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The Road To The 2000 Final Four

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The 2000 Final Four was held in the heart of Big Ten Country, at Indianapolis, and two conference teams made it. Here’s a look back at the paths that Michigan State and Wisconsin, along with southern interlopers Florida and North Carolina, took to reach the 2000 Final Four.

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MICHIGAN STATE

Tom Izzo had led Michigan State back to the Final Four in 1999, their first appearance since the days of Magic Johnson. The ‘00 Spartans brought back all the key players of that ‘99 team. Mateen Cleaves averaged 12 points and dished out 7 assists per game. Charlie Bell was another 12ppg scorer in the backcourt. A tough frontline included Morris Peterson, who led the team in scoring with 17ppg. Andre Hutson and A.J. Granger combined for 20 points/11 rebounds a night.

Sparty was ranked #3 to start the year and went on to a 26-7 record that included a share of the Big Ten regular season title. They won the league tournament and that secured the #1 seed in the Midwest—a prize of particular importance to Michigan State, since the regionals would be held nearby at The Palace in Auburn Hills.

But the road through Cleveland on the first weekend wasn’t easy. The dispatching of 16-seed Valpo was easy enough, a 65-38 final. But Utah was the opponent in the Round of 32, and the Utes—who made the 1998 Final Four—took a 35-32 halftime lead. Cleaves stepped up with a 21-point game, while Hutson went for 19 points/8 rebounds in the eventual 73-61 win.

Another slow start came in the Sweet 16 against Syracuse. The Orange zone had Sparty off balance early and Michigan State trailed 34-24 at the half. But they got hot from behind the arc and shredded the zone in the second half. Peterson buried five treys, each starter scored in double figures and they pulled away to a 75-58 win.

In a bracket marked by upsets, the Midwest was where the chalk held. Syracuse had been the 4-seed, and now 2-seed Iowa State was on deck for the regional final. Neither team would shoot the ball very well, but Michigan State’s defense forced 19 turnovers. Hutson delivered 17 points/11 rebounds. Peterson went for 19/8 and secured the regional’s Most Outstanding Player honors. And the final score of 75-64 had to be seen as a good omen by Sparty old-timers—that was the same score by which Magic’s Spartans defeated Larry Bird’s Indiana State to win the 1979 Final Four.

FLORIDA

Florida’s only Final Four appearance in a spotty program history had come in 1994. Billy Donovan took over the coaching reins in 1997 and by 1999, he had the Gators in the Sweet 16. A talented lineup included a couple future NBA players in Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem. Each would win a ring with LeBron James in Miami. Here in college, they combined for 26 points/12 rebounds per game in 2000.

Donnell Harvey was another physical presence, averaging 10/7. Kenny Weeks led a balanced backcourt with 10 more per night. Florida was ranked #8 to start the season and played steady basketball throughout. They were ranked in the top 16 all the way through and went 24-7. Although the Selection Committee thought a little less of the Gators than the pollsters did—Florida was given a 5-seed in the East Regional.

The relatively low seed nearly bit Donovan’s team right out of the chute in Winston-Salem. They played Butler and went to overtime—a precursor for another overtime epic these two schools would play in 2011. Miller stepped up with 16 points/13 rebounds and Florida escaped with a 69-68 win. They had an easier time with 4-seed Illinois. Miller went for 19/8, while guards Teddy Dupay and Brett Nelson knocked down 16 each in a 93-76 win.

The Carrier Dome in Syracuse was the venue for regionals weekend, and top-seeded Duke was waiting. This Blue Devil team had two future National Player of the Years—Shane Battier and Jay Williams playing key roles. And Carlos Boozer, with a long NBA career ahead of him, was at power forward.

But Florida forced Williams into a 1-for-9 shooting night and their own balanced attack led the way to an 87-78 win that was surprisingly easy. On the bottom half of the bracket, 2-seed Temple had lost early, so #3 Oklahoma State was the last roadblock to the Final Four.

In a sloppy game marked by a lot of turnovers each way, the Gators at least hit their shots. They hit 51 percent from the field and took a 12-point lead at the half. That margin stood up in a 77-65 final. Miller’s 14 led the balanced lineup and he was named Most Outstanding Player.

NORTH CAROLINA

Even by the high standards of the North Carolina basketball program, the 1990s were boom times. After winning the NCAA title in 1993, they had gone on to make the Final Four for Dean Smith again in 1995 and 1997. Smith retired and was replaced by longtime assistant Bill Guthridge, but the beat went on with another Final Four trip in 1999.

The 2000 team had the usual collection of talent—Ed Cota ran the floor and averaged eight assists per game. Joseph Forte averaged 17 points/6 rebounds/3 assists as the two-guard. Brendan Haywood and Jason Capel were the producers up front, with per-game averages of 14/8 and 13/7 respectively.

