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The school basketball world will probably be targeted on Houston, the place the lads’s Ultimate 4 kicks off on Saturday.
Cinderella has taken over the sport over the past two weeks and now the 4 groups that shocked the course of the event are able to play, leaving damaged brackets alongside the best way.
Florida Atlantic, a faculty of roughly 25,000 college students positioned in Boca Raton, Florida, made solely its second NCAA event look. The Owls blasted by means of the East Area, however misplaced to San Diego State 72–71 after the Aztecs got here again from a 14-point deficit.
Within the different semifinal, UConn will face former Large East Convention rival Miami. The Huskies are accustomed to being on this place, making their sixth Ultimate 4 look up to now 25 years with 4 nationwide championships, the final coming in 2014.
The Hurricanes took care of the highest two seeds within the Midwest area to make their method to Houston. Led by ACC Participant of the Yr Isaiah Wong, Miami seems to be to comply with up with its first title after making the Elite Eight final season.
Observe the insanity: Latest Men’s NCAA Tournament College Basketball Scores & Schedules
Observe alongside for dwell updates all through the evening,
The San Diego State Aztecs beat the Florida Atlantic Owls 72-71 in Dallas on Saturday to advance to their first-ever nationwide championship recreation.
Lamont Butler hit the game-winning shot on the buzzer after being trailed by San Diego State the whole second half.
Butler stated on ESPN after the sport, “The plan was just to get downhill, they cut me a little bit, I looked back, there were two seconds left, so I got a shot I was comfortable with,” and I kill it I am joyful.”
The Aztecs were down by 14 points and tied the game at 65 with 4:05 on the clock. The Owls responded with a jumpshot from Giancarlo Rosade, but could not pull away comfortably. It is the fifth largest comeback in Final Four history.
Florida Atlantic’s sophomore guard Alijah Martin was the game’s leading scorer with 26 points. Aztecs senior guard Matt Bradley had 21 points.
After being down by 14 points, the San Diego Aztecs tied the game at 65 points with 4:26 remaining on the clock in last four action. The team came within two of the Florida Atlantic Owls several times, but senior forward Aguek Arop made the jumper that finally leveled the score. San Diego has 11 offensive rebounds compared to Florida Atlantic’s seven, which is helping the Aztecs in their comeback.
The Florida Atlantic Owls maintained their lead in the second half, but not without a fight from the San Diego State Aztecs. Brian Dutcher’s team is within two after going on a 16–4 run, closed in on a pair of free throws from Matt Bradley. The senior guard had a key three-point shot on the run. The Aztecs are down 60-58 with 9:05 on the clock.
San Diego State also had a short 5–0 run to start the period that shook the Owls’ momentum.
Women’s Final Four scores big for ESPN
With South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston and Iowa’s Kaitlin Clark meeting in the women’s Final Four on Friday night, ratings were expected to be high.
They were record-setting for ESPN, the network announced Saturday.
ESPN, which broadcasts both NCAA tournament semifinal games, said the LSU–Virginia Tech opening game averaged 3.4 million viewers with a peak of 5 million on the network platform. This was up 57% from last year’s opening game.
Iowa–South Carolina averaged 5.5 million, with a peak of 6.6 million, up 72% from the previous year’s late game.
The network said both games attracted record viewers for a college basketball game – men’s or women’s – on ESPN+.
– Mike Briham
The Florida Atlantic Owls are up 40-33 over the San Diego State Aztecs at the half. The Owls’ lead was as large as 10, but Keshad Johnson made a 3-point shot with 39 seconds on the clock to keep the margin to single digits.
“We’ve been able to open up some gaps and close those gaps,” Owls head coach Dusty Mays said on the CBS broadcast. He said his message to the team in the locker room would be to continue playing, “frame by frame, possession by possession.”
San Diego State shot 13-of-29 from the field, but went 5-of-11 from beyond the arc.
Aztecs senior guard Matt Bradley was the game’s leading scorer with 11 points. He has made three trays. For the Owls, freshman guard Nicholas Boyd had nine points.
Florida Atlantic and San Diego State are playing in their first Final Four game. The Owls made a statement early, going up 5–0 with a three-point bucket from Nicholas Boyd and a jumpshot from Jonelle Davis. The Aztecs went ahead with back-to-back baskets from Matt Bradley, but Florida Atlantic took the lead again with a 16–3 run. The Owls are up 21-17 at the half in the first half.
When does the Men’s NCAA Tournament Final Four begin?
The first national semifinal between Florida Atlantic and San Diego State kicks off at 6:09 PM ET on Saturday.
The second game between UConn and Miami will begin at approximately 8:49 PM ET, 30 minutes after the end of the first game.
The winners of the two semifinals will meet in the men’s national championship game, which begins at 9:20 p.m. ET on Monday, April 3.
Miami Coach Jim Larrañaga Has Elite March Madness Dance Moves
The Miami Hurricanes football team of the 1980s won three national championships and was known for its dance moves, flips, touchdown celebrations and sack celebrations.
The men’s basketball team is carrying on the legacy this season, with head coach Jim Larrañaga leading his players to the program’s first-ever Final Four. Since taking over the Hurricanes in 2011, he has led Miami to four Sweet 16 appearances and back-to-back Elite Eight berths, including this year’s run.
