We’re down to four teams left standing en route to the 2014 Final Four. But before we start breaking down those games and everything else associated with what should be a fantastic weekend in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the guys take the time to review the four games that comprised a gripping Elite Eight. On this week’s RTC Podcast, we break down Wisconsin, Florida, Connecticut and Kentucky’s wins, focusing on the things they’re doing well and some of the key storylines surrounding each game that sent them to the ultimate dance party.

The full rundown is below. Be sure to add the podcast to your lineup on iTunes so that you’ll get all of our ongoing coverage throughout the NCAA Tournament.

• 0:00-12:37 – Wisconsin Earns Bo Ryan His First Final Four
• 12:37-18:18 – Florida’s Seniors Finally Get Their Final Four Trip
• 18:18-23:32 – UConn Rides Shabazz and Home Crowd Past Michigan State
• 23:32-30:18 – Kentucky More Than Just Flipping the Switch
• 30:18-34:03 – Best Games of the Weekend

March Madness is finally upon us, and we here at RTC are here to make everything a little bit easier for you. From the First Four until One Shining Moment, we’ll be dropping daily tidbits of knowledge regarding the teams in each region.

Florida

• Though it plays in the Sunshine State, Florida is far from a “glamour basketball school.” The Gators are tough, and much of that toughness has come thanks to a Strongman competition put on by the strength and conditioning program.
• In a season where Florida has broken numerous school records, a National Championship seems like the only proper way to finish things off.
• The stakes will be high this weekend, but this isn’t Florida coach Billy Donovan’s “first rodeo.” Donovan has coached in four Final Fours.
• Florida struggled with injuries to begin the season, but heading into the most important weekend in college basketball, the Gators are just about as healthy as can be.
• Florida’s last loss came against UConn, but with the stakes higher and Scottie Wilbekin most likely on the floor this time, the Gators have a chance to “write a better ending.”
• Yesterday, Florida’s Scottie Wilbekin and Casey Prather were named AP All-Americans, on the third team and honorable mention rolls, respectively.

Wisconsin

• Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan may have reached his first Final Four, but he’s not ready to go home any time soon.
• Check out Big Ten Network‘s Tom Dienhart feature as he looks back at former three-star recruit and Wisconsin go-to-guy, Frank Kaminsky.
• Though Kaminsky has been Wisconsin’s first option, its three-man backcourt of Ben Brust, Traevon Jackson, and Josh Gasser has been paramount to its success.
• Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan is known for his slow pace and emphasis on fundamentals, and even though it isn’t always pretty basketball, he has proven that it works at every level of college hoops.
• Wisconsin has proven that it can win physical, tough ball games. Against Arizona, the Badgers felt that the Elite Eight dogfight resembled a Big Ten basketball game, of which they’re very familiar.
• Both teams have had great success this season, but Wisconsin and Kentucky are polar opposites in many ways.

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As part of our ongoing NCAA Tournament coverage, RTC is unveiling a detailed look at each of the Final Four teams throughout the week. Today: Kentucky.

Kentucky was ranked #1 in the preseason polls and that was with good reason. The Wildcats were bringing in one of the most highly-acclaimed recruiting classes in recent memory and were returning sophomores Willie Cauley-Stein and Alex Poythress, both of whom were also highly-regarded recruits before they arrived in Lexington the year before. Soon after the season began, it became clear that ultimate success was going to be quite the process for John Calipari’s young Wildcats. It would have been easy (and possibly logical) to count out Kentucky after a few confounding late regular season losses had one well-respected national pundit openly questioning the way in which Calipari was handling his squad. But things began to turn as Kentucky moved through play in the SEC Tournament. The Wildcats easily dispatched LSU and Georgia before giving Florida everything it could handle in a one-point loss in the SEC championship game. What’s happened since the Wildcats began the NCAA Tournament? This in-depth Final Four preview, the first installment of our four-part series, should give you a pretty good idea. Kentucky is to be taken seriously as legitimate threat to cut down the nets next Monday evening, and this, in long form, is the explanation why.

Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison Joined Wildcat Lore on Sunday (David E. Klutho/SI)

Pre-Tournament Capsule. Kentucky showed its youth in its non-conference slate, as the young Wildcats dropped their first three games when pitted against premier competition. In the Champions Classic in Chicago on November 12, Michigan State was able to fend off a late Kentucky run to earn a 78-74 victory. Playing at Cowboys Stadium on December 6, the Wildcats were handed a five-point loss at the hands of a talented Baylor squad. Eight days later, John Calipari’s squad dropped another game, this time in Chapel Hill against an enigmatic squad in North Carolina. Prior to the start of SEC play, Kentucky was able to grab at least one marquee victory when Louisville visited Rupp Arena on December 28 when it appeared like things were taking shape for the talented team. However, when SEC play commenced, the dominance that was expected from the team did not come to fruition. Playing second fiddle to Florida saw Kentucky finish SEC play with a 12-6 mark, and of those 12 victories, only an eight-point January victory over Tennessee was a win over an NCAA Tournament team. When the bracket was released on Selection Sunday, Kentucky was given an eight-seed, and due to its uninspiring résumé, arguments were generally dismissed about the Wildcats being underseeded.

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Over the weekend four more teams were eliminated as we’ve steadily traveled down the month-long path from 340 eligible Division I teams to just a final, fantastic foursome. With Florida, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Kentucky advancing to North Texas on Saturday, the Circle of March looks barren other than that remaining quartet of logos. It’s pure coincidence that the Huskies’ “C” ended up on the glowing part of the watermarked NCAA Final Four logo, but maybe it’s some kind of omen from the ghost of Kemba Walker? We’ll find out soon enough. Enjoy prepping throughout the week.

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (04.01.14)

• Dayton
• Michigan
• Michigan State
• Arizona

1. Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News writes that Russ Smith cemented his legacy as “a competitor and gentleman” with the gracious post-game remarks he delivered after Louisville’s disappointing 74-69 loss to Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen. The senior guard’s wide-ranging comments, a transcript of which WDRB (Louisville) columnist Eric Crawford posted on Twitter, expressed gratitude to everyone from his teammates, coaches, managers, trainers, to UK’s program and current team, whom he described as “a great group of guys” and praised individually by name. He also credited Rick Pitino for shaping him into a man and apologized to Louisville fans, saying, “I wish I could have given them the win. I’m so sorry.” DeCourcy declares that Smith “leaves the game better than he found it because of how he performed and how he carried himself.”
2. With Connecticut playing for its first Final Four of the post-Jim Calhoun era, Tim Layden writes for Sports Illustrated that Kevin Ollie’s Huskies have clawed their way back from the “brink of irrelevance.” After “disappear[ing] into a grave partly of its own making and partly from the odd and capricious forces of modern college athletic,” writes Layden, “the Huskies are back because senior Shabazz Napier is a truly transcendent college guard, a tough and spectral offensive player descended directly from his former teammate, Kemba Walker.” Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel credits Napier’s coach with his team’s display of scrappy physicality and mental stamina against a much bigger Michigan State team on Sunday, describing the Kevin Ollie coaching experience as “an endless, relentless confidence-building exercise via motivational vignettes that couldn’t have found a more perfect home than a program that was under siege.”
3. A day after Louisville’s NCAA Tournament elimination, it was widely reported that junior guard Kevin Ware would transfer. Ware told ESPN that he’d like to be closer to his family home in Atlanta, and observers have pegged Auburn as a likely destination after the Tigers hired Bruce Pearl, who originally signed Ware at Tennessee. Still, the timing seems bizarre: Ware had tweeted last week that he was “never leaving this place,” and his stepfather told The Courier-Journal that while he had been aware of Kevin’s plan to leave, “We just didn’t know he was going to tell someone today, the day after the team was eliminated.” While Ware was sidelined early in the season with injury, his experience and awareness of Rick Pitino’s defenses figured to give Ware the edge for a job in the Cardinals’ core rotation, if not their starting lineup.
4. In other AAC transfer news, Temple redshirt junior Anthony Lee has committed to play at Ohio State next season. Lee, a two-year starter for Fran Dunphy who averaged 13.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game this season, is set to graduate this spring, and wanted an opportunity to play in front of his relatives in the Midwest before the end of his college career. He will spend his last year of eligibility as a Buckeye while enrolled in a graduate program. As expected, USF freshman Josh Heath has also elected to transfer after his father’s firing earlier in the month.
5. With or without Lee, Temple is already eager to rebound after failing to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. “It’s motivation, that you were on the team that kind of let everybody down, didn’t live up to the expectations everybody’s used to seeing,” said junior guard Will Cummings, who described the grueling 9-22 campaign as the season of “almost.” Coach Fran Dunphy agreed with that assessment, adding, “We were almost there. We didn’t have a lot of margin for error. It’s that kind of thing where a season can change on a game, a game can change on a play.” Daily News writer Mike Kern offers the example of Villanova’s swift turnaround as a blueprint for the Owls’ rebuilding effort, pointing out that over a span of three years, Jay Wright’s teams went from a program-record 19 losses to a program-record 28 regular-season wins.