But the record didn’t reflect the talent. North Carolina struggled to an 18-13 record and their inclusion in the NCAA field was controversial—particularly when they were taken over Virginia, who matched UNC in conference play and beat them twice head-to-head. Slotting UNC relatively high as an 8-seed in the South seemed like another Committee overreach.

There’s few teams more dangerous in March Madness than the talented underachiever that gets a shot at redemption and that proved to be the case with the Tar Heels. Haywood’s 28/15 night keyed an easy 84-70 win over Missouri in the first round. Top-seeded Stanford was next. Forte scored 17, Cota handed out ten assists and UNC’s defense forced the Cardinal into 35 percent shooting. The 60-53 upset let everyone know North Carolina wasn’t going to leave easily.

Fourth-seeded Tennessee awaited in Austin and behind 22 points from Forte, the Tar Heel run continued with a 74-69 win. Meanwhile, the bottom half of the bracket was a mess. Cincinnati and Ohio State, the 2 and 3 seeds respectively, went out on the first weekend. Instead, it was 7-seed Tulsa that reached the regional final.

Even allowing that the Golden Hurricane was coached by Bill Self, making his first big run as a head coach in March, this was too good to be true for Carolina. They controlled the boards, with a 35-26 edge. Forte went off for 28 points and he took home Most Outstanding Player honors. It was a good game, but UNC’s 59-55 win had them improbably back in the Final Four.

WISCONSIN

Since winning the national championship in 1941, Wisconsin basketball went into a prolonged drought. They’d only made four NCAA Tournaments since then and three had come between 1994-99. Dick Bennett brought the grinding pace and disciplined half-court offense that the Badgers have subsequently become known for to Madison.

A pair of forwards, Mark Vershaw and Andy Kowske were the leaders and they combined for 21 points/10 rebounds per game. Overall though, there was nothing about this Wisconsin team that really stood out as they went 18-13 and were seeded #8 in the West Regional.

Jerry Tarkanian’s Fresno State team was up first and Wisconsin trailed 34-30 at the half. But they turned up the defense and got help off the bench. Jon Bryant knocked down 21 points and Duany Duany scored 12 more, while Kowske went for 14/14. The final was 66-56.

Not only was Arizona the 1-seed, but these games were being played at Tucson. It made what happened next even more shocking. The Badger defense held the Wildcats to 39 percent shooting. Kowske had another double-double with a 10/12 line. Vershaw added 15. Maurice Linton was this game’s backcourt hero off the bench with 14 points in the 66-59 upset.

Albuquerque, site of one of college basketball’s great Cinderella stories at the 1983 Final Four, was the venue for the regionals. And Wisconsin’s own Cinderella journey continued against 4-seed LSU. Bryant scored 16 points and the stifling Badger defense held the Tigers to 14 points in the first half. The final was 61-48.

This was another region where the favorites on the bottom half–#2 St. John’s and #3 Oklahoma—hadn’t survived the first weekend. Sixth-seeded Purdue, desperately seeking the first Final Four for legendary head coach Gene Keady, was up next for an all-Big Ten regional final.

Once more, the Badgers found scoring off the bench. This time was it was Roy Boone and his 12 points. Kowske scored 14. And Bryant’s magical March continued with an 18-point game. He won regional MOP honors and the 64-60 win sent Wisconsin to an unlikely Final Four.

THE 2000 FINAL FOUR

Michigan State and Wisconsin were paired up in the first semifinal. The Badgers were able to muck it up and create their kind of pace, only trailing 19-17 at the half. But Sparty’s physicality was too much. Michigan State won rebounding 39-19 and got a 20/7 game from Peterson, along with 10/10 from Hutson. They seized control in the second half and won 53-41.

Florida’s defense was the story against North Carolina. The Gators forced the Tar Heel forwards, Haywood and Capel, into five turnovers each. Florida got some offensive help from Nelson, who came off the bench to score 13 and it was enough to win 71-59.

Just three months earlier, Michigan State and Florida had met on the football field, in a Citrus Bowl matchup on New Year’s Day. Now the basketball teams would meet for much higher stakes.

Haslem had a big game for the Gators, scoring 27, but he didn’t get enough help and Spartan balance was winning the day. Peterson scored 21, while Granger’s 19/9 helped Michigan State control the boards. Cleaves knocked down 18 and would win MOP honors at this Final Four. The 89-76 win put the Spartans back on top of the college basketball world.

2007 Florida Basketball: A Championship That Completes A Dynasty

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Florida was the king of college sports, having won the national title in both basketball and football in 2006 and the 2007 Florida basketball team was primed to keep the good times rolling in Gainesville.

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Billy Donovan’s team snuck up on people in 2006, but this time they were the consensus #1 basketball team in the land, with Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer leading a team that had all five starters back. The Gators were aiming to be the first team since Duke in 1991 and 1992 to go back-to-back, and only the second team since the end of the UCLA dynasty of John Wooden to pull off the feat.

