There was plenty of concern about shooting at the regional sites Friday night.
At both Ford Field in Detroit and Reliant Stadium in Houston, the courts were raised and taken toward the middle of the football arenas, and many expected the deeper backgrounds would affect depth perception.
After a doubleheader at each site, the shooting was about average with the winners hitting about half of their shots and the losers under 40 percent in three of the four games.
In Detroit, Davidson was 26-for-52 from the field, including 12-of-24 from 3-point range, in its 73-56 victory over Wisconsin. The Badgers shot 37.8 percent (17-for-45) overall and were 8-for-23 on 3s.
Kansas shot 52.2 percent (24-for-46) and made eight of 19 3-point attempts in a 72-57 win over Villanova. The Wildcats were 21-for-58 (36.2 percent) overall and 3-for-17 on 3s.
In Houston, Texas was just under 50 percent from the field (32-for-65), including 7-for-22 on 3s, in an 82-62 victory over Stanford. The Cardinal were 22-for-65 (33 percent) from the field and 6-for-17 from beyond the arc.
Memphis shot 52.5 percent (31-for-59) but was only 4-for-13 from 3-point range in a 92-74 victory over Michigan State. The Spartans were the only losing team to shoot well, hitting 49.2 percent (29-for-59) although they were 5-for-18 behind the arc.
Players talked about their concerns on Thursday, the first time any of them saw the buildings that will be Final Four sites in 2009 (Detroit) and 2011 (Houston).
On Friday night, they were still talking about it.
Davidson’s Stephen Curry kept up his torrid tournament scoring with 33 points on 11-for-22 shooting and he made six of 11 3-point attempts.
“Well, the rims are very, very soft. They give great bounces for shooters like me. So that’s helpful,” Curry said. “The depth perception, it’s tough to get adjusted to. But I think that’s the value of the practice we had yesterday, just to get used to that and make that last in our memories overnight and come back and have confidence to shoot it.
“It’s kind of a neat, neat arena to play in just because of the way it’s set up.”
Wisconsin’s Brian Butch said the shooting “wasn’t a problem.”
“In the first half, our guards penetrated, they found open guys, we had good looks. We were shooting the ball fine then,” he said. “Just because we didn’t hit it in the second half doesn’t mean the depth perception played any factor. It’s a basketball court. By no means was that any reason why we didn’t perform in the second half.”
Texas’ A.J. Abrams was 5-for-14 from the field and had 12 points against Stanford.
“It was a great atmosphere out there,” he said. “As far as the basket, we came in and had a shootaround yesterday. We got accustomed to the basket and after that, it was just going back and playing basketball, and you can’t really worry about it. As far as the depth perception, I think everybody got used to it. We shot the ball pretty well tonight.”
The oddest scene at either stage-like court where the benches and press rows are below floor level occurred in the Davidson-Wisconsin game when the officials went to check replays over a shot-clock issue and had to get on their knees to look at the monitors.
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SCORING STEPHEN: No player has had a tournament like Davidson’s Stephen Curry. The sophomore guard had 33 points in the 73-56 win over Wisconsin, giving him a 34.3 average for three games. Curry’s second-half total alone in the games – 77 points – would put him third on the overall scoring list.
Michael Flowers, Wisconsin’s senior defensive specialist who covered some pretty good guards during his Big Ten career, had the main assignment on Curry.
“I think they did a good job of running him off of double screens, sometimes even triple screens,” Flowers said. “They did a good job in the second half of making sure he had the ball, he’s coming off at least a couple screens. He doesn’t need that much time to catch the ball and release it. You know, that’s what their game plan was and they executed pretty well.”
The last player to average 30 points in an NCAA tournament also played at a mid-major school. Wally Szczerbiak of Miami, Ohio, averaged 30 points in three games in 1999.
The first player to average 30 points for a tournament was Clyde Lovellette of Kansas, at 35.3 over four games in 1952.
The record is held by Austin Carr of Notre Dame, who averaged 52.7 points over three games in 1970. He followed that by averaging 41.7 over three games the next season.
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ONES WON: For the second straight year and third time since 2003, all four No. 1 seeds are in the regional finals.
North Carolina and UCLA won Thursday night to advance and Memphis and Kansas moved on Friday with easy wins over Michigan State and Villanova, respectively.
All four No. 1s have never reached the Final Four in the same season.
Last year, champion Florida and runner-up Ohio State won in the regional finals, while Kansas and North Carolina lost.
In 2006, three 1s reached the round of eight while two moved on in both 2004 and 2005.
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SOME COMPANY: Saturday’s East Regional final will move one of the coaches into some elite company.
North Carolina’s Roy Williams and Louisville’s Rick Pitino have both taken five teams to the Final Four, a feat that has them tied with Bob Knight, Guy Lewis and Lute Olson.
The winner becomes the third coach to get to six Final Fours, joining Denny Crum, who coached his entire career at Louisville, and Adolph Rupp.
The only coaches with more appearances are John Wooden with 12, Dean Smith 11 and Mike Krzyzewski 10.
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CONFERENCE CALL: The Big 12, with Kansas and Texas, is the only conference to have more than one team in the round of eight. The Atlantic Coast Conference (North Carolina), Big East (Louisville), Pac-10 (UCLA), Atlantic 10 (Xavier), Conference USA (Memphis) and Southern (Davidson) all have one team in.
The Big East and Pac-10 both had three teams in the round of 16, while the Big Ten had both its teams in the regional semifinals lose big Friday night: Wisconsin to Davidson and Michigan State to Memphis.
Louisville being in the regional final means the Big East continued the longest current streak with at least one team getting that far. The conference has done it every year since 2002.
The Southeastern Conference had a run of five straight years with at least one team in the regional finals end when Tennessee lost to Louisville in the round of 16.
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