The Final 4 for the 2008 Ncaa Tournament: North Carolina, Memphis, Ucla and Kansas

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

For the first time in the history of the NCAA National Basketball Tournament, all four No. 1 seeded teams made it safely through the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 brackets to the Final 4?UCLA, Memphis, North Carolina and Kansas. Three #1 seeds have advanced to the Final 4 only three times in NCAA history, most recently in 1999.

West Regional Champion UCLA (35-3) meets South Regional Champion Memphis (37-1), and East Regional Champion North Carolina (36-2) faces off against Midwest Regional Champion Kansas (35-3) Saturday (4-5-08) with the winners playing Monday night in the national championship game.

The entire Sweet 16 and Elite 8 action reminded me a whole lot of the run-up to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. There are always a lot of common meals before the magnificent Thanksgiving feast.

I could have fallen asleep during 9 actual blowouts and a somewhat close Xavier-West Virginia game that only seemed close because it ended in overtime with Xavier taking down West Virginia, 79-75.

The only two marquee games involved upstart Davidson with "please shoot the lights out" Stephen Curry, who scored 33 points as the unsung #10 seed embarrassed the hell out of #3 seed Wisconsin's famous lock-down defense.

Davidson then came within a inch or two of sending Kansas back home as the #1 seed Jayhawks were just able to hang on for dear life, barely advancing to the Final 4 with a 59-57 victory when stealth shooter Stephen Curry drained another 3-pointer with 54 seconds left. It would be the last basket of the game, which proved to be the most exciting game of dozen played.

Curry, who became only the 4th player to hit the 30-point mark in his first 3 NCAA tourney games, finished with 25 on 9-of-25 shooting. He was picked as the Most Outstanding Player in the Midwest Regional.

As a sophomore, he nailed 160 3-pointers this season to set an NCAA Division I record. He will return to Davidson for his junior year, wisely not choosing to go pro without more seasoning, Curry was an 89% free throw shooter this year and shot 44% from 3-point land.

Many fans had no idea there was a Davidson before the tournament. Davidson was not exactly overwhelmed with national publicity and exposure before March Madness began. Davidson is so small there are very few fans who could tell you it is located in Davidson, North Carolina. The liberal arts school, which has only 1,770 students, could not even fill a scant part of the student section at UCLA.

The loss snapped Davidson's 25-game winning streak, the longest in the nation. The Wildcats were nothing short of amazing during their run, upsetting the likes of Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin before running into Kansas.

Davidson won the South Division of the Southern Conference with a perfect 20-0 record and finished the season with a 29-7 mark. The Wildcats are coached by Bob McKillop, who deserved to be in the spotlight after 19 seasons at Davidson. Until this season, Davidson has not won an NCAA tournament game in 39 years!

Davidson's mighty run to greatness will be talked about for years in Davidson and every nook and cranny in North Carolina, a state obsessed with basketball after basking in the immense success of Duke and North Carolina over the years.

2008 NCAA Tournament Results for Round 3 - The Sweet 16

Midwest Regional:

#1 Kansas eliminated #12 Villanova 72-57 and #3 Wisconsin was upset by #10 Davidson 73-56

West Regional:

#1 UCLA eliminated #12 Western Kentucky 88-78 and #3 Xavier eliminated #7 West Virginia 79-75 in OT

East Regional:

#1 North Carolina eliminated #4 Washington State 68-47 and #3 Louisville eliminated #2 Tennessee 79-60

South Regional:

#1 Memphis eliminated #5 Michigan State 92-74 and #2 Texas eliminated #3 Stanford 82-62

2008 NCAA Tournament Results for Round 4 - The Elite 8

Midwest Regional:

#1 Kansas eliminated #10 Davidson 59-57

West Regional:

#1 UCLA eliminated #3 Xavier 76-57

East Regional:

#1 North Carolina eliminated #3 Louisville 83-73

South Regional:

#1 Memphis eliminated #2 Texas 85-67

2008 NCAA Tournament Pairings for Round 5 - The Final 4

Saturday, April 5

#1 West Regional Champion UCLA (35-3) against #1 South Regional Champion Memphis (37-1)

#1 East Regional Champion North Carolina (36-2) against #1 Midwest Champion Kansas (35-3)

Monday, April 7

Winners meet in the 2008 NCAA National Championship Game