No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 1 Louisville
12:20 p.m., Midwest Regional final, KCNC-4: Louisville learned a lot from its last regional final.
Play harder. Be yourselves. Play like a team devoted to winning the national title, and accept nothing less.
Today, the Cardinals will finally get a chance to exorcise those demons from last year and deliver on a pact they made to themselves by claiming the school’s first Final Four bid since 2005.
“Losing last year, we kind of know what it takes to lose,” Terrence Williams said. “This year, we know that coming out, to get to the Final Four, you have to play all 40 minutes. You have to play your game.”
The Cardinals won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles, earned the school’s first No. 1 ranking and the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament, and just delivered the most crushing rout since the expansion of the NCAA field in the 1970s, 103-64 over Arizona in Friday night’s semifinals. Louisville has won 13 straight and 23 of 25.
But the Cardinals face Michigan State, one of the most successful tournament teams over the last decade.
Coach Tom Izzo has led the Spartans (29-6) to four Final Fours in 10 years, the most of any team in the nation, and he won the national championship in 2000 across the street from Lucas Oil Stadium.
After winning the Big Ten regular-season title, the Spartans lost in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals two weeks ago in Indy, and now they’re back playing for a chance to go to nearby Detroit.
Izzo and Louisville’s Rick Pitino both have tournament winning percentages that rank among the top four of active coaches. Both have one national championship ring.
The Associated Press
No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 1 North Carolina
3:05 p.m., South Regional final, KCNC-4: Bob Knight, the coaching legend now working as an ESPN analyst, predicted that today’s South Regional battle in Memphis between All-America bigs Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina and Blake Griffin of Oklahoma will be the best individual matchup of the season.
That could be. Just don’t expect to hear any juicy bulletin-board material from either player.
“I’m not going to get into a personal battle with Tyler Hansbrough,” Griffin said. “I have no beef with him. It’s not going to be me against him. I’m not going to break away from the team concept. It’s going to be Oklahoma vs. North Carolina, and that’s how we plan to attack them.”
Hansbrough, a 6-foot-9 senior, earned 2007-08 consensus national player-of-the-year honors. This season, he averages 21.3 points and 8.1 rebounds and is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Griffin, a 6-10 sophomore, figures to be this year’s consensus player of the year after all the awards are announced. He dominates play at both ends, with 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds per game.
“Obviously, Griffin is catching a lot of hype,” Hansbrough said. “And the way he is playing, he’s deserving. He’s an impressive-looking player.
“(But) I’m not looking at it as a matchup between me and Griffin, or something like that. I’m looking at it as North Carolina playing Oklahoma. I’m going to do whatever the team needs me to do. That’s going to be my focus.”
The Tar Heels (31-4) are now on the verge of a record 18th Final Four.
Oklahoma (30-5) is trying for its first Final Four appearance since 2002.
North Carolina and Oklahoma are playing for the first time since 1990, when the Tar Heels upset top-seeded Oklahoma in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on a last-second bank shot by Rick Fox.
Tom Kensler, The Denver Post
