The NCAA basketball tournament for 2014 is into the Final Four and the schedule picks up on Saturday and the TV start times for the games has UConn and Florida playing at 6:09 pm ET on TBS, while the Kentucky Wildcats and Wisconsin Badgers play at 8:49 pm ET and that comes before the national title game on Monday night.
The tournament has been an up and down battle for some teams and now the Florida Gators are the last number one seed left in the tourney and this comes after Wichita State, Arizona and Virginia lost earlier. The Gators were named the number one overall seed in the tournament and they have shown why, as they have a near 30 game winning streak going and they went undefeated in the SEC and won the conference title this season. The Gators have veteran leadership and coach Billy Donovan knows how to play in the Final Four and they matchup against a strong UConn team that is getting hot at the right time.
Scottie Wilbekin and Shabazz Napier should be the main focus of the game on Saturday and the Florida star comes in after scoring 23 points and dropping three dimes and he will be a prime player in the matchup. The Gators have been playing stellar defense this season and come into the tournament ranked in the top three in the nation with less than 60 points allowed per game. UConn is in the top 40 in defense and these two teams have a very even matchup in some areas, while the Gators will have to deal with the six blocks per game that the Huskies have and that ranks eighth in the nation.
Kentucky is into the Final Four for the third time in four years and they come in after winning against their removal in the Louisville Cardinals and they now matchup with Wisconsin, who came in as a number two seed and they are a very strong team under Bo Ryan as well. The Final Four is in North Texas this year and Kentucky comes in after beating Michigan and that got them into the game against the Badgers, while Wisconsin came in after winning against Arizona and that was one of the best games of the tournament.
The Kentucky Wildcats were the number one ranked team in the nation to start the season and they dropped off hard after that, but the play of Julius Randle and Andrew Harrison has propelled them to the final four and now another title is within reach. The team won against Michigan and that came after a three from Harrison down the stretch and Randle put up another double-double in the game with 16 points and 11 rebounds and he will be a main focus since Willie Cauley-Stein is likely to miss the next game with an injury.
The Finals Four starts up on Saturday before the national title game on Monday night and that will air on CBS after the first two games over the weekend come on TBS and they will be streaming online from the March Madness website.