The Bobby Valentine Sport Show: Episode 47

The Bobby Valentine Sport Show: Episode 47

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of The Bobby Valentine Sport Show. I’m your host Frank Ramppen. The final four and national championship game of March Madness have commenced this past weekend. Saturday was the final four, and this past Monday was the national championship. What a three-game slate we got, great matchups all around the board.

Let’s start off with the final four. Number 11 NC State took on number 1 Purdue, the final real Cinderella Story left in this tournament. Number 11 NC State weren’t even going to make the NCAA tournament. Heading into it 17 and 14 in the regular season, heading into the ACC tournament, they win five games in five straight nights, the first time in the history of the ACC tournament that anyone does that. They go from Tuesday all the way to Saturday, win every game, five games in a row, and head right into the NCAA tournament as an 11 seed and go all the way to the final four. DJ Burns and DJ Horne absolutely carried this team all the way, but against Purdue, they just fell short 63 to 50. A 13-point win for the boilermakers, heading to their first national championship since 1980.

Purdue didn’t look the best in this game; it was a pretty tight affair back and forth going into the halftime. In the second half, 15 minutes in, NC State only scored four points. They had 39 points going into halftime, and with five minutes left in the game, they had 43. You’re not going to win any basketball games like that. They forced a lot of Purdue turnovers, double-digit turnovers for Purdue. That’s what all the analysts were saying needed to happen if NC State had a chance, which they really did until they couldn’t hit a shot in the second half. They just couldn’t score. They were playing solid defense; Purdue only scored 63 points in total and won this game, but just unable to keep up with them was the NC State offense, falling in the final four. So that’s the fourth or fifth time now that the 11 seed has made it but never made it to the national championship game.

Number four Alabama played number one UConn. This was also a pretty solid game for the first half as well. UConn actually trailing for what seemed like an eternity in the first half. They actually had a four-point deficit they had to chase from the Crimson Tide. In the first half of this game, they trailed for about four minutes, after only trailing for like 50 seconds in the first five rounds combined. So Alabama gave UConn a little bit of work. But UConn in the second half, like they do to everyone else, just kind of smother you, just keep going. They never stop running their offense, running their sets, they just do exactly what they want, get to their spots and take good high percentage looks. So UConn takes them down 86-72, heading to the national championship game to take on Purdue.

For more from the final four and national championship game click the video below!