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    No home team at Final Four

    Heartbreak city: Texas gives away a Sweet 16 berth with late mistake as Arizonasteals miracle win

    Chris Baldwin
    Mar 20, 2011 | 7:27 pm
    • Texas' Tristan Thompson
    • Derrick Williams is Arizona's top player, arguably the best player in thecountry.
    • Texas coach Rick Barnes preaches defense first.

    TULSA, Okla. — Texas had the lead, the ball, the game and seemingly a Sweet 16 berth within its grasp with 12.3 seconds left. Then, everything went horribly wrong for the Longhorns in the BOK Center.

    UT guard Cory Joseph inexplicably didn't inbound the ball within five seconds, got called for a violation (even as he pleaded that he'd called a timeout) and Arizona got the ball back, trailing 69-67. Having struggled all game against Texas' defense, Wildcats superstar Derrick Williams then stole the game.

    Williams drove baseline hit the basket and the resulting free-throw for a 70-69 Arizona lead. Texas' last chance went for naught as J'Covan Brown (23 points) missed a drive in traffic and Gary Johnson bounced around bodies inside on a rebound attempt at the buzzer as Longhorns coach Rick Barnes looked for a foul.

    From a miracle comeback to a heartbreaking finish. That's March sadness at its most excruciating.

    Brown, playing the game of his life on the biggest stage, had given Texas a 69-67 lead, capping a furious second-half rally. And the Longhorns and Thompson had already made two huge defensive stops with blocks. Texas had the ball back with the lead. The worst that could seemingly happen was UT would be heading to the free-throw line with a chance to ice the game.

    Then, Texas never got the ball in. Or at least, not before the referee Richard Cartmell called the five-second violation.

    After trailing for more than 30 minutes of the game, Texas tied it at 65 with 3:02 left. Brown clapped and pleaded with his Longhorn teammates, "Let's go! Let's go!"

    Then, he hit two free throws with 2:25 left to give Texas its first lead since the game was only seven minutes old.

    Arizona (29-7) moves on to play No. 1 seed Duke in the Sweet 16 in Anaheim on Thursday night. Texas (28-8) wonders what could have been.

    Arizona forward Derrick Williams (17 points) — a national player of the year favorite — never looked comfortable against Barnes' defensive schemes. Williams couldn't hit from the field (4-for-14) or the free-throw line (9-for-15) until the last second.

    But Williams still won the matchup of NBA prospects. Texas freshman forward Tristan Thompson, who'd been so dominant for Texas in its first NCAA Tournament game, never even got involved in the game. Thompson finished with four points, six rebounds and four teases of impact blocks.

    Trailing 36-25 at halftime, seeing the season slipping out the door, Texas ripped off a 10-2 run to open the second half and pull within three. Arizona kept pushing the ball though and when Wildcats freshman guard Jordin Mayes hit his fourth three, UT trailed 43-35 again. Mayes had already set a new career high in points scored with more than 15 minutes left in the game.

    The Wildcats were in control without having to rely on their superstar.

    Texas kept crawling back. The Longhorns pulled within 53-51, 58-55, 63-60,

    Williams came into game off arguably the signature play of the NCAA Tournament so far: The last-second block that turned back Memphis. He's a consensus top five NBA draft pick whenever he decides to leave Arizona.

    But early on, he couldn't get going against Johnson. With Thompson waiting to bring the help defense, Arizona's lifeline missed his first six shots and Arizona coach Sean Miller gave him an early rest amid that streak. Later in the first half, when Williams broke free in the open court, his AAU buddy, Texas guard Jordan Hamilton, left little doubt that the friendship was on hold, sending Williams slamming to the floor on a hard foul.

    A Thompson stop on another Arizona breakaway briefly energized the Longhorns. Thompson raced back to swat away a layup and Texas ripped off two straight fast-break baskets to pull within 19-16.

    Arizona kept running though, kept pushing the ball back at Barnes' team and Texas had trouble reacting. When junior guard Brendon Lavender popped off the Wildcats' bench and hit two straight 3-pointers — one when Williams made a great pass out of Texas' double team and another in transition — the Longhorns suddenly found themselves trailing 28-18.

    Barnes took two timeouts in the last four minutes of the half, desperately trying to keep his reeling team in it.

    The Longhorns held Derrick Williams completely in check and Arizona was still threatening to run them off the floor. That's what happens when you have an 18-2 advantage in bench points in a half. Heck, Arizona's bench threatened to outscore Texas' starting lineup in the opening half, let alone the Longhorns' non-existent reserves.

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    Beyond the Boxscore

    Houston in line to get more Final Fours after 2016: NCAA officials expect it tobecome a regular

    Chris Baldwin
    Apr 5, 2011 | 7:07 pm
    • The success of Bracket Town meant almost as much to the NCAA as the success atReliant Stadium.
      Photo by Bruce Bennett
    • NCAA official Greg Shaheen praised Houston's Final Four efforts.
    • Kemba Walker wasn't the only one who flew high at this Final Four.
      Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

    When even NCAA officials are making jokes about the lowest-scoring NCAA Championship Game since 1949, you know they had a good time in Houston.

