All No. 1 seeds reach men’s Final Four; UCLA, South Carolina advance in women’s tournament

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🏀 Good morning to all, but especially to …

THE MEN’S FINAL FOUR TEAMS

It may be chalky, but it’s setting up for a fantastic finish: All four No. 1 seeds — Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida — are heading to the Final Four in San Antonio.

It’s the second time since seeding began in 1979 that all four top seeds have reached the semifinals. The roads they took were varied, but impressive all the same.

• (1) Auburn held off (2) Michigan State, 70-64, behind a tremendous effort (25 points, 14 rebounds, 10 of 13 shooting) from Johni Broome. The Tigers’ superstar big man shook off an awkward fall that sent him to the locker room and even made a late 3-pointer after returning. It’s the first 25-point, 10-rebound game on at least 75% shooting in the Elite Eight since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984.
• (1) Duke continued to be the tournament’s most impressive team with an 85-65 thumping of (2) Alabama. The outstanding freshman trio of Kon Knueppel (21 points, five rebounds, five assists), Cooper Flagg (16 points, nine rebounds) and Khaman Maluach (14 points, 9 rebounds) shined, and Tyrese Proctor (17 points) continued his impressive play.
• (1) Houston cruised past (2) Tennessee, 69-50, stymying the Volunteers’ offense and getting 33 combined points from Emanuel Sharp and LJ Cryer. And you’d better believe Jim Nantz is pumped.
• The game of the round was (1) Florida rallying past (3) Texas Tech, 84-79. The Gators finished the game on an 18-4 run, with Walter Clayton Jr. (30 points) leading the way. He has been incredible. As Alex Condon told Cameron Salerno, “There is no one else we would rather have take that shot at the end of the game.”

The Blue Devils are the clear title favorites. They’ve blown out everyone they’ve faced. The offense is a machine, but as we saw Saturday, the defense can clamp down on anyone. Two days earlier, Alabama had scored 113(!) points against BYU.

Duke earned an A- in David Cobb’s Elite Eight grades, and perhaps even more impressive in the big picture, Jon Scheyer has made Duke his own, even as Mike Krzyzewski‘s successor, Matt Norlander writes.

• Norlander: “Even the most optimistic of Duke fans couldn’t have expected this. Scheyer has made the complicated seem seamless. He does it with a down-to-earth touch that permeates throughout the program. He’s a lot different than Krzyzewski … Scheyer was intentional about this roster and how it needed to be built after suffering a huge letdown in the Elite Eight a season ago. He did not waver on his vision. When other schools with freshmen in prominent roles were losing, Scheyer stuck to his philosophy.”

Sure, maybe four No. 1 seeds isn’t everyone’s favorite Final Four. But my goodness are these four teams awesome — historically so, in fact. Cameron has an early Final Four preview.

😁 Honorable mentions

😡 And not such a good morning for …

THE MARYLAND TERRAPINS

This Maryland season featured its first Sweet 16 and its most wins (27) since 2015-16 and an all-time game-winning buzzer-beater along the way.

And yet, it will be remembered best for the unsavory way it ended: After weeks of speculation amid Terrapins’ run, Kevin Willard took the job at Villanova on Saturday night, two days after the season-ending loss to Florida.

Willard, 49, was connected to the Wildcats as soon as they fired Kyle Neptune. When you added in Willard’s discontent with Maryland’s NIL situation and the facts that Maryland doesn’t have an athletic director and Willard was evasive several times over, his departure was essentially a foregone conclusion.

This stinks. It stunk for Maryland’s players, who had to deal with the noise while on the biggest stage of their lives. It stinks for Maryland fans. It stinks for players whose future plans may have been disrupted. It even partially stinks for Willard, though you’ll be hard-pressed to find a sympathetic Terrapin supporter.

John Talty has the inside story of Willard’s messy departure, in which prominent Maryland booster Barry Gossett says, “He played us like a drum.”

