Final Four Has All Anyone Could Want

Hearts at Georgia Tech were still racing, stomachs at Duke were still churning, and already Dick Vitale was abusing ESPN video equipment, screaming at a defenseless television camera for the NCAA to “RE-SEED THE TEAMS!!” in this weekend’s Final Four.

Say what?

Duke had just been pushed to the final minute by seventh-seeded Xavier on Sunday, the Blue Devils struggling to advance out of the Atlanta Regional by three points, 66-63.

Georgia Tech had just ended Kansas’ bid for a third consecutive Final Four appearance, in overtime, to clinch the St. Louis Regional championship, 79-71.

A day earlier, Oklahoma State needed a desperate three-pointer by John Lucas with 6.9 seconds left to defeat Saint Joseph’s, 64-62, in the East Rutherford Regional.

Three regional finals decided in the final minute of regulation or later -- and now the tournament needs fixing?

Vitale, taking a break from shilling for frozen pizza and Hooters hot wings, was shilling for coaching buddies Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Calhoun, who have probably the two best teams left in the tournament and will be required -- alert Amnesty International! -- to play each other in Saturday’s semifinals instead of the April 5 championship game.

“A Hall of Fame coach!” Vitale hollered. “And a future Hall of Famer! That’s the semifinals!

“RE-SEED THE TEAMS!!”

Oklahoma State, which just knocked out No. 1-seeded Saint Joseph’s, and Georgia Tech, which earlier this month ended Duke’s 41-game home winning streak, will be interested to learn that its presence in the final -- and one of them will be there; it’s in the rules -- will not be appreciated.

Bracketology isn’t a perfect science. And thank goodness for that.

There’s a reason they play the games, and when they let 700 young adults play pressure-packed tournament games in strange cities and unfamiliar arenas in March, upsets happen.

And thank goodness for that.

Re-seed the Final Four?

And how would the NCAA selection committee go about that?

Would Duke get the No. 1 seeding in San Antonio by virtue of its pre-tournament top seeding in the Atlanta Regional? The Blue Devils are the only regional top-seeded team to advance to the Final Four.

Or would No. 1 be determined by current form, making Connecticut -- four tournament victories by 17, 17, 20 and 16 points -- the selection?

How would they choose between Oklahoma State, No. 2-seeded in East Rutherford, and Connecticut, No. 2-seeded in Phoenix?

Does Connecticut get the nod because more people would rather retire in Arizona than New Jersey?

Does Georgia Tech get the lowest seeding in San Antonio despite March victories over Duke, at Duke, and over Kansas, in St. Louis?

Does the committee reconvene and vote Kentucky back in? Tubby Smith’s a nice guy. His kids play hard. He deserves a second chance.

Memories are short in sports. Remember the teeth-gnashing of December and January over the bowl championship series?

Remember the uproar: Why can’t college football be more like college basketball and play this thing out tournament style?

Now we’ve completed four rounds of the college basketball tournament and because some of the brackets didn’t break the preferred way, certain pundits and coaching-fraternity toadies are crying out for the NCAA to BCS the Final Four.

Here’s a better idea:

Let them play.

Saturday, Oklahoma State will play Georgia Tech in one semifinal, followed by Duke-Connecticut.

Where’s the problem?

There’s still a chance for an all-ACC final, Duke versus Georgia Tech. So it’s not Duke-North Carolina. How picky can these ACC honks get?

There’s still a chance for a Krzyzewski-Eddie Sutton final. That one passes all minimum coaching-fraternity toady requirements.

There’s still a chance of Connecticut’s Emeka Okafor and Oklahoma State’s John Lucas holding a high school reunion in the final.

Okafor and Lucas were teammates at Houston’s Bellaire High.

That’s one soft-focus, up-close-and-personal story for the CBS pregame package.

There’s still enough in these last three games to occupy the audience.

Oklahoma State is in the Final Four three years after a plane crash that killed two players and six other members of the basketball program. Name a more inspirational comeback than that.

Georgia Tech is in the Final Four for the first time since 1990. Fourteen years ago, the Yellow Jackets were led by the high-scoring trio of Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott and Brian Oliver. Back then, they nicknamed them “Lethal Weapon 3.”

Georgia Tech is back, thanks to 29 points Sunday by sophomore guard Jarrett Jack. Are you ready for “New Jack City?”

Duke is Duke, which lends a familiar, comfortable polarizing effect to any Final Four.

And Connecticut has Okafor, the best player in college basketball, except that he began the tournament with a broken bone in his back and has since added a shoulder stinger that limited him to two points and 19 minutes in the Phoenix Regional final.

Will he play?

If he does, will he play effectively?

If he doesn’t, will Duke be able to reverse the result of the 1999 final, when Connecticut supposedly had the lesser team yet persevered and upset the Blue Devils to claim the title?

Suspense. Drama. Human interest. Great college players. Revered college coaches.

What more could a Final Four ask for?

Other than, of course, Kentucky and North Carolina?

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Perimeter Power

Georgia Tech, with its victory over Kansas on Sunday, made the Four Four for the first time since 1990 with a guard/perimeter-oriented team similar to the one dubbed “Lethal Weapon 3.” Shooting and scoring statistics of the four guards for Georgia Tech this season and three players from the 1989-90 team: