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NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL FINAL FOUR SET
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Coach K makes 13th Final Four,
Duke beats Arkansas 78-69
The Blue Devils were in
control for most of the second
SAN FRANCISCO — Mike
half, using an 10-0 run after
Krzyzewski slowly climbed
Arkansas had cut the deficit
up the ladder, bowed to the
to five points early in the half
adoring Duke fans and then
to open up a big cushion. The
pointed to his players to give
spurt came following a tim-
them the credit before cutting
eout when Krzyzewski once
the final string of the net.
again switched his team to
Coach K’s farewell tour will
an uncharacteristic zone af-
end at his record-setting 13th
ter having success doing that
Final Four.
in the Sweet 16 against Texas
The Blue Devils delivered
Tech.
their most complete perfor-
“I think going zone helped,”
mance of this NCAA Tourna-
said defensive anchor Mark
ment run to extend the career
Williams, who had 12 points,
of their Hall of Fame coach for
12 rebounds and three blocks.
one more weekend after beat-
“I think it gave them a differ-
ing Arkansas 78-69 on Satur-
ent look, slowed them up a
day night, March 26, in the
little bit.”
West Region final.
Jaylin Williams ended that
“To see the joy, I can’t explain
run with an emphatic dunk
it, because, you know, I’m a
over Banchero for a three-
grandfather, I’ve lived through
point play but it wasn’t nearly
my daughters, I’m living
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images-TNS enough for the Razorbacks,
through my grandchildren but Arkansas’ Jaylin Williams, left, dunks against Paolo Banchero (No. 5) during the second half in the NCAA
who didn’t cut the deficit into
now I’m living through these
single digits until the final
Tournament’s Elite 8 at Chase Center on Saturday, March 26, 2022, in San Francisco.
guys,” Krzyzewski said on the
minute of the game.
court before cutting down the
Coach K will try to follow Wooden, if he kept coach-
day will be historic for its first
Williams led Arkansas with
net. “Holy mackerel!”
the path of the only coach to ing, would probably have 24,” NCAA Tournament meeting 19 points and 10 rebounds
A.J. Griffin scored 18 points, win more NCAA men’s ti-
Krzyzewski said. “But it’s a
with archrival North Carolina. and JD Notae had 14 points
West Region MVP Paolo Ban- tles as John Wooden won his heck of a thing. We’ve won
“There’s no greater day in
before fouling out. The Razor-
chero added 16 and and sec-
10th championship in his fi- a lot in the tournament, and
college basketball than when backs shot 41.9% for the game
ond-seeded Duke (32-6) frus- nal season at UCLA in 1975. we’ve won a lot of games, but those four regional champi-
but felt proud after turning
trated fourth-seeded Arkansas Krzyzewski broke the tie he
Final Fours are big, obviously, ons, four champions, get in
their season around following
(28-9) on the offensive end to
had with Wooden for most
then national championships. one arena and play. It’s the
an 0-3 start in the Southeast-
get back to the Final Four for
Final Four appearances with That’s what you put banners
greatest day for college bas-
ern Conference.
the first time since Krzyzewski the commanding win over
up for.”
ketball, and we’re honored to
“We all wanted to get fur-
won his fifth championship in the Razorbacks.
Duke’s upcoming matchup be a part of it,” Krzyzewski
ther in this, but the fight this
2015.
“It’s an honor. Coach
in New Orleans next Satur-
said.
team has showed all year has
Tuesday, March 29
• Softball: Home, vs. Marsing,
Idaho, 5 p.m.
• Tennis: Boys only, at La
Grande, 4 p.m.
Wednesday, March 30
• Baseball: Home, vs.
Homedale, Idaho, varsity and
JV both start at 4 p.m. if both
fields are playable.
Thursday, March 31
• Tennis: Girls only, at
Pendleton, 4 p.m.
• Softball: JV Home, vs.
Pendleton, doubleheader,
2 p.m.
Friday, April 1
• Baseball: At Astoria, JV and
varsity, doubleheader, 4 p.m.
• Softball: Home, vs. Burns,
varsity, 2 p.m.
• Track and field: At Mac-Hi,
10 a.m.
• Golf: JV, at Mac-Hi
Saturday, April 2
• Baseball: At Seaside, JV,
10 a.m., varsity, noon
• Softball: JV Home vs. Grant
Union, doubleheader, noon
BY JOSH DUBOW
Associated Press
been incredible,” Williams
said. “For the way that we
started off conference, no-
body would have expected us
to get this far. So I just think
that this team just kept fight-
ing the whole year, the whole
year, but, of course, we didn’t
get where we wanted.”
Duke closed the first half
on an 8-0 run to take a 45-33
lead at the break with Ban-
chero hitting a 3-pointer to
start the spurt. Trevor Keels
hit another 3 from long range
just before the buzzer.
Kansas races past N. Carolina ends St.
Peter’s
Cinderella
run
Miami in 2nd half
94-81 beatdown of the Blue
Devils at Cameron Indoor
Stadium.
PHILADELPHIA —
“We want Duke! We want
America’s favorite under-
dog, Saint Peter’s, shouldn’t Duke! We want Duke!”
feel all that bad. North Car- the Tar Heels fans shouted
as the team cut down the
olina has crushed lots of
nets in Philly, the same city
dreams over the decades.
The Tar Heels ended all
where Carolina won the
hope of a March Madness
East region back in 2016.
miracle on Sunday, March
“I don’t think anything
27, getting 20 points and 22 can be as crazy as the leadup
rebounds from Armando
to that game over in Cam-
Bacot in a wire-to-wire
eron,” coach Hubert Davis
69-49 runaway over 15th-
said. “We just keep our eyes
seeded Saint Peter’s.
straight ahead and we ig-
No. 8 seed Carolina (28- nore all the noise.”
9) made its record 21st Final
While Coach K’s wind-
Four, and this one will be
ing road to retirement has
a scene like no other. Next
been a beauty to watch this
Saturday, April 2 in New
March, nothing has cap-
Orleans, it’s North Carolina tured more imaginations
vs. archrival Duke and its
during this NCAA Tourna-
soon-to-be-retiring coach, ment than the run put on by
Mike Krzyzewski. Three
Saint Peter’s.
short weeks ago, the Tar
The entire basketball
Heels fractured a different
budget for this scrappy
sort of fairy tale — Coach
group from Jersey City, New
K’s final home game — in a Jersey, is $1.6 million — or
BY EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
BY JAY COHEN
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Ochai Agbaji,
David McCormack and Chris-
tian Braun powered a dazzling
second half for Kansas, and the
top-seeded Jayhawks pounded
Miami 76-50 on Sunday, March
27, to advance to the program’s
16th Final Four.
Agbaji scored 18 points, Mc-
Cormack had 15 and Braun fin-
ished with 12, helping Kansas
rally after a lackluster start. The
Jayhawks trailed by six points at
halftime but outscored Miami
47-15 in the final 20 minutes.
Kansas (32-6), the only No. 1
seed left in the NCAA Tourna-
ment, won the Midwest for the
13th time with its ninth consec-
utive victory overall. Next up
is the national semifinals and a
matchup with Villanova on Sat-
urday in New Orleans.
It’s the fourth Final Four for
coach Bill Self in his 19 seasons
at Kansas. The last time the Jay-
hawks made it to the semis, they
lost 95-79 to coach Jay Wright
and the Wildcats in 2018.
Remy Martin, the most out-
standing player in the Midwest
Region, finished with nine points
and six rebounds for Kansas.
Kameron McGusty scored
18 points and Isaiah Wong had
15 for No. 10 seed Miami in the
program’s first appearance in the
Elite Eight. The Hurricanes (26-
11) were bidding to get coach
Jim Larrañaga back to the Final
Four for the first time since he
led 11th-seeded George Mason
there in 2006.
McGusty spent two seasons at
Oklahoma before transferring to
Miami, averaging 13.5 points in
four games against Kansas. And
he looked comfortable playing
against the Jayhawks again.
The redshirt senior guard
scored 14 points to help the Hur-
ricanes to a 35-29 halftime lead.
But everything changed after the
break.
With McCormack asserting
himself inside and Braun and
Ogbai picking up their play on
the perimeter, Kansas outscored
Miami 25-7 over the first 10
minutes of the second half.
Jalen Wilson made two foul
shots and Agbaji connected from
3 to lift the Jayhawks to a 54-42
lead with 10:14 left. And the Big
12 champions just kept rolling.
A dunk by Agbaji capped a
10-0 run and made it 67-46 with
4:35 left, delighting the pro-Kan-
sas crowd at the United Center.
A 3 by Agbaji extended the lead
to 23 points with 1:58 remaining.
The second-half numbers
told the story of Kansas’ domi-
nance. Miami shot 21.4% (6 for
28) after the break, compared
to 59.3% (16 for 27) for Kan-
sas. The Jayhawks also outre-
bounded the Hurricanes 25-11
in the second half.
around $400,000 less than
what Davis makes in a year.
The first-year coach was
sobbing as his players envel-
oped him after the buzzer.
“It was something that I
just desperately wanted for
them,” Davis said. “This is
probably the most nervous I
was before a game, because
I just really wanted them to
go to the Final Four.”
Two nights earlier, the
Peacocks (21-12) looked
like Final Four material.
