2008 Woodie Awards
Rallies and overtime determines the "Final Four" teams in the NCAA Tournament
Kevin Showkat
Issue date: 4/1/05 Section: Sports
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Two number-one seeds, Illinois and North Carolina, remain in the hunt. The Fighting Illini, led by charismatic coach Bruce Weber, staged the most improbable comeback of the weekend, requiring a last-second miss on a hapless three-point attempt to beat Arizona in overtime Saturday.
The other one-seeded squad, Roy Williams' North Carolina Tar Heels, are favored to win the national championship in many brackets, with what many pundits hail as the most talented and athletic team in the nation. Yet even the mighty Tar Heels faltered slightly, squeaking by sixth-seeded Wisconsin by six points.
Things looked so bad in the Albuquerque regional game, Louisville coach Rick Pitino admitted he lied to his team at halftime last Friday when he told them he thought they could overcome a double-digit deficit and defeat the hot-shooting Mountaineers. As unlikely as it seemed, however, West Virginia's over-achieving foot finally slipped out of Cinderella's shoe, and Louisville went on to claim an impressive overtime victory and ensure a berth in the Final Four-despite leading in regulation for a mere 24 seconds.
In the final match-up of the weekend, Michigan State needed two OTs to defeat the favored Kentucky in a game that featured a desperation three-point heave that found its way into the basket, giving Kentucky a second hope. An unfazed Michigan State coach Tom Izzo rallied his deflated Spartans to a remarkable victory that sealed an equally-electrifying weekend.
Such was the theme of the four Elite Eight matches: the scoreboard can never predict the outcome; heart is the final factor, the intangible 'X' factor that few teams can claim to possess.
The Final Four will duke it out April 2, and the national championship game, to be held in St. Louis, will follow two days after April 4.