Final Four Notebook: Doo & Nantz Talk ‘Hoos

By Jerry Ratcliffe

MINNEAPOLIS — If you’re one of those Virginia fans who gets emotional when you watch your Cavaliers play, shut yourself away in your home and hope the neighbors don’t hear you cheering, screaming, cursing, then don’t feel alone.

Washington Nationals’ relief pitcher Sean Doolittle, a former UVA star, is among you.

Our pal Byron Kerr of MASNsports.com, kindly shared this note from Doolittle at his locker on Sunday morning, hours after the Wahoos advanced to the Final Four, winning an overtime nailbiter over Purdue.

“I was moving all around the apartment,” Doolittle said about watching UVA’s win. “I can’t really watch in public, because I get super into it. And I don’t need to embarrass myself in public like that.

“I was in the apartment in the TV room. I kept moving around. I was trying to find the right spot to help the guys on defense ‘cause [Purdue’s Carsen] Edwards was going off,” Doolittle said. Carsen, by the way, scored 42 of the Boilermakers’ 75 points.

“I was on the couch for a while, sitting on the floor. I was ‘D’ing’ up, slapping the floor, trying to help them play defense,” Doolittle continued. “It was an absolutely incredible game. Caught a couple of breaks there at the end. It’s so exciting.”

Doolittle said he sensed that his Cavaliers might not have been able to win that Purdue game had they not gone through the pain of last year’s staggering first-round upset by UMBC.

“Having gone through that, I don’t know, maybe that gave them a little bit of an edge [Saturday] night,” he said. “First team ever to lose to a 16-seed and then go to the Final Four the next year, right?”

Right.

“It’s been a fun year,” Doo ended. “Hopefully it’s not done yet.”

 

The Bennetts

As part of CBS’ Final Four coverage, expect a nice piece on Virginia coach Tony Bennett and his relationship with his dad, Dick Bennett, who was his coach in college and long-term mentor and best friend.

“The father-son story is rich,” said the event’s long time play-by-play man Jim Nantz. “I have to say, to me, this is truly one of the great stories that’s in front of us, one of the great stories we’ve seen at the Final Four in a long time.

“If Virginia wins the championship, to go from the despair of losing to a No. 16 seed to winning the championship, it will be regarded as one of the great turnarounds — not only in this championship, but in all of sports — in a long time,” Nantz concluded.

Dick Bennett took the Wisconsin team to the Final Four in 2000, and beat Purdue to make it to the Big Dance. Tony was a volunteer assistant for that team.

 

How ‘Bout That Assist?

During the CBS teleconference concerning the Final Four, Nantz was asked about Mamadi Diakite’s shot that forced overtime against Purdue and eventually helped Virginia get to Minneapolis.

While the shot was a great one, and will go down as one of the most memorable moments in Virginia basketball history, Nantz showed his basketball savvy by wisely pointing out that Diakite’s shot would have never happened had it not been for the brilliance of UVA freshman guard Kihei Clark.

“It’s the best assist I’ve seen in college basketball,” said Nantz, who has called the Final Four the past 29 years.

At that point, Grant Hill, part of the Final Four broadcast crew, and a former Duke guard, quipped, “I can think of an assist that comes close.”

Of course, Hill was talking about his three-quarters’ court inbound pass to Christian Laettner, who caught the ball, turned and fired the winning shot against Kentucky in 1992. Nantz, by the way, jokingly questioned if that should have gone down as an assist.

“In Durham, I was credited with an assist,” Hill laughed.

But back to Diakite and Clark …

“I think it was the greatest assist,” Nantz said. “What Kihei Clark did to chase down that tap into the backcourt, I’m telling you that 99 percent of everybody who plays the game would have panicked and launched the ball before they got to midcourt.

“It would have been a half-court heave and your chances are one-in-500. This kid whipped that ball to the frontcourt (to an awaiting Diakite). Clark has tremendous quickness to get to that ball. It was a tremendous moment and Mamadi made a great shot.”

 

Final Four nuggets …

# Former Virginia basketball coach Pete Gillen, now an analyst for CBS Sports and Westwood One radio, picked the Cavaliers to beat Auburn in Saturday’s semifinals but for them to lose to Michigan State for the title.

On the matchup with Auburn, Gillen cracked: “Auburn wants a track meet, and Virginia wants a Viennese waltz. I did the Auburn game at UAB during the season and UAB slowed the tempo and it drove Auburn crazy. Virginia will play so slow and deliberate, that ball will feel like an icicle when the Tigers finally get it back.”

# With North Carolina’s Coby White declaring for the NBA Draft on Wednesday, that means the Tar Heels are losing five of their top six players off this year’s roster. Fellow freshman Nassir Little declared earlier, plus Kenny Williams, Luke Maye and Cam Johnson are all graduating.

# Virginia Tech coach Buzz Williams created quite a buzz this week by accepting the job at Texas A&M where he was once an assistant under Billy Gillispie. Williams reportedly will be paid at least $3.5 million. He guided the Hokies to a record of 100-69 in five seasons and 44-46 in ACC play. Tech AD Whit Babcock said he has not hired a search firm and does not have a short list prepared for replacing Williams.