March Madness – Elite Eight Recap
The Elite Eight games provided upsets and plenty of jam-packed action as the Road to the Final Four was completed.
The first game to get underway was LSU versus Texas. Coming off their upset against Duke, LSU had to bring their best effort in order to defeat the Longhorns. LSU was led by Glen “Big Baby” Davis and freshmen Tyrus Thomas. This game went into OT with the score tied at 52-52. LSU dominated the overtime period and came out with a 70-60 period after outscoring Texas 18-8. This will be LSU’s first trip to the Final Four since ’86. Glen Davis has been compared to a former alumni of LSU, Shaquille O’Neal, but even Shaq was never able to take the Tigers to the Final Four.
The second game on tap featured UCLA taking on Memphis. UCLA was not scared of All-American guard Rodney Carney of Memphis, and the Bruins were able to defeat the 1 seed of the Oakland Region to advance to the Final Four. Maybe UCLA can return to the level of dominance they had back in the day when they had John Wooden leading the way.
The Washington Region of the Tournament came down to UConn and George Mason. No one expected George Mason to advance this far and certainly didn’t expect UConn to fall to George Mason of all teams. However, George Mason proved all of their doubters wrong by upsetting the Huskies. This game went down to the wire with George Mason coming back from a 9 point halftime deficit and outplaying UConn in the 2nd half. George Mason should have won the game in regulation but a missed free throw with 5 seconds left led to a full court drive and reverse layup by Denham Brown. George Mason kept up their game and was able to defeat UConn in the overtime period to become the 3rd team in the Final Four. George Mason, who was the 11 seed, became just the 2nd Final Four team that had a double digit seed in the NCAA Tournament history.
The final game of the Elite Eight featured Villanova playing Florida. Unfortunately, this wasn’t Villanova’s year as they were unable to match Florida’s intensity down low. Villanova struggled to hit thier shots and shot only 24% from the field. Florida’s Joakim Noah led the Gators with an excellent performance with 21 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Florida ended up with a 75-62 victory and will now face George Mason in their Final Four matchup.
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Posted on March 26, 2006 by Kyle Garis | Filed Under Philadelphia
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