They beat Purdue to be-
come the first 15th seed to
advance to an Elite Eight.
Their hopes ended
quickly in this one. They
are hardly the first team to
see grand plans undone by
one of the country’s top-line
power programs.
“I didn’t really recognize
my team for the first 10
minutes of the game,” Pea-
cocks coach Shaheen Hollo-
way said.
Villanova to 7th Final Four, beats Houston
BY STEPHEN HAWKINS
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — Villa-
nova coach Jay Wright has won
national championships with
well-balanced and fundamen-
tally sound teams, yet even he
knew staying in contention for
another title was going to take a
rugged and exhaustive effort.
Ugly at times, the final result
was beautiful for the Wildcats,
who are going to their third Fi-
nal Four in the past six NCAA
Tournaments.
Jermaine Samuels had 16
points and 10 rebounds as Vil-
lanova grinded out a 50-44 vic-
tory over a gritty and athletic
Houston team in the South Re-
gion final Saturday, March 26.
“You just knew watching
this team defensively, like you
weren’t going to come out and
just outscore them,” Wright
said. “We really weren’t talking
as much at the end about how
we were going to score. We
were talking about how we
were going to stop them.”
Caleb Daniels added 14
points for the Wildcats (30-7),
and fifth-year senior Collin
Gillespie’s only made field goal
was a clutch shot late, even
though Villanova led through-
out to clinch the first spot in
this year’s Final Four in New
Orleans.
“It was like playing against
our own selves. They were just
as physical as we were,” Dan-
iels said. “It was a literal street
fight, every possession trying
to get a rebound.”
Villanova shot 28.8% from
the field (15 of 52). The Cou-
gars were only slightly better
at 29.8% (17 of 57), missing
their last five shots and 10
of 11 overall after cutting an
11-point second-half deficit to
two. They made only one of
their 20 attempted 3-pointers
in their lowest-scoring NCAA
tourney game ever.
“We had it turned, we kept
getting stops. We were getting
stop, stop stop, we just weren’t
scoring on the other end,”
Houston coach Kelvin Samp-
son said. “I remember telling
them in the huddle, I think it
was a four-point game there ...
and we kept getting stops that
somebody’s going to make a
big shot. But we didn’t. Credit
Villanova.”
The Wildcats, seeing their
fourth championship overall,
play Kansas, the only No. 1
seed remaining, in a national
semifinal next Saturday. They
have won two championships
in Wright’s 22 seasons, in 2016
and 2018.
“We couldn’t get Justin
(Moore) or Collin in ball
screens. They just took it away.
We couldn’t get Justin and Col-
lin in post-ups. They took it
away. It was hard to even get
them backdoor cuts,” Wright
said. “They took away our two
leading scorers, and other guys
had to step up.”
Taze Moore had 15 points
and 10 rebounds for the Cou-
gars (32-6), who were denied
making consecutive Final Four
appearances for the first time
since 1982-84 during the Phil
Slama Jama era. The starting
five was completely changed
from last season, including
Moore and two other senior
newcomers.
After Villanova missed
three shots on the same pos-
session — and was still with-
out any second-chance points
in the game — Moore got the
long rebound on the break.
After initially slowing things
down, Moore scored on a drive
against Gillespie, getting Hous-
ton within 42-40 with 5:25 left.
It was the closest the Cou-
gars had been in the game
at AT&T Center, only about
200 miles from their campus,
and the crowd was in a frenzy
when Wright called timeout.
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with Gillespie, but the 6-foot-7
forward logged only one min-
ute total while making late-
game appearances in those two
Final Four games.
As a senior, Samuels goes
into the Final Four after be-
ing named MVP of the South
Region. He is averaging 17.5
points a game in this NCAA
tourney — so far.
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the line. A foul by J’Wan Rob-
erts bailed them out with the
shot clock about to run out.
Those were Villanova’s first and
only second-chance points.
Villanova had scored the
first five points of the game, in-
cluding a 3-pointer by Samuels
on the first shot.
Samuels was also on that
2018 title team as a freshman
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Houston never got a chance to
take the lead.
Gillespie, who played in the
championship game for the
Wildcats in 2018, was 1-of-6
shooting. But his only field goal
came on the possession after
the timeout when he waved
off Samuels, stepped inside the
3-point line and hit a jumper
with 5:02 left.
“It was an in-the-moment
decision. They were soft-blitz-
ing me basically the whole
game. That time they just hap-
pened to switch,” Gillespie
said. “So I wanted Jermaine to
go down into the post. I had
a mismatch ... then Jermaine
had a guard on him so he
could rebound.”
There was a nearly
two-minute scoring drought
before Justin Moore made two
free throws — the Wildcats
were a perfect 15-of-15 from
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