In spotting the perfection, Braun embodied an old premise about sports and those who play them in front of witnesses: a yearning to be overlooked. What luck, to be overlooked.Meanwhile, the participants in Duke vs. North Carolina danced the other dance Friday, the one about playing down the circumstances, the one about taking an inflated dirigible of excitement floating above the Superdome and letting out some of the air.
Technically, it’s a Final Four of kingdoms — Kansas vs. Villanova , then Duke vs. North Carolina — a hobnobbing quartet crammed with 17 national titles and 61 Final Four berths and with the least-decorated merely the best program of recent years . Realistically, it’s a booming first — the first Duke-North Carolina game in a men’s NCAA tournament — and it’s the threequel of a trilogy everyone avoids discussing.On Feb.
On either of those nights, it would have landed well beyond far-fetched to say a third meeting would come in the Final Four. “I would have been like, ‘No way,’ ” Duke big man Mark Williams said, “just off the fact that Duke and Carolina had never played in the [NCAA] tournament. I think they’ve grown as a team. I think we’ve grown as a team. But just … ‘That’ll never happen.’ ”
In its hush, Kansas-Villanova brings its own threequel. Villanova clipped Kansas, 64-59, in the 2016 South Region final in Louisville and annihilated Kansas, 95-79, in a 2018 national semifinal in San Antonio. “I get tics whenever I think about it,” Self said of the latter game. “So I remember we started the game off on a 2-0 run. That was about the highlight of that particular game. I actually watched it this week. And they were fabulous.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: PhillyDailyNews - 🏆 89. / 67 Read more »
Source: PhillyDailyNews - 🏆 89. / 67 Read more »
Source: nypost - 🏆 91. / 67 Read more »
Source: usatodaysports - 🏆 454. / 53 Read more »
Source: PhillyInquirer - 🏆 81. / 68 Read more »