* Saturday
Final Four
6:07 p.m. & 8:47 p.m., CBS
* Monday,
NCAA championship
9:21 p.m., CBS
While the NCAA championship will be officially decided Monday night, many think the real title will be settled Saturday, when heavyweights Duke and Connecticut slug it out in the late semifinal in San Antonio.
But beware – those who think Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State, the other semifinalists, are just roadkill-in-waiting for the Duke UConn winner may want to remember the mid-1980s.
In 1983, Houston beat Louisville in the “national championship” semi. Then, two days later, Jim Valvano frantically searched for someone from North Carolina State to hug.
In 1985, Patrick Ewing and his Georgetown Hoyas beat St. John’s in the semis to face an “overmatched” Villanova team. At the end of the final game, Ed Pickney and the Wildcats cut down the nets.
So call Duke-UConn Saturday’s main event. But don’t count out the Tech-Oklahoma State survivor on Monday.
“That’s what history tells us,” said Clark Kellogg, CBS’ college basketball studio analyst. “We don’t need to get caught up in how sexy one of the semifinals looks [compared] to the other.”
Still, Kellogg and CBS’ lead game analyst, Billy Packer, like UConn to go all the way. The Huskies might have been a only two-seed in their regional, but they are the favorite now.
“I think this might be a year where the consensus best team at the beginning of the season might prove that at the end,” Kellogg said.
Packer added, “I felt UConn’s been the team with the most balance, the deepest group of players/athletes in the country, and that usually bodes pretty well for you when you get in this tournament.”
Duke and UConn won’t necessarily produce the national champion, but it is the must-watch game of the two semis.
According to the analysts, Duke’s Shelden Williams will be the most important player on the floor. The 6-foot-9 Williams, a sophomore, must try to contain injured Husky star Emeka Okafor.
“The key player for Duke is Shelden Williams,” Packer said. “Duke, this year, as opposed to where they were the last couple of years, now has an inside presence. You have to have balance to win these games.”