What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Nick Fasulo (@nickfasuloSBN) is your weekly host.

Lots, LOTS of incredible moments from the last four days of the NCAA Tournament. Maybe the best collection of regional semifinal and final games in years, and below may be the greatest snapshot of the bunch.

Following the Cardiac Cats’ improbable win over Michigan (following equally improbable wins against Wichita State and Louisville… seriously, what a run from these young Wildcats), Coach Cal spoke to the team. He also gave Marcus Lee a hug. Coach Cal loves Marcus Lee.

“Riots” in Tucson

I’ll never understand why fans riot in defeat. This one, after Arizona missed two shots to win with seconds remaining, makes the scene in Tucson from Saturday night even more baffling. Also, this #riotselfie captures the current sad state of our country right now.

Gators Eat Bruins

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March Madness is finally upon us, and we here at RTC are here to make everything a little bit easier for you. From the First Four until One Shining Moment, we’ll be dropping daily tidbits of knowledge regarding the teams in each region.

South Region

• Florida‘s seniors have been knocking on the door of the Final Four for their entire careers, but this past weekend they finally sealed the deal. Though it has been a long road, the wait was definitely worth it.
• Having to adjust to injuries and suspensions has only made Florida that much stronger heading into the Final Four.
• Florida has a chance to avenge both of its only two regular season losses with UConn and Wisconsin also in the Final Four.
• The Gators should be well-prepared for this weekend, as it has faced its three Final Four companions a total of five times this season (going 3-2).
• From spectator to manager to walk-on, Florida’s Jacob Kurtz has been an integral part of the Gators because of his prowess on the scout team. However, Kurtz became more that that this season, as he filled in with 19.2 minutes per game in November when the Gators were decimated with injuries and suspensions.
• As the only 1-seed remaining, Florida is now a heavy favorite to go to the distance.

West Region

• Wisconsin can fly under the radar sometimes, but after knocking off Arizona, the Badgers won’t be ignored by anyone this weekend.
• After advancing to the Final Four, Charles Barkley declared that Wisconsin “could beat the Bucks.” That may be a stretch, but either way, the Badgers are playing some outstanding basketball right now.
• Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan kept lessons he learned during his childhood and from his late father in mind as the Badgers reached the Final Four this past weekend.
• Though Wisconsin got the job done against #1 seed Arizona, the Badgers are just trying to take things game by game – or tournament by tournament. Senior Ben Brust described his team’s mentality: “We’re taking this as little tournaments,” he said. “We won Tournament 1 in Milwaukee. We won Tournament 2 in Anaheim. And now we have Tournament 3 out there in Dallas.”
• Though they’ve had a couple close calls, seven-footer Frank “the Tank” Kaminsky is the primary reason why the Badgers are still playing.
• As a result of his stellar play, could Frank Kaminsky be looking more and more like a future NBA player?