Along the way, he has taken two steps with his team in celebration of each victory, delighting fans across the country.
“It’s really about March Madness, the big dance,” Larrañaga said on CBS’s Final Four show. “You have to have fun. And everyone loves to dance.”
-Victoria Hernandez
Big Dance:Jim Larrañaga Has Some Elite March Madness Dance Moves
last four prophecies
The NCAA men’s tournament field has been reduced from 68 to four in the two weeks of post-season play. The rest of the quartet comes into Houston with only one of the top 16 seeds. That school, No. 4 Connecticut, would join three first-time Final Four participants – No. 5 seeds San Diego State and Miami (Florida) and No. 9 Florida Atlantic.
Here’s who USA TODAY Sports picks to win:
FAU vs San Diego State
- Dan Volken: FAU
- Paul Myrberg: SDSU
- Eddie Timanas: SDSU
- Eric Smith: SDSU
Miami vs UConn
- Volcan: Yukon
- Myerburg: Yukon
- Timans: Miami
- Smith: Yukon
Will Florida Atlantic Stay Together After The Final Four?
In the era of transfer portals, The most pressing concern for FAU is maintaining a talented but overlooked roster that put on a national display during four consecutive NCAA men’s tournament victories.
Coach Dusty Mays said, “There’s no doubt it’s getting fluid every day.” “And until the ball comes next season, you can’t really know who your roster will be, and that’s part of it. Luckily, I’m still relatively young and have a lot of energy, because I don’t think That there’s going to be a day where you can just relax and not be afraid of your phone ringing.”
-Paul Myrberg
How Michigan’s Fab Five legacy runs through San Diego State
“I’ve heard from all five of them,” Dutcher told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “He wrote me ‘best wishes’, ‘congratulations’, ‘go get them’.”
-Brent Schrotenbauer
Connecticut’s Sanogo manages Ramadan fast by leading the team’s final four runs
HOUSTON — Nine minutes before Saturday’s second national semifinal, Connecticut center Adama Sanogo is going to eat.
It won’t be much. Maybe just some oranges and coconut water, but something will definitely be in his stomach. And it’s going to get much better than what Sanogo did last weekend at the West Regional in Las Vegas.
“I’m trying not to think about it,” They said. “The more you’re thinking about it, the harder it is to do it.”
Sanogo, a Mali native who has arguably been UConn’s best player during the NCAA men’s tournament, is Muslim and currently observing Ramadan, a month where he is not allowed to eat or drink from sunrise to sunset.
– Dan Volken
SDSU assistant Mark Fischer living with ALS is helping the Aztecs advance to the Final Four
The wheelchair-bound assistant helps explain the makeup of the men’s Final Four.
More specifically, to understand how Fifth-seeded San Diego State earned the school’s first trip to the Final Four, where it will play Saturday against Florida Atlantic in Houston, it helps to know Mark Fisher, who serves as an assistant to Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher. does.
He is the son of retired basketball coach Steve Fisher, who won a national championship with Michigan in 1989 and led the school back to the Final Four in 1992 and 1993 with the “Fab Five”.
More importantly, 44-year-old Mark Fischer has no use of his arms and legs.
But here’s some essential reading to prepare you before tip-off.
-Josh Peter
From FAU’s Nasty Locker Room to the Final Four
HOUSTON – In May of 2008, Craig Angelos was looking for something that would give Florida Atlantic Basketball A Spark. So he walked two miles away from campus and went to church.
The purpose of the visit was not prayer, even though there may have been some use in the program. Angelos, then FAU’s athletics director, went on to meet Mike Jarvis, a former George Washington and St. John’s coach who had moved to Boca Raton and become an influential member of the Spanish River Church. He interviewed right there in the pastor’s office.
“He was a great coach, but I also felt, he’s part of this 6,000-member church run by FAU,” said Angelos, now a senior deputy athletics director at Long Island University. “So if we have a friend of his come to the game, maybe 100 or 200 or even 1,000 because they want to support their fellow church member, that’s a huge plus. At Boca you need a player who can do a lot more than just coach.”
-Dan Volken
Will Miami’s Norchard Omier Play Football?
Houston – Miami University gave birth to one of the great Hurricanes four-year basketball role player Jimmy Graham chose football as a graduate student in 2009, when the transition from basketball to football took place.
NFL scouts saw enough of Graham’s size, speed, and athleticism in that one year of college football to earn him a third-round draft pick. He caught 713 passes in the NFL, made five Pro Bowls, and became one of the best tight ends of his generation.
Those who watch Miami for the first time on Saturday when they play Connecticut in the Final Four may get flashbacks when they look at Norchad Omier, a 6-foot-7 block center of steel whose physical profile suggests That he could be a big time NFL prospect.
– Dan Volken
Here are a few stories to prepare you before tip-off.
Who is taking the title?: See the predictions for the final four employees of USA TODAY staff
expect surprise: Five bold predictions for the Final Four of the men’s NCAA tournament
One more run?: Three ways Florida Atlantic’s team can stick together
30 years later: The Fab Five legacy lives on with San Diego State in the Final Four
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