2017 NCAA Tournament: Final Four schedule, scores and highlights

We make fun of some universities for being basketball schools, but for the Jesuit Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., it’s very true. So much so that a national title Monday night against North Carolina would give the school a unique achievement.

Since Marquette won the national championship in 1977, no school that hasn’t had a football team has won a national title. In fact, only one such school has even made the title game.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs will play North Carolina on Monday night for college basketball’s national championship. It’ll be the first such opportunity in Zags history. And it will happen because Gonzaga is so deep and so talented that even one of the ugliest, quickest collapses of this entire season wasn’t enough to kill them.

When Nigel Williams-Goss hit two foul shots with 10:55 left in a national semifinal against South Carolina on Saturday, his team had a 65-51 lead. What followed was remarkable — a 16-0 run over by South Carolina spanning 3:33 of clock time, staking the Cocks to a 67-65 lead that was their first since the score was 10-8. The country’s No. 104 offense by adjusted efficiency made eight of nine shots in a row at one point, all against its No. 1 defense by the same metric. Gonzaga had apparently collapsed on college basketball’s biggest stage, in the biggest game in the history of its program.

On Saturday night, down one with under five seconds to go, Oregon forward Jordan Bell barely missed corralling two crucial rebounds following failed North Carolina free throws. The Tar Heels left the door open by missing four free throws in the final five seconds, but the Ducks couldn’t bring in a rebound to have a shot to win.

Nobody took it harder than Bell, who had put together a heck of a game on the boards for the Ducks. He said he didn’t want to face his teammates after the game. But none of them blamed him.

North Carolina’s best hope to beat Gonzaga in college basketball’s national championship game on Monday is to do exactly what it’s done to teams all season and what it just did to Oregon in a national semifinal.

The Tar Heels are the sport’s best offensive rebounding team. When they miss shots, they recoup the ball about 42 percent of the time. They’re a couple percentage points ahead of everybody else, and they notched 16 offensive boards against Oregon on Saturday. Two of those came in the final five seconds, both off missed UNC free throws, and sealed the game. The Heels had 19 second-chance points in a game they won 77-76. As a result, they’re 40 minutes from putting last season’s title-game loss to Villanova in the ground.

Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski fell down on the court in the first half, clutching his eye after having his shot blocked. The big man was clearly in pain, suffering after an inadvertent poke in the eye leveled him. One of the first people to rush onto the court to check on him was the opposing coach, South Carolina’s Frank Martin.

Karnowski was unable to return in the first half due to the injury, as he complained about being unable to focus his right eye. A specialist examined him at halftime and cleared him to return, where he helped propel the Bulldogs to victory.

There were some incredible moments from the Final Four in Arizona where Gonzaga and North Carolina cemented their places in the national championship game. Sun streamed in through the roof of University of Phoenix Stadium, and both games came down to the wire.

Here are the best photos of the night that you probably missed.

As gifted offensively and athletically as the North Carolina Tar Heels are, the team’s biggest strength all season long has been in an area of basketball that the kids would call, well, boring.

No team in college basketball averages more rebounds per game (43.7) than North Carolina, and no team in college basketball rebounds a higher percentage of its own missed shots (40.9 percent) than the Tar Heels. While those may not be statistics that wow the country like points per game or three-point shooting percentage, they represent a skill-set that may have just saved UNC’s national title hopes.

Kennedy Meeks had the best game of his college career on Saturday. The North Carolina Tar Heels senior center totaled 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting. He had 14 rebounds, eight of them on offense. His on-court plus-minus was plus-8, the best for any player on either of the two teams on the court in Glendale, Ariz.

He is usually good, but this game was abnormally great for Meeks. His career highs entering the night were 25 points and 17 boards. Forgive me for this highly unscientific way of measuring production, but Meeks’ highest total of points and rebounds in a single game entering the night had been 36. Against power conference teams, it was 31, against Duke in this year’s ACC tournament. His new career high: 39.

Gonzaga vs. North Carolina. That’s your national championship matchup Monday night after the Tar Heels dispatched of the Oregon Ducks, 77-76, in the second national semifinal from Glendale, Ariz.

For most of the proceedings, picture North Carolina like the big kid on the playground with Oregon trying like hell to get swings off, but the Tar Heels just held them at an arm’s length for most of the game, and led the entire second half. The Ducks threatened and did so valiantly in their first Final Four since 1939, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs and North Carolina Tar Heels will play for college basketball’s national championship on Monday night. The Zags beat South Carolina in one national semifinal on Saturday, and the Heels beat Oregon in the other. That sets the stage for what seems like an outstanding final chapter to this season.

Monday, April 3 at 9 p.m. ET

The Final Four’s national semifinals are Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. They’ll be evening and night games for people watching on the East Coast, but South Carolina and Gonzaga will tip at 3:09 p.m. local time in Arizona: an afternoon game.

The venue housing the Final Four is University of Phoenix Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Cardinals. It’s a unique place, with lots of amenities and a grass field that literally rolls in and out of the building. It also has a retractable roof, and on Saturday, which happens to be April Fools’ Day, the NCAA’s media coordination director tweeted:

Oregon vs. North Carolina has been incredibly close in the first half thanks to moments like this from Dylan Ennis.

Sure, it was a foul — but daaaang Dylan Ennis. Dude jumped from another zip code to land on the other side of the key and smack this towards the scorer’s table. As long as he’s making plays like this we’re going to have a nail biter.

