Over at ESPN, Jay Bilas says this Final Four will be “absolutely incredible” and he’s probably right.
Check this passage out: “This Final Four is absolutely incredible. These four squads are the top four teams in the KenPom efficiency ratings (the most digestible analytics for fans) and have a combined record of 135-16. All four teams are rated in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency, which is amazing and unusual. Better still, these four teams are each among the top 10 most efficient in the history of KenPom ratings, available since 1997. Duke is No. 2 all time, Houston No. 6, Florida No. 8 and Auburn No. 10. That is all time.”
Yes, Jay, that is indeed incredible.
The teams have arrived in San Antonio and while for Duke, Jon Scheyer and Chris Carrawell know full well the obligations and distractions, Mason Gillis has experienced it. It’s nuts. Just the media crush is overwhelming and depending on your accommodations, just getting around the hotel can be unpleasant. You can kind of understand why Big John Thompson was keen on keeping his team isolated. We’re not endorsing Hoya Paranoia or anything like hit, but it’s not irrational.
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Johni Broome really took a beating this weekend against Michigan State, and there was briefly some concern about his ability to finish out the season. He ended that by coming back in the game after injuring his knee and elbow on the same play (he also hurt his wrist during the game). Auburn coach Bruce Pearl expects him to start Saturday though.
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Bill Raftery is 81 now and he might be thinking about retirement, right?
Well, no. He does allow that he might be asked to stop at some point, but he’s having fun and has no intention of quitting. We’ll drink to that!
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X account NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners used KenPom to compare each Final Four team to a past champions, which is an interesting idea. Let’s look:
- Auburn: 2020-21 Baylor
- Florida: 2017-18 Villanova
- Houston: 2018-19 Virginia
- Duke: 2023-24 UConn
Ok, who you got here?
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This article has five interesting stories about the Final Four and #3 caught us by surprise: not only are Jon Scheyer and Todd Goldman considerably younger than their semifinal coaching opponents Kelvin Sampson and Bruce Pearl, they’re the two youngest coaches in the NCAA tournament which is pretty cool.
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We touched on this the other day, but as you may know, Golden survived (so far anyway) an ugly scandal where multiple students at Florida accused him of basically stalking, sending photos of his junk and made other disturbing allegations as well.
As it turns out, Florida did clear him of a Title IX violation, not of the charges altogether. He may still face a reckoning.
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As we noted the other day, Mason Gillis may be the first guy to to back-to-back Final Fours with different teams, but he’s not the only guy to go with two different schools. This year, Florida’s Alijah Martin (FAU) is back as is Houston’s LJ Cryer (Baylor). And, of course, Bob Bender did it with Indians and Duke, in ‘76 and ‘78.
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NIL has changed everything and Duke has managed to keep up even though it’s done so discreetly. How has this happened?
Through something called the One Vision Future Fund. Basically it’s an NIL collective for Duke, planned and managed venture capital types who are Duke alums. It’s a very interesting approach with a lot of discretion that Duke GM Rachel Baker say is primarily for the privacy of the current members of the Brotherhood.
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