Paul Sullivan: March Magic continues, setting up a Final Four field with eclectic coaches and intriguing matchups
· Yahoo Sports
CHICAGO — Workers were tearing down the court at the near-empty United Center late Sunday afternoon after Michigan’s win over Tennessee when a roar erupted from the nearby media workroom.
It was the same sound heard in bars, restaurants and living rooms across America after UConn freshman Braylon Mullins sank the game-winning 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left to stun top-seeded Duke in the East Region title game in Washington, D.C., a moment of madness that encapsulated the tournament that grabs us by the throat every March and refuses to let go.
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Writers at the U.C. stopped working on their game reports to watch the final seconds of the UConn-Duke game on laptops, and like everyone else, they were stunned at watching the most polarizing program in college sports let a spot in the Final Four slip through their hands.
For one shining moment, everyone was a UConn fan.
But that figures to change now that the Final Four field is in place and Michigan, Illinois, Arizona and UConn prepare for next weekend’s basketball smorgasbord in Indianapolis.
There’s no unlikable program in the bunch, and the four coaches — UConn’s Danny Hurley, Illinois’ Brad Underwood, Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd and Michigan’s Dusty May — have all overcome obstacles and doubters to get to this point.
The semifinal matchups are as good as it gets, with Michigan a 1 1/2-point favorite over Arizona and Illinois a 2 1/2-point favorite over UConn.
While the brackets turned into a chalk-a-holics delight for the most part with two No. 1 seeds, a No. 2 and a No. 3, any of the four teams could win if they play to their capabilities this weekend.
No double-digit lead is safe because anyone can go on a dominating run, as Michigan and UConn both did on Sunday.
UConn’s Dan Hurley dodged a bullet and lived to crow about coming out on top of one of the most epic wins in NCAA Tournament history, which he aided by letting his kids play instead of calling a timeout after the Duke turnover in the final seconds.
“You’re torn right there, and you’re almost like — and you’re just, it’s instincts,” Hurley said afterward. “It’s (a) gut instinct. But I think with their size, their length, their ability to switch everything, it just felt like the window where you’ve just got to let March Madness take over, March Magic.”
Hurley, making his third Final Four appearance in four years, is the best-known of the four coaches and the most successful, with back-to-back championships in 2023 and ’24. The Los Angeles Lakers offered him a six-year, $70 million deal in ’24 to coach LeBron James and Co., but Hurley decided to stay at UConn and chase a three-peat.
Hurley’s frenzied courtside demeanor can turn fans off, but no one can doubt his passion for the game. The same can be said of Underwood, who has mastered the art of the pained expression like no one in the Big Ten since Bobby Knight.
Underwood typically resembles the guy in the auto repair shop being told he needs a new transmission after going in for an oil change. He’s similarly cranky after games when he doesn’t like a question, like one after a win over Northwestern in January, where an Illini reporter mentioned Tomislav Ivišić played well after an up-and-down season.
“You guys say he’s been up and down,” Underwood shot back. “I just say his role changed. You guys create more damn narratives that are full of (bleep). That’s what he does. That’s why he’s been on draft boards.”
Illini fans have been hot and cold on Underwood, with many praising his recruiting but questioning his ability to get the most out of that talent. Two years ago, he took a team led by Terrence Shannon Jr. to the Elite Eight in Boston, only to watch UConn go on a 30-0 run — including scoring the first 25 points of the second half — to make the Final Four.
But making it to the Final Four with perhaps his most talented team should quell the doubters. Underwood’s players blew a game to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, but rebounded to make it to their first Final Four since 2005. They even brought back the super-soakers of the Shannon-Coleman Hawkins team of ’24 for their postgame locker room celebrations.
“Administrators win championships,” Underwood said after the Elite Eight win over Iowa, sounding a little like former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, who famously proclaimed “organizations win championships” during the Michael Jordan era.
Underwood has been given the undying support of AD Josh Whitman, even after some painful tournament losses, including to a Cinderella-maxxing Loyola team in Indianapolis in the second round in 2021.
The narratives may have changed, but the end results were the same. With precocious freshman Keaton Wagler and the Balkan ballers, this might be Underwood’s crowning moment.
“We play in the best league in the country, so anything’s possible when it comes to winning a national championship,” Underwood said after Saturday’s win. “But I never doubted — and I don’t want to sound arrogant — (but) I’ve never doubted us getting to a Final Four would happen. I have thought we have had other teams capable. But I also know how doggone hard it is to do it.”
Arizona has been dominating all year, and made its first Final Four since 2001 with an Elite Eight win over Purdue in San Jose. They came awfully close in 2005, but suffered an epic collapse to Illinois in an Elite Eight game in Rosemont, Ill., blowing a 15-point lead with four minutes left and losing in overtime.
The Wildcats have one NCAA title, but it was way back in 1997, a prehistoric era compared to today. Michigan hasn’t won since its first title in 1989, despite getting to the championship game four times since. This could be its best team ever, with a mature group led by star forward Yaxel Lendeborg and featuring four lightning-quick guards in Elliott Cadeau, Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle Jr. and Trey McKenney.
May is the most reserved of the four coaches, but he lets his players get emotional on the court without trying to rein them in, trusting them to play under control. When they get a big lead, it’s showtime.
The Big Ten, for all its successes in the sports world, has only 10 NCAA men’s basketball titles since Indiana won the second-ever tourney in 1940, and only two in the last 37 years — the 1989 Wolverines and Michigan State in 2000. But if Illinois and Michigan can make it to the championship game, the long drought will end one way or another.
No matter what happens, it’s been a magical March for college basketball, with a chance for more madness in Indy.