N.C.A.A. Preview of the Final Four Men

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MINNEAPOLIS – Virginia, the only seed remaining, will face Auburn, making his first appearance in the Final Four, in the first of two national semifinals of the N.C.A.A. Saturday men's basketball tournament. Michigan State, champion in 2000, will face the newcomer, Texas Tech, in the second game.

No team is hotter than Auburn, who arrives at his first Final Four with a series of 12 consecutive wins: four to finish the regular season, four to win the Southeast Conference Conference tournament and four others in the North American Coast. tournament. (The Tigers could only become the second national champion, after Connecticut in 2011, to play 41 games.)

The Bruce Pearl Tigers made it by being one of the top 3-point shooter teams and getting more points at 3 points than all Division I teams except six. This is why the most impressive victory of the Tigers has been greater than the second. Kentucky sowed the colors of the regional finals, precisely because they could barely buy a 3, 7-in-23 from the back. They also won that day without their best man, Chuma Okeke, who had a knee injury late in the season in an earlier match.

It sounds like a hard, right?

Well. Virginia is the country's third best three-point defenseman, though its excellent attack, led by wings Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome and De & Andre Hunter, and its ultra-defensive Tony Bennett brand, maximizes the possession points against her essential.

If the Cavaliers seem hard to beat, only two teams have managed the feat: Duke, twice; and Florida State, which used its size and athletics to defeat Virginia at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. It's something that Auburn will be hard pressed to do without Okeke.

So, yes, the Tigers have work to do.

Between two excellent teams, a balanced should overcome the least balanced, right? The first describes the Spartans, who have a top 10 and a top 10 defense, while the last is the Red Raiders, who, according to KenPom's ranking, have the best defense in the country, but an offense simply excellent. superb.

But these are seasonal figures. In the N.C.A.A. Tournament, including against the highly esteemed Buffalo, a Michigan team with a generally robust defense and a juggernaut Gonzaga, Texas Tech turned to attack jets, pulling 53.4% ​​of the field against 47.2% for the season. The Red Raiders did this by making three points at a slightly lower rate, which means that a good deep game probably makes Texas Tech almost unbeatable.

Coach Chris Beard's team will need to consider this to defeat Michigan State, which uses a smaller rotation than the average Tom Izzo squad, but resembles its other seven Final Four teams by its balance and hardness.

Playmaker Cassius Winston looks more and more like the national player of the year (non-Zion Williamson category), scoring 20 points on 19 throws, 10 assists and 4 interceptions in a point win over Duke the last weekend. The Spartans will need a similar type of game from Winston (and similar play time, for the regional semifinals and the combined final, Winston only witnessed the last minute of the first match) for to be played by Texas Tech.

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