In their national semifinal at the NCAA tournament on Saturday, Gonzaga closed the first half against South Carolina on a 14-5 run. That allowed the Zags to take a 48-36 lead into the half. It was almost 51-36, but Gonzaga’s Silas Melson got off a made three-pointer just a moment too late. This one was really close.

It’s a shame this didn’t count, because it was brilliant offense. Guard Nigel Williams-Goss (No. 5) attracted a crowd of three Gamecocks on his way into the paint. He spun to his left and found Killian Tillie in the corner. Tillie is a solid three-point shooter, who’s 11-of-23 (48 percent) from deep this year. But the Cocks closed out quickly, so he found an open Melson on the wing. He didn’t miss.

Frank Martin had a difficult Saturday night. His South Carolina Gamecocks saw their dream NCAA tournament run end in a national semifinal against Gonzaga, 77-73.

After the game, Martin sat for his customary press conference. A reporter asked Martin a pretty good question about dealing with disappointment and his message to fans who’d so enjoyed watching the Cocks play this March.

Not only do the Bulldogs have the chance to be the national champions on Monday night after beating South Carolina in the Final Four, they’ve got a shot to be a special champion as well.

Every year in college basketball we do the thing where we track the last undefeated team. Indiana went unblemished in 1976, winning a national championship at 32-0. It’s been the pursuit of perfection for many teams ever since.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few kept up his handstand tradition after the Zags beat South Carolina in the Final Four — except this time he was a little wetter than usual.

Few did the exact same thing when his team reached the Sweet 16. It’s become a staple of locker room celebrating.

Foul while up three, or don’t foul while up three?

College basketball coaches — both real ones and armchair ones, like me — have to make that choice whenever they’re up three points and playing defense in the final few seconds of a game. The Gonzaga Bulldogs faced that decision against South Carolina in a national semifinal on Saturday. The Bulldogs decided to foul.

Well Bulldogs fans, it looks like we’ll be seeing you Monday night. Gonzaga beat South Carolina, 77-73, in the first Final Four semifinal. After breaking the glass ceiling to get to where college basketball’s road ends, they’re gonna stick around for a chance to win the whole damn thing.

The first half’s biggest storyline had to be Przemek Karnowski’s eye injury. The Bulldogs’ big man got poked in the eye during the opening stanza and missed the tail end of the first half.

Gonzaga Bulldogs point guard Nigel Williams-Goss is not fragile. I know this because, if Williams-Goss were fragile, there’s no way he’d have walked away from this healthy:

Williams-Goss was driving toward the hoop in the second half of Saturday’s Final Four semifinal against South Carolina. He suffered what appears to be the ankle roll to end all ankle rolls, one whose sight makes me physically cringe. This looks on my screen like a devastating ankle or foot injury but somehow turned out not to be one.

With just more than five minutes left in the first half of Saturday’s Final Four game, Gonzaga Bulldogs center Przemek Karnowski went to the ground with an eye injury.

Karnowski looked to be in serious pain for a few moments on the court, then was rubbing his eyes on Gonzaga’s bench. CBS’ Tracy Wolfson reported Karnowski was dealing with an injury to his right eye and couldn’t focus it. He walked to the locker room shortly thereafter. Jim Nantz reported Karnowski was likely to return, and that he did, with the center returning to start the second half for Gonzaga.

South Carolina guard Rakym Felder wasn’t doing anything wrong. This is the Final Four, and Felder was driving toward the basket, trying to do nothing more than put points on the board for his Gamecocks. But Gonzaga Bulldogs guard Silas Melson is also in the Final Four and has diametrically opposite goals for Felder’s team.

Melson got impressively vertical to swat Felder’s shot away, and he had to time his block just right. He did, setting up a few Zags free throws on the other end.

The National Anthem at the Final Four continued its wonderful tradition. Four singers took part, each from one of the schools remaining in the tournament.

Each of the singers was a student athlete, with Oregon’s Taylor Agost representing the Ducks. She’s a volleyball player at the school — which is why she was so much taller than the rest of the singers. Judging from the reception, people really loved the NCAA doing the anthem this way.

The 2017 Final Four has been dubbed “The Blue Bloods vs. The New Bloods,” and for good reason.

No team has made it to this round more than North Carolina, which is appearing in a national semifinal for the 20th time. That’s three more than UCLA and Kentucky, which sit in a tie for second place at 17.

They’re playing the Final Four on Saturday and Monday at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. That’s the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, and it’s now taking its rightful place among large, indoor or retractable-roof football stadiums by doing what such stadiums do: housing college basketball games. This is what the stadium looks like in its basketball mode, which is to say: massive.

For the NFL’s newest and nicest spaceship-like stadiums, this is a rite of passage. The NCAA likes to put on the Final Four in a massive venue, not an 18,000-seat hoops or hockey arena. This tradition goes back many years. Seattle’s Kingdome housed the 1984 Final Four, and football stadiums have been en vogue ever since. New Orleans’ Superdome, Minneapolis’ Metrodome, Indianapolis’ RCA Dome and Lucas Oil Stadium, Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, San Antonio’s Alamodome, Detroit’s Ford Field, Houston’s NRG Stadium, and Dallas’ AT&T Stadium have all hosted college hoops’ marquee event.

It’s not difficult to group the programs in this year’s Final Four by previous Final Four experience. You basically just do this:

The Tar Heels have made 20 Final Fours in their history. Oregon has made two, with the other one coming in the first-ever NCAA tournament in 1939. Gonzaga and South Carolina are both making the first Final Four appearance in program history.