Final Four proved to be more about teams, sport than Coach K
By Andy Katz
FOX Sports College Basketball Analyst
NEW ORLEANS — This Final Four was billed to be about Coach K.
It was one last Final Four — his record 13th — in his final season as a head coach after 42 years.
Mike Krzyzewski never wanted it to be about him, though, even after he announced a year ago that this would be his last season.
And, at the end of the night here in New Orleans at the famed Superdome, it wasn’t about him at all.
Coach K left the news conference area on a golf cart with hundreds of media members filming his final departure from the sport.
But the beauty of the night is that all of it was larger than one person — even Coach K.
Kansas, the No. 1 seed out of the Midwest, beat Villanova 81-65, which just couldn’t overcome the absence of Justin Moore or contain the power of David McCormack (25 points and nine boards) and the stellar play of Ochai Agbaji (21 points), the lone remaining Naismith finalist in the Final Four.
North Carolina and its first-year head coach Hubert Davis beat their arch-rival Duke 81-77 in another classic matchup between these two historic programs.
That means Monday night, Kansas will play North Carolina in the ultimate blue blood title game.
The 8-seeded Tar Heels — who had the talent to be a 2-seed but didn’t play up to that level during the season — got the best of Duke and Coach K in their final two meetings. The previous one ended Duke's regular season and Coach K’s tenure at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
This was the first-ever meeting between these blue bloods in the NCAA Tournament, which was an amazing fact in itself. It almost took place in 1991, but UNC lost to Kansas in the same Final Four that Duke upset UNLV.
Saturday didn't disappoint. There were 18 lead changes. Both teams shot 42% from the field. Carolina made 10 3s, out-rebounded Duke 50-41, and got stellar play out of Caleb Love (28 points) and Armando Bacot (21 boards), as well as big shots from RJ Davis (18), Brady Manek (14) and Leaky Black (two 3s).
Duke took a one-point lead on a Wendell Moore Jr. 3-pointer with 1:20 left. But Carolina responded and ultimately, missed free throws by Duke (12-for-20) proved too costly.
Coach K was incredibly gracious in talking to the media after the game. He wouldn’t bite about discussing his legacy or reflecting back on his career.
This was about his team. It always has been.
There were tears in the postgame locker room, as there should be for a team that lost a national semifinal. Villanova was heartbroken as well, since the Wildcats had been unable to put forward their best performance.
But the larger story was the quality of play in front of 70,000-plus fans at the Superdome, the first real Final Four since 2019 in Minneapolis. And since the weather was in the 70s this week, unlike the chilly temps in Minnesota three years ago, this Final Four has felt like the first real one since 2018 in San Antonio. Fans streamed into New Orleans, parading through the French Quarter and downtown.
The health of the game was on display, with the full pageantry of this great event for the world to see.
The perfect ending would have been for Coach K to win a title Monday night. He won't now. But the sport didn’t need that to happen. This Final Four showed that the sport is healthy and can provide the necessary drama to whet our college basketball palettes.
March Madness has never disappointed, but it needed a foursome like this to remind us all of how special this event is during the American sports calendar.
The final on Monday night will see the two most recognizable brands competing for the championship.
And that is something to celebrate, sit back and embrace.
Andy Katz is a longtime college basketball writer, analyst and host. He can be seen on FOX Sports and Big Ten Network platforms, as well as March Madness and NCAA.com, and he hosts the podcast "March Madness 365." Katz worked at ESPN for nearly two decades and, prior to that, in newspapers for nine years.