DETROIT — Elite Eight, thy theme is great opportunity.
Five of the eight higher seeds just lost in the Sweet 16, from No. 1 seeds Houston and North Carolina to No. 2 seeds Arizona, Iowa State and Marquette. Here in the last hours of March, look who’s left. A bunch of survivors trying to get to a Final Four and overturn recent history en masse.
Start with Purdue. The Boilermakers are serious about this.
Three consecutive years of excruciating exits at the hands of double-digit seeds, last year the unkindest cut of all with No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson. Hasn’t been to a Final Four in 44 years. But no March swoon this year. Not the slightest hint of one, at least so far. Gonzaga gave them every chance to trip up Friday with 12 first half lead changes, but Purdue decked the Zags with a heaping second-half helping of Zach Edey, and that was that, 80-68.
“They're hunting right now. They're not being hunted,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I think that's how you get to Final Fours, and that's how you get to national championship games.”
NC State. Hasn’t been this far in 38 years, when the coach was still Jim Valvano. Hasn’t been in a Final Four since 1983’s miracle championship March, but 2024 is starting to look an awful lot like a sequel. Seeking to become only the sixth 11th seed to reach a Final Four. Left for dead before the ACC tournament, the Wolfpack have now won eight elimination games in a row. The best part so far?
“Man, I would just say proving everyone wrong,” Casey Morsell said. “Going into every game, we're pretty much the underdogs. We have that conversation heading into every game about trying to embrace everyone doubting us and just proving everyone wrong and going into the locker room and celebrating.”
Duke. Yeah, the Blue Devils are here a lot, but one more win and they show the world — and their own fans — that Final Fours are possible without Mike Krzyzewski. The last one was 1978. Besides, who expected a regional final of Duke vs. NC State? They played that already in the ACC Tournament and the Wolfpack won. The Blue Devils needed considerable grit Friday but also got a big break, Houston losing the indispensable Jamal Shead to an ankle injury in the first half. The Cougars lost only 54-51, and never ran out of toughness.
Still, it was a breakthrough for the Jon Scheyer administration at Duke. “Coach K has prepared me for moments like this one, because we've been in so many games like this together,” he said. “Just you have to show great poise in these moments. You know your team wants it really badly, but I'm fortunate — I'm beyond fortunate — to have learned from him as a player and as a coach.”
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Tennessee. Has been this far once, 14 years ago. Never a Final Four.
Clemson. Hasn’t been this far in 44 years, never in a Final Four.
Alabama. hasn’t been this far in two decades, never in a Final Four. Now these two football titans play one another, so someone’s going to get there for the first time.
“Alabama and Clemson playing in L.A., Most people would think we're out here playing in the Rose Bowl.” Tide coach Nate Oats said. “The basketball Rose Bowl.”
Illinois. Hasn’t been this far since 2005. The Illini won five NCAA tournament games that month to get to the national championship game. Then they won five games in the next 16 tournaments. Until this one.
Even UConn. Relentless, house-afire UConn. The Huskies are on a quest to be the first repeat champion in 17 years, only the second in the past 32, leaving the debris of bludgeoned victims as they move along. Average winning margin so far in the tournament: 28.7 points. For that matter, Florida of 2007 is the last defending champion to even get back to the Final Four.
“This team has defied what past champions have done and taken this program to a completely different level,” Dan Hurley said after UConn steamrolled San Diego State.
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Take Alabama. “They always say where legends are made,” Rylan Griffen said of the Tide, but usually that’s football. “Making the Final Four... we would be a historic team in Alabama history.”
Or NC State. By now, the echoes from 1983 are so loud, not even the pep bands can drown them out. If that underdog tale — coming from nowhere to upset Houston in the title game — was a road map, this team is dead on course. “I think every team has to create their own path, and our '83 team, not only our '83, our '74 team (which upset UCLA for the Wolfpack’s first title) has been tremendous,” coach Kevin Keatts said. “They've been big brothers, uncles, maybe some of them granddads to a couple of our kids.
“We don't have to talk about that history now because we celebrate it the entire time. It's been talked about since I've been here, and it's going to be talked about as long as we ever are going to remember.”
Or Duke. The narrative last March was that the Blue Devils were physically overpowered by Tennessee in the second round. That didn’t happen Friday. “Tennessee game was pretty much very unacceptable,” Jeremy Roach said. “Obviously Coach, he would remind us in practice throughout the whole season about that, but this game we just kind of took it to heart and didn't want that to happen again, so...”
Scheyer wished to make a point about that. “I think for us some of the criticism about toughness or whatever, try being at Duke as a freshman and sophomore and battling your ass off in the tournament and then talk to me about being tough... I think any questions about their mental toughness or any questions about their heart, I think they answered that tonight.”
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Or Purdue. Nobody came into March lugging the baggage of recent tournament disappointments the Boilermakers did. But through three games, that heartbreaking past fades further away. Gonzaga stayed with them Friday, until they couldn’t. Edey had 27 points and 14 rebounds, and also plenty of help, Braden Smith had 15 assists, Purdue shot 57 percent and committed only nine turnovers. All that is the handiwork of a confident team that understands where it wants to go and has the scars to prove it. “We know what we can do as a team. We’ve been through a lot, obviously,” said guard Fletcher Loyer.
The Boilermakers have won their three tournament games by 28, 39 and 12 points. They’re starting to sound like Connecticut. Coach Matt Painter was asked if that has shown him something about his team. “More than anything,” he said, “with this win we're 26-0 this year when we have 13 or less turnovers.”
Now they get Tennessee, and it’s hard to imagine two programs who have had so many good regular seasons and so many mishaps in March. They met in November in Maui and Purdue won 71-67. Close enough for the Vols to believe. And Tennesseee looked formidable in beating Creighton Friday night 82-75 with the help of an 18-0 run, hitting 11 three pointers for the game, committing only four turnovers, troubling the Bluejays with defense. “Right now it's a mental prep, and we know that,” coach Rick Barnes said of the task ahead. “We've played them, but they're much better, and I'd like to think we are too.”
Then again, the Boilermakers can almost touch it now, the Final Four that has eluded Purdue since 1980.
“It’s unlike any other feeling,” Loyer said, being this close. “It’s something you’re so hungry to do, you’re ready to get to the gym tomorrow. This is the worst part, not the game. Having to wait until Sunday afternoon to go play to get to the Final Four.
“This program is special. It stinks that they haven’t gotten over the hump in recent years to make the program special in everybody else’s eyes. To us it is. We want to make it happen for coach, for the campus, for everybody. For us, too.”
Seven other teams are still alive who could say very much the same thing. Deliverance awaits only four of them.
