

 

GO ZAG'S GO

 

Soooo, we are 40 minutes (of playing time) away from a new national champion. Tip off is coming right up.

I picked the Zag's to win it all from the start so let's see how close I am to being right ...

Ya ya, I know, even a broken clock ...

 

35-32 Zags at the half.

 

Looks like Meeks is about to foul out. He has 4 but they keep him in.

50-48 UNC with just over nine to go.

 

Wow, double fouls ... unguarded free throws for both sides.

Zags make theirs and Heels miss theirs.

Zags have gone 7 minutes without a basket other than free throws.

Tarheels by 2