It was a rare late-February day in college basketball, with head-to-head matchups of the top four teams in the country. If this was a Final Four preview, we're all in for a nice treat in Indianapolis on April 4-6.
I covered my first Final Four in 1980 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, and 46 years later, I will cover my last Final Four in Indy, too. For a native Hoosier, it's a perfect bookend to my career, and great way to end it.
And I feel like I got a sneak preview of college basketball's best event on Saturday. It was a rare day, especially this late in the season, where the top-four teams in the country all played each other. No. 1 Michigan met No. 3 Duke in Washington, D.C., and No., 2 Houston hosted No. 4 Arizona.
Both games were classics, with Duke and Arizona winning tight games. It was a great Saturday of basketball, and if we did this all over again on April 4 with those four teams, I would be totally fine with that. A repeat in the national semifinals would be exceptional, and the two survivors playing for a national title two nights later would make total sense as well.
Houston and Arizona started the day in a Big 12 showdown, and Arizona won 73-66 at the Fertitta Center in Houston. The Cougars were 46-1 there in the in the past three-plus seasons. Arizona, which had won its first 23 games in a row, was in a stretch of four straight games against ranked opponents.
After losing the first two, they've won back to back. They proved again on Saturday why they were ranked No. 1 in the country for two-plus months. It was their third win over a No. 3 team this season.
"You lose that tough game at Kansas and you lose a tough game at home against Texas Tech, and your reward is to play BYU and Houston back to back in the next week,'' Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. "It can get out of control really quick in this conference, so for our guys to right the ship says a lot about the guys in the program.
"You lose a couple of games, and it comes with a little bit of pain. But that's one of the fun things about coaching, to work hard at fixing things and see the results. That's why we do it. Obviously, we want to win the Big 12, but you can take second or third in the conference and still win the national championship. We've put ourselves in position to be in position.''
Arizona can beat you in so many ways that I won't be surprised at all to see them in Indianapolis, especially if freshman sensation comes back strong from a lower leg injury. And Houston, well, they are `183-27 in the last five-plus seasons and they've won everything but a national title. They will be a tough out.
The same goes for Michigan and Duke, of course. The Blue Devils have dominated the ACC the past couple of years, so this was a nice added test to take on Michigan in a neutral site game. It certainly had the intense feel of a Final Four game, with lots of physicality and big plays, especially down the stretch. Duke won 68-63.
Michigan, who moved into the No. 1 spot after Arizona's two losses, has been blowing people out all year — even the ranked teams. They beat No. 21 Auburn by 30 in November, then beat No. 12 Gonzaga by 40 the next night. They beat three Big Ten teams all ranked in the top-seven — Nebraska, Michigan State and Purdue — in the past month and were a deserving No. 1 after winning 25 of their first 26.
This was a brawl from start to finish, with Duke hanging on for the win. Cameron Boozer was terrific down the stretch.
A rematch in Indy? Please, sign me up right now.
"When you schedule a game like this, you don't what it will look like after the fact. We made some untimely errors, and a team like Duke will make you pay for that,'' Michigan coach Dusty May said. "They were disruptive and physical like we haven't seen all year. Their length and athleticism had a lot to do with that.''
There are other teams that will still have a say in making an NCAA Tournament run. Connecticut and Illinois are both scary good, even though they've lost to unranked teams (Creighton, UCLA) this week. And the defending champions — the Florida Gators — are playing great basketball and running away with the SEC. Iowa State and maybe even Purdue or Kansas still have high hopes, too.
It's going to be a fun six weeks to determine a champion. One last ride back to Indianapolis. With basketball being played at a high level, that Final Four is going to be special, and not just because it's the last one for me.