An early loss to Kansas dropped Florida from the top spot on the polls, but they got a big 86-60 win at home over Ohio State, with its dynamic freshman duo of point guard Mike Conley and center Greg Oden. Their December 23 trip to Gainesville would have been hyped anyway and with the schools having just played for the football championship, it gained an added storyline. Florida’s thumping forced the Buckeyes to regroup.

The Gators themselves reclaimed the top spot in the polls in mid-January and held it for a month, as their record climbed to 23-2. But just as they had a year earlier, the Gators endured a skid during a basically soft schedule. They lost three of five, although they were able to recover and make it back to #3 in the polls by the end of the season and another victory in the SEC Tournament gave them a #1 seed in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Tournament.

With Kentucky still down, the SEC wasn’t a good basketball league, even though Florida now had the championship pedigree to get benefit of the doubt from anyone, in spite of their schedule. Five conference teams made the tournament, though Florida was the only one seeded higher than 5th.

The Gators hammered Jackson State to open the tournament, then beat back a challenge from feisty Purdue, 74-67 in the second round. Meanwhile, their league brethren did some surprise work, with both Vanderbilt and Tennessee pushing through to the regionals.

Florida would play for the Final Four in St. Louis, with Butler as the first opponent. The Bulldogs were a good team and head coach Todd Lickliter would cash in this job for one at Iowa—turns out Lickliter left a team that wasn’t far from consecutive trips to the NCAA final in 2010-11, for one that would fire him in short order.

On this night in St.Loo, Butler fought hard and only trailed by six at the half. But Florida could get to the foul line and a 23-10 scoring advantage there was decisive, as Green’s 17 point, with Noah and Horford combining for 16 rebounds led a 65-57 win.

Oregon was the Midwest’s #3 seed and the last opponent in the way of a Final Four. In a fast-paced game, Florida’s backcourt came up big, with the backcourt of Lee Humphrey and Tauren Green each producing 21 points, while Noah and Horford led the way in ensuring the team won the rebounding battle decisively. Florida led by just two at the half, but ultimately prevailed 85-77, with Green picking up regional MVP honors.

Atlanta is a hallowed site for SEC fans as the host of the conference’s football championship game in December. This year it was also the site of the Final Four and a familiar team was standing in Florida’s way. UCLA, the team Florida vanquished in the 2006 NCAA final was the opponent in the national semi-final. And if Florida should survive that test an even more familiar foe was potentially up next—Ohio State was the favorite in its semi-final against Georgetown.

Florida’s defense again overpowered UCLA as the Bruins could only shoot 39 percent. And unlike last year’s final game, this time the Gators also owned the glass. Horford was unstoppable on the glass with 17 rebounds, while Noah had 11. Brewer opened up the paint by bagging four treys and Florida turned a 29-23 halftime lead into a decisive win by ripping off 47 second-half points in a 76-66 final. Howland had gotten his team to two straight Final Fours, but the Gators kept standing in his way.

Ohio State took care of its business and for the second time in three months, covering two different sports, the world would watch a Florida-Ohio State battle for the national championship.

Oden would go on to be the first pick in the NBA draft by Portland and the problems with his knees have given that story a sad ending. But on a Monday in Atlanta, Oden showed Florida and the basketball world why everyone was so high on him, as he scored 25 points and had a haul of 24 rebounds, all the while effectively rubbing out Noah. Conley had 20 points and six assists.

If you could play two-on-two this might have been different, but Florida’s overall balance was too much. They hit ten three-pointers to Ohio State’s four, and they scored 22 points at the line to Ohio State’s 11. Horford’s 18/12 game partially negated Oden’s heroics, but Green scored 16 and dished six assists, while Brewer kicked in eight rebounds.

Florida led 40-29 at half, and while Ohio State never went away, there was also never a point as you watched that you thought they might win. Florida’s 84-75 win secured their place in history—a second straight title for the basketball program.

2006 Florida Basketball: The Start Of A Dynasty

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Billy Donovan’s 2006 Florida basketball team was young, and the program, after a run to the NCAA final in 2000 had been mostly quiet in March, especially with early exits in recent years.

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Unbeknownst to the casual observer though, Donovan was sitting on tremendous talent, with future NBA starters Joakim Noah and Al Horford occupying the paint. Corey Brewer at forward is also playing at the next level today and a solid backcourt was led by Tauren Green and Lee Humphrey. This group could reasonably hope to have a good year in 2006 and then see 2007, when they would all be back, as their year to go for it.

There was nothing in the regular season to alter that perception, for better or for worse. Florida had solid highs, such as consecutive wins over Wake Forest and Syracuse in Madison Square Garden that pulled them out of the mass of unranked teams and into the AP poll at #15 just prior to Thanksgiving.

