Survival of near-elimination experiences is a common thread running through this years Final Four field.
Not just winning four games to reach college basketballs biggest stage, with the national semifinals set for Saturday in Minneapolis Virginia-Auburn and Texas Tech-Michigan State but the heart-stopping fashion in which some of the outcomes were determined, even down to the final ticks of regional-title contests.
Michigan State dramatically ended the season of tournament favorite Duke and national player of the year Zion Williamson with a 68-67 triumph in the East Region final Sunday.
Kenny Goins 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining gave the Spartans a two-point lead, and the Blue Devils RJ Barrett made one of two free throws with five seconds to play. Duke never got the ball back and the nations top-ranked team crashed in a regional final for the second straight year.
Virginia, meanwhile, turned a play that will stand with some of the NCAA Tournaments most memorable moments just to force overtime in defeating Purdue in the South Regional final on Saturday.
Auburn outlasted Kentucky 77-71 in overtime Sunday to win the Midwest but perhaps pulled off a bigger escape act in its first-round triumph over New Mexico State. After beating the Aggies, the Tigers became the first program in event history to knock off college basketballs top three winningest programs in succession: Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky.
Texas Tech was the only Final Four participant that didnt see its game turn on final-possession drama. But the Red Raiders nursed a two-point lead on Gonzaga with 20 seconds remaining in the West Regional final before winning by six.
And Tech started behind everyone else headed to the Final Four not in seed, but in preseason perception.
The Red Raiders, picked to finish seventh in the Big 12, are the only team headed to Minneapolis that wasnt part of the AP preseason Top 25. In fact, they didnt even receive a vote. Disrespect was a card that Tech coach Chris Beard played with regularity this season, and postseason.
We dont mind the underdog chip on the shoulder part of our story, Beard said.
Auburn, which becomes the first school from Alabama to reach a Final Four, carried some of that feeling into the tournament, but coach Bruce Pearl was quick to remind that the tag only goes so far at his school.
Now, this is important, Pearl said. Auburn athletics, were not Cinderellas in anything. Were really, really good in all those other sports. We win championships. Been a long time since basketballs been good.
And its been a long time since Virginia played in a Final Four. The Cavaliers got there in 1984, their second trip in four seasons. With five seconds remaining in their regional final on Saturday, it looked like the drought might grow even longer.
The Boilermakers, leading by three, fouled Ty Jerome, who made the first of two free throws. The second shot bounced off the front iron. Jerome said after the game he didnt miss on purpose, but everything that happened after that broke for Virginia.
Mamadi Diakite aggressively tapped the ball into the backcourt, where Virginia guard Kihei Clark tracked it down. He fired a long strike to Diakite, whose 10-footer fell through just before the buzzer sounded to force overtime.
Jerome said Clark made the play of the century. The entire sequence will be remembered in the same way as the Lorenzo Charles dunk that gave North Carolina State an improbable national title-game victory over Houston, or Christian Laettners game-winning shot for Duke against Kentucky.
