Final Four Recap

A bit anti-climactic last night as Michigan State made short work of the Huskies in the second half, and UNC kept Villanova from making it at all interesting with the exception of a two minute stretch to start the second half.

Michigan State 82, UConn 73: This was a back and forth game for much of the first 30 minutes. Neither team was really able to assert control over the game. But midway through the second half, MSU started to take over. As the crowd got behind them, the Spartans finally began to take advantage of four Huskies crashing the offensive glass, going on a quick 9-3 run to open up a 62-54 lead with 7:54 left.

All of the nine points in the run came on transition baskets, capped off by Kalin Lucas almost shaking Kemba Walker out of his shorts with an in-n-out dribble on a 1-on-2 break (40 second mark in the video, the huge Durrell Summers dunk is at the 50 second mark).



After a Suton three would stretch the lead to eleven, UConn was able to get as close as three with just a minute left, but Walker (who played as poorly as I have seen him play all season) fouled Summers, who finished a three point play, that all but sealed the game.

Lucas finished with 21 points for the Spartans, but the best player on the floor was Raymar Morgan. After struggling through much of the tournament, Morgan finally broke out, going for 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 steals in the upset win. He was the difference make, especially in the first half. Stanley Robinson spent the end of the first half and beginning of the second half on the bench with foul trouble, and Morgan was able to take advantage of being matched up with Craig Austrie on the block.

Also of note was how well the Spartans handled Thabeet inside. The big fella finished with 17 points, many of which came off of post moves, but he was 6-13 from the floor and finished with just 6 boards and 2 blocks. For the most part, MSU's ability to get up and down the floor essentially made Thabeet a non-factor on the defensive end.

(photo credit: Paul Sancya/AP)

Thabeet wasn't the only Husky the Spartans were able to keep in check. AJ Price finished with just 15 points on 5-20 shooting and had only 2 assists. Travis Walton, who also added 8 assists, was matched up with him just about the entire game, and UConn had no answer as neither Austrie or Walker could get it going.

The guy that did play great for UConn was Stanley Robinson. Playing in an uptempo game was perfectly suited to Robinson's athletic ability, and performed as such, finishing the game with 15 points, 13 boards, and 2 blocks.


UNC 83, Villanova 69: UNC jumped out to 19-8 and 26-12 leads which Villanova was never able to recover from. What is there is write about this Heels performance that hasn't been written all season long? They ran the floor, they hit open threes, they moved the ball well, and when nothing else worked, Ty Lawson was impossible to keep out of the lane.

It was such an impressive performance by the Heels, especially in the first half. Nova was able to make a stand in the second half, as the Heels took the air out of the ball down the stretch, but the Wildcats just could not get anything going on the offensive end.

The issue for Villanova was that they were unable to play at the Heels pace. Don't get me wrong, they were running with the Heels (which was not the way they wanted to play). But instead of running when they had numbers or when it was the right time, they were forcing everything. Corey Fisher and Scottie Reynolds got into the mind set that they needed to score every time they touched the ball, and ended up taking too many bad shots early in the possession. They combined for 30 points, but it was on 11-37 shooting from the floor.

Look at some of these stat lines from the Heels - Hansbrough had 18 points, 11 boards, and 4 steals; Ellington had 20 points, 9 boards, and 4 assists; and Lawson finished with 22 points, 7 boards, 8 assists, and 2 steals. The bottom line in this one was that UNC was just too talented for Villanova.

The guy that is not going to get any credit in this win is Bobby Frasor, but as I mentioned yesterday in the live-blog, Frasor played a fantastic game. He is such an undervalued piece of this team He played great defense on Fisher and Reynolds when he was in the game, I can think of three instances off the top of my head where he quickly swung the ball on the perimeter to yield an open three or a lay-up on the next pass, and he made a number of great hustle plays (he finished with 5 offensive boards). You can have all the talent you can handle on a team, with out guys like Frasor, you are not going to win titles.