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NCAA Tournament 2017: Five best potential Final Four matchups

By Will Schreefer

Feb 25, 2017; Dallas, TX, USA; A view of the arena and the banner for the 2017 NCAA Women's Final Four game before the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the New Orleans Pelicans at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 25, 2017; Dallas, TX, USA; A view of the arena and the banner for the 2017 NCAA Women's Final Four game before the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the New Orleans Pelicans at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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Gonzaga-Wisconsin

With Wisconsin’s upset of Villanova and South Carolina taking out Duke, we’ve lost some top end firepower on the left side of the bracket. Unfortunately, most of what we have left are super-fun underdog teams with unique styles of basketball. Sad!

A Gonzaga-Wisconsin matchup, though the optics may look off, isn’t that far out of the question. The East bracket is a free-for-all, with a Baylor team as the highest remaining seed and no lock to make it to MSG. So why not Wisconsin? The Badgers just took out the best (through the year) team in the bracket, and have a veteran-stuffed squad that have made two Final Fours in the last four years.

Gonzaga is obviously more of a chalk pick — they’re the No. 1 seed in the West, and lost just one game this year. But recent tournament history as a top seed and the casual fan’s dismissal of their schedule has left Gonzaga as something of an underdog, though they probably still have the best chance to emerge in their region from among the remaining teams. Led by Nigel-Williams Goss and a deep frontcourt, the Bulldogs are looking to shake off the team’s recent reputation in the Tournament and make it to the Final Four.

Should both teams make it, it would be a great, throwback-type matchup between two teams with bruising offensive styles. The Badgers’ offense is based primarily around the play of big men Ethan Happ and Nigel Hayes. Happ has broken out this year as the team’s best player, an all-around defensive maven with enough post and passing skills to base an offense around. Hayes, equally comfortable playing on the block or the perimeter, is very tough to guard — seen when he scored the winning basket in the second round to take down Villanova. With sharpshooters like Bronson Koenig, D’Mitrik Trice, and Zak Showalter spotting up around the interior play of their two bigs, the Badgers are a post-up centric throwback in an era increasingly tilted toward perimeter players and the 3-point shot.

Speaking of throwbacks! As Luke Winn detailed in his excellent writeup of the ‘Zags before the tournament, Gonzaga is the country’s most efficient post team while also being the highest volume. Built around 7-foot-1 behemoth Przemek Karnowski and his MCDAA backup Zach Collins, the ‘Zags offense leans heavily on the post-up, despite it being left for dead by some more lazy practictioners of advanced stats. But there will always be value in getting easy shots at the rim, and the Bulldogs are great at using the post to do it.

Not only would it be a matchup of quality teams, it’d be a shot in the arm for a way of playing that has been left behind a bit in the fervor over teams like the Golden State Warriors and last year’s NCAA champion, Villanova.

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