The Men's Final Four was Sloppy, the Women's Final Four was Historic

The men's NCAA title game is tonight. The 2 Final Four games had the outcomes that I thought, but they did not play out like I thought.

South Carolina made their game very interesting in the last 8 minutes when they went on a 16-0 run to take a lead. But, Gonzaga prevailed and they got away with a 4 point win to advance to tonight's title game. Great run by South Carolina, but the better team won, and won rightfully so. There were no questionable calls on either team and the right team won.

UNC won, but I thought they were going to blow out Oregon. That was not the case, but this was not as good a game as some may have said or written about since Saturday. This was a sloppy game by both teams, with the lone exception being Kennedy Meeks. Meeks was incredible in this game, even with the 2 late missed free throws. But, UNC tried everything to blow this game, Oregon just never really took advantage of their many chances. I thought these were the 2 better teams, but South Carolina-Gonzaga was a much better played game.

Also, Jim Nantz and the CBS crew continues to make one dumb comment after another. By now you all know what I'm talking about. Nantz said during the telecast that he was pleased at how UNC was playing despite all the "swirling innuendo about academic fraud" that is going on right now. For the record, this is not "swirling innuendo". There is a full blown investigation going on by the NCAA right now, and if I had to guess, they will get this title taken away if they win. They have committed some kind of serious academic fraud, I believe their football program is involved as well, and I wouldn't be shocked if in a year or two the NCAA puts the hammer down on UNC.

All this being said, this was the title game I predicted in last Monday's blog, and I'm not changing my mind now. I still think UNC will win a close game. They got beat in brutal fashion last year, and I see them redeeming themselves this year. Justin Jackson or Kennedy Meeks will win Most Outstanding Player as well.

But, I want to get to what I really want to talk about today. I was channel surfing Friday night. I watched the majority of the OKC-San Antonio game and was waiting for the Golden State-Houston game. During these 2 games the women's Final Four was going on. South Carolina pretty easily advanced against Stanford, and ESPN2 had the perfect time slot for UCONN-Mississippi State game, right around a 7:30pm tip time. I did not watch any of the first half, but my phone buzzed when the game went into halftime and UCONN was down 8. My interest was piqued, but I figured the Huskies would come out in the second half and dominate. It is UCONN women's basketball and they are the greatest college sports program ever.

I had kind of spaced about the game while watching OKC blow a 20 point lead, but with about 5 minutes left in the third quarter, I saw that UCONN had tied it up at 40. I thought they'd go on their run from there and blow this team away that they beat by 60 points in last year's tournament. So I put my focus back on OKC-San Antonio. 

About 10 minutes later my phone buzzed again and said that UCONN was trailing by 3 with about 4 minutes left in the game. At this point I gave up on OKC-San Antonio, the Spurs were putting the finishing touches on their comeback, and I flipped over for the last 4 minutes of UCONN-MSU. This was the first women's game I have watched in over 2 years. I was in shock at how well MSU was playing this seemingly indestructible UCONN team. MSU's point guard was running their offense to perfection. They kept letting the shot clock get down to 5 seconds before even attempting a shot. They also have a center on their team that is 6'7. UCONN's biggest player is only 5'11. I do not care how tenacious or tough a defender you are, an 8 inch height difference is nearly impossible to overcome. To make matters worse for UCONN, all their forwards and centers were in foul trouble from trying to stop the 6'7 girl (her name is Teaira McCowan), so they had to resort to going for steals on entry passes. It worked a few times, but more times than naught, they missed and McCowan had an easy layup.

During the final four minutes it was all back and forth. UCONN at one point went up 3 with about 2 minutes left, and for the third time I assumed they'd pull away and win. Well, MSU responded with their own 4-0 run to retake the lead. During the last few seconds of the fourth quarter MSU had a lead but there was an odd flagrant one called on MSU that let UCONN tie the game. MSU had the ball with a chance to win, but the pass in the post was stolen and the game went into overtime.

For the fourth, and final time, I assumed UCONN would pull away on overtime. Well, MSU had other plans. They kept playing slow, stilted offense and it completely threw UCONN off their game. With about 18 seconds left UCONN had the ball with the game tied at 64. I assumed, as did the 3 announcers, that they would hold the ball for the final shot. Well, one of their new star players decided to drive and was out of control trying to draw a foul and lost the ball out of bounds. No foul was called because there was none and MSU got the ball back with 12 seconds left. As the point guard for MSU dribbled down the floor, she was the smallest player on the court by far, I sat and waited to see what she would do. With less than 2 seconds on the clock she pulled up from the elbow and hit all net as the buzzer sounded. Her name is Morgan William. 

With that UCONN's 111 game win streak was over. They hadn't been beaten in 865 days. They had won four straight national titles. This was their 10th straight Final Four. It all ended on a beautiful mid range jumper from the smallest, yet most determined player on the floor. I was in shock. I sat there in awe with my mouth wide open. I know all streaks must end, but this was a team that hadn't lost a game in almost 3 years. It was an incredible run, and if they had to lose a game, this was probably the only way it was going to happen. MSU played brilliantly, UCONN did not play well, and it still took an overtime buzzer beater for UCONN to get taken down.

Unfortunately for MSU they got beat in the women's title game last night by South Carolina, but they did something historic just 2 days before that. I wish they won the national title to make it fully complete. But, they will always go down as the team that beat the greatest college sports program ever.

What UCONN women's basketball has done, and did, is unequaled in any other college sport, be it men's or women's. Their streak was more impressive than UCLA's 88 game win streak, Oklahoma football's 48 game win streak, anything Kentucky or UNC has done in college basketball, anything Texas, Michigan, Notre Dame, Miami, Florida, all the big time college football programs have ever done.

This is also the greatest upset of all time. I said in our men's tournament preview that if UCONN got beat by anyone in the women's tournament I'd be shocked, and I am still a little shook by what happened Friday night. MSU beating UCONN was bigger than Appalachian State beating Michigan in football or Clemson beating Alabama in football this year or when Villanova beat the Pat Ewing led Georgetown Hoyas or when NC State beat Houston. Name any upset and this one is bigger than all of them by a wide, wide margin. 

So even though they did not win the national title, I still want to congratulate MSU on their historic win last Friday night. I will never ever forget the buzzer beater that I witnessed in real time. It was incredible.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. If the Men's college game continues to suck, he is switching over to Women's basketball. Miss St center Teaira McCowan is only a sophomore. No one and done in Women's basketball, so we get to see her tall magnificence for a few more years.

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