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FINAL FOUR SATURDAY – Here’s the way it went down:
5:00pm – It was time to tune-in to the Final Four pre-game show on TBS and the production crew from CBS/Turner queued-up a tear-jerker of a sit down with Duke’s retiring Coach Mike Krzyzewski. It was an interesting setting as Coach K, call him Mike, was seated in an empty Cameron Indoor Center watching tape of memorable games, highlights intertwined with comments from past players and his immediate family.
It was quite moving to see the coaching life of Coach K flash before his eyes, misty with tears for all the right reasons.
5:39pm – The greatest 30 minutes in sports begins at The Superdome in New Orleans as the students and alum of all four schools ALL believe they can win the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. The excitement in the building is like none-other in American sports. Charles Barkley led the cheers and inducted a few students to his new institution of higher learning, CHUCK U.
5:59pm – It was a classy idea to pay tribute to Carolina, Duke, Kansas and Villanova with one student athlete representing each of the competing schools to start the night off, but it resulted in a non-memorable rendition of the USA National Anthem. Next.
6:00pm – Commercials, commercials, commercials.
6:09pm – The ball is tipped.
8:30pm – The Kansas Jayhawks complete a wire-to-wire victory over the Villanova Wildcats, 81-65. Villanova cut the lead to six points (64-58 with 6:10 left) after trailing by as many as 19 points. Villanova sorely missed its 6-0 senior guard Justin Moore who tore his Achilles’ in the team’s elite eight game against Houston.
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8:49pm – The second game of NCAA Final Four Saturday tips-off as one of the most anticipated college basketball games of all-time. Amazingly, never before have Tobacco Road rivals Duke and North Carolina met in the NCAA Tournament.
9:43pm – Halftime of the Duke vs Carolina game with the Blue Devils leading, 37-34, over the Tar Heels. Paulo Banchero led Duke with 10 points and six rebounds while Carolina’s R.J. Davis scored 14 points with four rebounds and two assists. Carolina led by four points during the first half while Duke’s largest lead was six.
10:01pm – Halftime concludes as the usual deadline of 10:00pm is staring the TL’s Sunday Sports Notebook/While We’re Young Ideas column dead-on. The decision is made to file a full running column of Game 2 of Final Four Saturday.
10:04pm – The combinations of Ernie Johnson Jr., Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley make up the best studio/pre-game and post-game crew in college sports. If only they could add Jay Bilas to the mix. … On the game coverage, Jim Nantz, Grant Hill and former coach Bill Rafteryworked their magic all tournament long and it was no different on Saturday.
Remember, Nantz will head-off to Augusta after Monday night’s game in one of the “tougher” stretches of sports reporting, going from a monumental Final Four in New Orleans to a quick skip over to Augusta, Georgia and The Masters.
10:08pm – Carolina goes out to an 11-0 run to force Duke’s Coach K to call a time-out with the score 45-41 with 16:21 remaining in regulation. Carolina’s Caleb Love scored eight of the 11 points during the run, including two 3-point FGs.
10:12pm – Jim Nantz points out that a Kansas vs Carolina final on Monday would be an “All Roy Williams” match-up, noting Williams coached Kansas before he concluded his illustrious, Hall-of-Fame college coaching career at UNC.
10:14pm – Commercials, commercials, commercials when an automatic TV time-out stops the action with 14:53 remaining and the score 47-44, UNC.
10:21pm – Duke strikes back and goes on a 10-2 run and the intensity of the national semifinal hits a new level. The teams traded six consecutive possessions where fGs were made, including two Carolina three-balls. Duke took a time-out with the score 55-all. Duke would run out of time-outs down the stretch and it would hurt.
10:45pm – Carolina’s Armando Bacot injures his ankle and limps off court with the assistance of the team trainer. He departed the game with 10 points and 19 rebounds, then miraculously returned only a minute later and immediately upped his totals to 11 points and 21 rebounds, eight of them off the offensive boards.
An official TV timeout was taken with the score 67-67 with 3:32 remaining.
10:54pm – A Duke time-out with 1:18 remaining in regulation comes after a clutch Wendall Moore, Jr. three-pointer to put the Blue Devils ahead by one, and make the score, 74-73, Duke. It marked the 17th lead change of the game.
10:57pm – Armando Bacot fouled out with 11 points and 21 rebounds, but 3-for-10 FG shooting.
10:59pm – Carolina’s Caleb Love drills a clutch 3-pointer with :28 seconds remaining immediately after Duke’s Mark Williams missed a pair of free throws. The three made the score 78-74 and put Carolina in control.
11:00pm – Duke’s Trevor Keels split a pair of free throws, making the score 79-77 UNC. Duke finished the game and their season going 12-for-20 from the line.
Duke was forced to foul and Carolina’s Caleb Love made two free throws to give his team an 81-77 lead with only :08 seconds left. Love finished with 28 points to lead the Tar Heels.
11:05pm – Duke’s Keels missed an off-balance three-pointer with :05 seconds remaining and UNC’s R.J. Davis grabbed the game-ending rebound to secure an 81-77 victory and a date to meet Kansas for the National Championship this Monday night.
Without a doubt, this game lived-up to the hype and expectations for a Duke vs North Carolina Final Four match-up.
The UNC victory ended Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career much the same way the Tar Heels spoiled Coach K’s final game at Cameron Indoor Center.