    That's what happens in the Final Four wrap-up press conference Tuesday. Greg Shaheen — the highest-ranking NCAA official in the room — opens his portion with a crack about the offensive woes Monday night.

    Shaheen notes that if more people had the motor shown by Houston Final Four Local Organizing Committee interim executive director Doug Hall then "we might have had a game last night where both teams scored 60 points."

    "You were on overdrive," Shaheen says to Hall.

    Yes, there is a whole lot of love in the room when the Houston LOC and the NCAA meet for the last time before this 2011 Final Four becomes part of the record books — and thoughts begin to slowly turn to the 2016 Final Four that will be held in Houston and the 2015 regional at Reliant Stadium before that.

    It does not figure to end in 2016 though. Shaheen — the NCAA's interim executive vice president of championships and alliances — tells CutureMap he expects there will be even more Final Fours in Houston in the future.

    "I don't see any reason why Houston wouldn't become a regular part of our rotation," Shaheen says.

    Shaheen would be the first to say that the NCAA's Basketball Committee will make the final call like usual on future sites, but he says the committee is thrilled with Houston's performance.

    "This is what a showcase event should look like," Shaheen says of a Houston event that set the Final Four record for total attendance (145,747 at the two nights of games) and also drew an estimated 140,000 to the Big Dance Concert Series (the concert figure is based on an "approximation" of the number of people who came through Discovery Green during all three concerts that lasted several hours each) and another 49,000 to Bracket Town at the George R. Brown Convention Center. "This is what a national championship should feel like.

    "It should be exhausting the next morning and be a seamless effort."

    Later Shaheen quips, "UConn is not the only winner here."

    Instead, Texas might be the biggest winner of all. For the Lone Star State has emerged as the NCAA's big event darling. Texas will host three Final Fours in a six-year stretch (Houston in 2011 and 2016, Dallas in 2014). And that type of dominance is not expected to end anytime soon either.

    "In the modern era, for both the men's and women's championships, I don't know that any state has emerged like Texas," Shaheen says. "And I think you have to include San Antonio (host of the 1998, 2004 and 2008 Final Fours) in that equation as well. There are a lot of things Texas offers the championships that are unique."

    Standing off to the side in the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency — which served as the headquarters for the coaches convention during Final Four week, housing all the big names who weren't coaching in the games — Robert Dale Morgan is sure of what makes Houston such a lure.

    Morgan, the president and executive director of the 2011 Houston Final Four LOC, held a similar position for Houston's 2004 Super Bowl and many credit his vision with helping the city see its big sports event potential, with a Super Bowl, Major League Baseball All-Star Game, NBA All-Star Game, Major League Soccer All-Star Game and now a Final Four all having been held here since 2004. Not that Morgan wants that recognition.

    He chooses to sit in the crowd rather than on the stage at the wrap-up press conference. He probably could have blended in to, wearing a Houston Final Four hat with his suit, if so many people on the stage didn't point him out. Bob Beauchamp, chairman of the Houston Final Four LOC, calls Morgan, "the best in the business."

    "Having six million people who care," Morgan says in explaining how Houston's positioned itself as the host city with the most. "Having a dozen Fortune 500 companies. And oh by the way, we have really great weather 300 days out of the year."

    Trash Talk Between Friends

    Houston hands off the Final Four to New Orleans, next year's host. The transition is a bit of intentional symbolism by the NCAA which wants to recognize how closely the two cities are linked and the Bayou City's role in helping after Hurricane Katrina.

    This will be the fifth Final Four that New Orleans has hosted and the city's LOC executive director John Koerner can't help but point out to Houston, the new city in "the rotation," how great every one of the NCAA Championship Games held in the Big Easy has been.

    "New Orleans has hosted some of the most memorable finals ever," Koerner says. "We had Michael Jordan's shot, Keith Smart's shot, Chris Webber's infamous timeout and Hakim Warrick's block at the buzzer."

    And from its first Final Four, Houston has? Well, a whole lot of clangs — and Butler's record-low 18.8 percent shooting.

    Not that anyone in the NCAA is holding it against the Bayou City. The organization credentialed 1,387 media members for this Final Four, loved the visibility brought about by having it in one of the America's biggest cities. Even if you have to wonder how much everyone was into it locally. The TV rating in Houston for the unsightly Butler-UConn national championship game only ranked 30th out of the 56 major media markets.

    Shaheen's not dwelling on that. Instead, he's sticking around Houston to take in more of the city without the pressures of the mega event.

    "I don't have a flight home," Shaheen says, knowing that Southwest Airlines' grounded jets have made it much harder than usual to land one last minute. "So I'll be staying here two, three, four, five more days. I may be looking to get an apartment and just become a resident."

    Shaheen laughs. Who says NCAA suits don't have a sense of humor?

    When they are happily in Houston, they sure do.

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