What to watch for in Saturday's national semifinals
What to watch for in Saturday's national semifinals, HOUSTON — Some things to watch for Saturday if Oklahoma meets Villanova and North Carolina faces Syracuse in the civic semifinals at NRG Stadium:MEET AGAIN: Rematches are far from attenuate in the Final Four but these four teams accept three amateur amid them this season.
Oklahoma blitzed Villanova 78-55 in Hawaii on Dec. 7, and as is accepted on Saturday, 3-pointers were the difference.
The Sooners, led by Isaiah Cousins' 4-for-4 effort, went 14 of 26 while Villanova, with Kris Jenkins and Jalen Brunson both traveling 0-for-5, was 4 of 32 from above the arc.
North Carolina and Syracuse, both associates of the Atlantic Coast Conference, faced anniversary added in a home-and-home alternation and the Tar Heels swept the Orange.
On Jan. 9, Syracuse drillmaster Jim Boeheim's aboriginal bold aback afterwards a nine-game NCAA abeyance over infractions, the Tar Heels prevailed 84-73 with Isaiah Hicks scoring 19 of his career-high 21 credibility in the additional half. North Carolina denticulate 51 credibility and attempt 64.3 percent from the acreage in the half. Trevor Cooney led the Orange with 27 points.
The bold at Chapel Hill on Feb. 29 wasn't acclimatized until the final 2 account if Hicks and Brice Johnson came up with big baskets for North Carolina. Johnson had 14 credibility and 10 rebounds. Michael Gbinije had 17 credibility for the Orange, who had a adventitious to tie the bold in the final 15 seconds.
SHOOTING WOES: NRG Stadium has never been accepted as a shooter's haven.
In the six NCAA Clash amateur played at the home of the NFL's Houston Texas — the 2011 Final Four and the 2015 South Bounded — the teams accumulated to shoot 27.6 percent (59 of 214) from 3-point range. Plenty of teams accept bad games, but alone three teams in all of academy hoops attempt 27.6 percent or worse on 3s this season: Robert Morris, Grambling State and Prairie View A&M.
Only one aggregation arena at NRG — Duke endure year — attempt bigger than 33 percent, and that was 42.1 percent (8-19).
Oklahoma (29-7) is advancing into the Final Four cutting 42.8 percent on 3s — additional in the nation — and Villanova (33-5) hits at a 35.4 percent rate. North Carolina has struggled this division at 32.1 percent while Syracuse attempt 36.1 percent.
You'll apperceive aboriginal if the shooters are disturbing if the brawl goes central on every control and the shooters are all active to the bassinet rather than absolution it fly from above the arc.
WATCHING IT
Make abiding you assay your TV listings afore affability into the game. For the aboriginal time, the Final Four will be advertisement on a cable station, TBS.
TBS has apparent aboriginal annular and bounded amateur but this will be the aboriginal time the civic semifinals — and Monday night's championship bold — will be on cable rather than over-the-air television.
The announcers will be the aforementioned led by Jim Nantz with Bill Raftery and Grant Hill accouterment the analysis.
COACHING WEAR
One of the four coaches will angle out and it will accept annihilation to do with acceptable percentage, titles or late-game situations.
Villanova's Jay Wright is advised the best dressed drillmaster in academy basketball. Oklahoma's Lon Kruger, North Carolina's Roy Williams and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim just aren't a bout for the sartorial Wright.
"You accept to a guy," Wright said. "You accept to accept a tailor."
IN THE ZONE
In both games, apprehend to apprehend a lot of allocution about breadth defense. Syracuse has been active and dying with its 2-3 breadth for as continued as Boeheim has been there — which is now four decades.
Villanova has aswell gone to a 2-3 breadth generally but its aegis doesn't resemble Syracuse's even if the numbers are the same.
"I started to acquisition means we could still abide advancing in it. That's why we're application it now. It's taken me a while to apprentice how we can be aggressive," Wright said. "With Oklahoma, the ambit that they can shoot the brawl with, they play so far alfresco the 3-point band that even admitting you're in a zone, you got to go out and bouncer them, and it makes you play man-to-man. You can say you're in a zone, but you got to go out there to get them. If you go out to get them, you're man-to-man. They just advance you out so much."
Syracuse's breadth is far from passive, but the Orange delay for the brawl to move to an breadth and again they acknowledge with the sideline-to-sideline aback line. There's addition advantage to arena a breadth defense.
"You tend to get beneath guys into big abhorrent agitation with zone," Boeheim said. "In man-to-man, there's a lot of situations area teams are traveling to be isolated, driving. If you get a guy with two or three (fouls), they're traveling to try to abstract and drive that guy.
"You can't absolutely do that adjoin a zone, so we can assure guys better. Abhorrent agitation is beneath of an affair for us, although it can be. But I anticipate the amount of players you use in clash play goes down for everybody," he said. "We feel that we could accompany addition guy or two off the bank if we had to. But if we don't accept to, we won't."
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