• Talty: “How did we get here? It is a story of money, internal friction over where resources were devoted and a man who could never seem to be satiated. … In what has been the ugliest week for Maryland hoops in recent memory, with the upcoming days critical for the future of the program, there are some who still see a silver lining to Willard’s childish antics.”

As for these crucial few days, here’s where the Terrapins could turn next.

😬 Not so honorable mentions

🏀 UCLA, South Carolina reach women’s Final Four

Similar to the men’s NCAA Tournament, the women’s Final Four is loading up with No. 1 seeds who needed some dramatics to get there. (1) UCLA and (1) South Carolina are headed to Tampa, and they’ll find out who will join them today.

• The Bruins topped (3) LSU, 72-65, to make the Final Four for the first time in program history. Gabriela Jaquez was terrific and finished with 18 points, and despite early foul trouble, Lauren Betts posted 17 points, seven rebounds and six blocks.
• While it’s UCLA’s first NCAA Final Four, the Bruins won the 1978 AIAW national championship, and Cori Close reflected on what that team and what this team mean for the program.
• After the loss, Kim Mulkey thanked Flau’jae Johnson for being the one who “jump-started our program.” Johnson has a big stay-or-go-pro decision this offseason.
• The Gamecocks outlasted (2) Duke, 54-50, to keep their repeat hopes alive and extend their Final Four streak to five. Despite Chloe Kitts scoring eight points in the fourth quarter, which as many as Duke did in the frame, this iteration of the Gamecocks lacks that go-to scorer that’s been a staple of their championship squads, writes Jack Maloney.

• Maloney: “Raising questions about South Carolina’s offense is not an overreaction to one game against an elite Duke defense. The Gamecocks looked out of sorts at times against Maryland and Indiana in the last two rounds of the tournament as well, and had numerous rough outings against top competition throughout the season.
  The overall numbers would tell you that South Carolina is one of the best offensive teams in the country, but there’s a significant difference between what they did in Quad 1 games compared to non-Quad 1 games.” 

Today’s action features (1) Texas vs. (2) TCU and (1) USC vs. (2) UConn. The Trojans-Huskies matchup won’t feature a JuJu Watkins-Paige Bueckers showdown after Watkins’ torn ACL, but she remains a big part of the team and an emotional rallying point. Bueckers, meanwhile, is coming off a 40-point explosion in the Sweet 16 against Oklahoma.

⚾ MLB Power Rankings, first weekend recap

The first Monday of the MLB season has arrived, and that means Matt Snyder’s first in-season Power Rankings are here!

But before we get there, we have to start with the most unexpected development of the first few days: The Yankees have blasted 15 home runs, tied for the most ever through three games. They had a franchise-record nine Saturday alone. But it’s the bat several Bronx Bombers are using that’s the story. The torpedo bat, used by Anthony Volpe and Jazz Chisholm Jr., among others, features a bat that is wider closer to the label — where hitters tend to make contact — than at the end of the barrel.

And yes, they’re completely legal.

Aaron Judge isn’t using the torpedo bat, because when you’re Aaron Judge, you shouldn’t change anything. Saturday, he hit three home runs, and Sunday, he went yard again and got intentionally walked with the bases empty. The post-Juan Soto Yankees are showing off their depth early on, Julian McWilliams writes.

All of that has them rocketing up Matt’s rankings:

1. Dodgers (previous: 1)
2. Phillies (2)
3. Rangers (4)
4. Yankees (10)
5. Padres (13)

The Padres‘ jump is the result of a sweep of the Braves and Nick Pivetta starring in his San Diego debut. Atlanta’s resulting nine-spot drop from third to 12th was the largest in the bigs.

Here are more headlines:

📺 What we’re watching Monday

🏀 (1) Texas vs. (2) TCU (W), 7 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Celtics at Grizzlies, 7:30 p.m. on TNT/truTV
🏀 (1) USC vs. (2) UConn (W), 9 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Rockets at Lakers, 10 p.m. on TNT/truTV