The Gators kept on winning against a mostly non-descript schedule and rose in the polls via attrition, as they got climbed as high as 16-0 and #2 in the nation in mid-January, fulfilling the hopes of all those who saw their potential. Then a skid came where they split their next 12 games and lost at home to #11 Tennessee, the only ranked team they would play in a bad year for SEC basketball. The skid confirmed the worst fears all of those who saw the pitfalls. Donovan was able to get his team to close on a strong note, winning the SEC Tournament and earn a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The SEC did not garner a great deal of respect in the seeding, as Florida’s #3 spot in spite of a 27-6 record shows. LSU won the regular season title with a 14-2 league record and had a tremendous inside talent in Glen “Big Baby” Davis, and they were only a #4 seed. Tennessee got some love as the two-seed in the East, while Kentucky and Arkansas headed to 8-9 games and Alabama was #10 in the West. Still, the SEC was a league seen as more quantity than quality when it came to the NCAA Tournament.

Florida did its part for conference honor, holding serve in the first two rounds with an easy win over South Alabama and then blowing out UW-Milwaukee, who’d done them a favor and knocked off #6 Oklahoma. The conference overall took a hit. While LSU survived the weekend, Tennessee was almost beaten in the first round and did lose in round two.

Kentucky gave a spirited run at #1 overall seed UConn before falling short, while Alabama and Arkansas also failed to survive the weekend. It wasn’t a bad weekend for the conference, but certainly anyone evaluating Florida was not going to give them bonus points for league competition.

Donovan took his team north the Minneapolis for the Midwest Regional. For the second straight game his team had a bracket break, as second-seeded Ohio State had been eliminated by Georgetown. Given that the coming year-plus would see Florida beat Ohio State in national title games for both football and basketball, perhaps Buckeye fans have some retrospective gratitude for avoiding this loss.

In an ugly Sweet 16 game the Gators survived the Hoyas because Noah came up with a 15 points/10 rebounds night, Horford kicked in a 12/6, and Florida won 57-53. It set up another date with the Big East, this time top-seeded Villanova.

By the time the Gators and Wildcats took the floor for the final game of regional final weekend late Sunday afternoon, the NCAA bracket was an utter mess. George Mason had stunned the nation earlier in the day by beating UConn, turning my godson’s baptism party into a huge display of hard-core and casual fans alike shouting in disbelief at the television set. LSU had first affirmed some conference honor when they beat Duke in the Sweet 16, then sent another message with a win over Texas to make the Final Four.

Since the NCAA began officially seeding the bracket in 1979 we had never seen a year where all four #1 seeds failed to make the Final Four. Now Duke, Memphis and UConn were gone. Only Villanova remained. And Donovan’s team took care of that in short order with a lockdown defensive performance. In spite of future NBA starters Randy Foyer and Kyle Lowry manning ‘Nova’s backcourt, the Gators held the Wildcats to a shocking 25 percent shooting, while Foye, Lowry and Allan Ray, a third backcourt star to 13-of-36.

Noah concluded a weekend that got him Outstanding Player honors with a 21/15 line and Horford also hauled in 15 boards. Florida turned a 35-30 game at halftime into a decisive 75-62 win and was headed for Indianapolis and the Final Four.

Florida’s good bracket fortune continued as they were the team able to draw George Mason and it was plain from the start that the Colonials were not going to continue this magic ride. While the score was a competitive 31-26 at the half, it was clear GMU was badly overmatched on the inside, as Noah and Horford keyed up a 36-25 rebounding advantage and the guards handled the offense. Florida put on a three-point shooting display, hitting 12-of-25 from behind the arc, led by Brewer and Humphrey with 19 points apiece and nine treys between them.

The opponent on Monday night would be UCLA. And while playing a pretty good #2 seed might be a bracket break for a national championship game, the Bruins were playing outstanding defensive basketball and had decisively beaten the LSU team that was seen as the hottest coming in. Head coach Ben Howland had brought toughness to Hollywood and his team had also taken out its region’s #1 seed in Memphis.

But just as Florida used their own shutdown defense on Monday night. The Bruins were held to 36 percent shooting, including Jordan Farmer and future Denver Nuggets starter Aron Afflalo being hounded into 3-for-15 combined from behind the arc. UCLA was able to match up with Noah and Horford, but Florida as a team shot 45 percent and took command of the game early, leading by 11 at half and winning the NCAA title 73-57. Noah’s 16/9 line got him another Outstanding Player nod.

Soon afterward, Florida fans got even better news—there would be no early departures for the NBA. The five starters were all coming back to do it again and they would do exactly that. 2006 Florida basketball marked the first half of a repeat title run that has been done only twice since the end of the John Wooden dynasty at UCLA.