 AP Photo/Eric Gay |
HOUSTON (AP) — The Latest on preparations for the Final Four in Houston, where two NCAA Tournament semifinals are set for Saturday (all times local):
12 p.m.
Daniel Ochefu, Villanova’s 6-foot-11 forward, isn’t worried about shooting in the big stadium.
“If I can’t hit a jump hook or a dunk because the fans are further away, it’s ridiculous,” he said. “All my shots are inside the paint. … I don’t think depth perception on the court will be a big deal for me.”
Ochefu has shot 62 percent from the field this season, and took only one 3-pointer. He missed it.
Villanova leading scorer Josh Hart (15.3 points per game), who has taken 150 3-pointers this season, said he’ll probably be driving more in the Final Four after a few air balls during shootaround at NRG Stadium.
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11:30 a.m.
Fans are lining up at NRG Stadium in Houston for a glimpse of each of the teams playing in the Final Four.
Yes, we’re talking about practice.
Villanova takes the floor first for the public practice Friday as its sharpshooters try to get used to the depth challenge posed by playing in a stadium used mainly for football. Oklahoma, Syracuse and North Carolina will follow, each team getting about 50 minutes on the floor.
Meanwhile, coaches and players will speak with reporters again with the semifinal games a day away.
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11:10 a.m.
“One Shining Moment” is getting a new Grammy-winning voice and some team-specific highlights at the end of the NCAA Final Four.
The song has been the backdrop for the highlight piece to wrap up NCAA Tournaments for three decades, and the version by the late Luther Vandross will continue to be used for the national broadcast on TBS.
For TNT and truTV, a rendition by three-time Grammy Award winner Ne-Yo will be used after the first-ever team-specific broadcasts of the national championship game.
Ne-Yo’s performance will accompany team-centric highlights of the schools being featured in the Team Stream presentations, following their quest leading up to and during the title game.
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11 a.m.
This Final Four is a big one for the Big East — its first since re-stablishing itself as one of the best basketball conferences in the country.
Villanova is the first Big East team to reach the Final Four since the conference essentially dropped major college football after the 2013 season.
Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman says it reinforces that the conference’s reputation is intact.
The big Big East breakup came during sweeping Division I conference realignment that started in 2010. With FBS schools such as Pittsburgh, Louisville and West Virginia jumping to other conferences, the Big East’s basketball-focused schools decided to go it alone and return the league to its hoops roots. The remaining FBS schools formed the American Athletic Conference.
The basketball schools, with old-school Big East powers such as Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s, kept the name and the tournament at Madison Square Garden. The so-called Catholic Seven added Xavier, Creighton and Butler and nabbed a 12-year, $500 million television deal with Fox’s sports network, FS1.