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1. The Final Four field is set and now all we have to do is wait five days for the national semifinals. The first semifinal will feature Florida against Connecticut, which is a rematch of the game in Storrs on December 2 that the Huskies won on a last-second Shabazz Napier jumper. This time Florida will be completely healthy and it will be at a neutral site, but it will be interesting to see if the Gators can beat the last team to beat them this season. The other semifinal features Wisconsin and Kentucky. Despite the fact that Wisconsin is a #2 seed and Kentucky is a #8 seed the Wildcats opened as two-points favorites in this one.
2. Four teams were sent home earlier than they would have liked over the weekend and three of the fan bases acted in an appropriate manner. Arizona was the exceptions where students rioted leading to stand-offs with police and subsequently arrests. Fortunately no injuries were reported, but it was a bad way for the Wildcats to go out particularly when the coaches and players conducted themselves so well after a frustrating loss. While we understand the idiot of protests and riots in terms of political and civil issues, we don’t understand doing it in front of people (Arizona staff and Tucscon natives) who presumably agree with you.
3. Now that the season is over for all, but four teams we are starting to transition into the part of the college basketball season where NBA Draft decisions are being made. Two of the biggest ones will come from Aaron Gordon and Andrew Wiggins both of whom are almost certainly expected to turn pro. They are expected to officially announce as early as today. On the other hand, Juwan Staten tweeted out on Saturday night that he would be returning for his senior year at West Virginia. Unlike the other two Staten is most likely a borderline draft pick so it makes sense for him to return. The other two are probably top-five picks so it makes sense for them to go after the guaranteed contract.
4. Some players are headed to the NBA while others are just leaving school. The biggest news was out of Louisville where news broke that Kevin Ware was transferring. It was just a year ago that Ware became a symbol of the Cardinals on their march to the championship following his compound fracture in the Elite 8. Neither Ware nor his family have given any indication of where he will be transferring, but some sources suggest that he could be headed to Auburn to play for Bruce Pearl since Ware committed to play for Pearl at Tennessee before the barbecue/cookout  fiasco. The other major transfer announcement was Tyler Lewis who will be leaving North Carolina State. Whereas Ware had issues coming back from injury, Lewis had no such issue and was starting making his transfer even more confusing. Like Ware, Lewis has not listed any potential destinations.
5. Finally, we get to the coaches who are part of the ever-revolving coaching carousel. The biggest news of the weekend was based on the lack of movement as Tommy Amaker turned down Boston College to stay at Harvard and Dave Rice turned down South Florida to stay at UNLV with Rice possibly getting two more years added onto his contract. In terms of potential news, Mike Montgomery is expected to announce later today whether he will remain the coach at California or retire.

#2 Michigan vs. #8 Kentucky – Midwest Region Elite Eight (from Indianapolis, IN) – at 5:05 PM EST on CBS.

It seems as if this once enigmatic Kentucky squad has finally figured things out. The young Wildcats have arguably been the team of the tournament on their run to Sunday’s regional final. After wins over nine-seed Kansas State and one-seed Wichita State in the rounds of 64 and 32, respectively, John Calipari‘s squad once again showed that it meant business Friday night against Louisville. Louisville surged out to a very early 18-5 run, but instead of packing it in and getting down on themselves, the Wildcats surged back to make it a game. Trailing by the slimmest of margins with 39 seconds to play, guard Aaron Harrison drained a three-pointer from the corner to give Kentucky a lead it would not relinquish. Harrison finished the evening with 15 points and he was joined by fellow freshmen Julius Randle and Dakari Johnson in achieving that scoring mark. Randle, who has developed a well-earned reputation for being a double-double machine, collected 13 rebounds to go along with his 15 points. Johnson had only scored three points over the first two tournament games before exploding for 15 very important points in the win over the Cardinals. Friday’s win did not come without a price for Kentucky though, as key reserve Willie Cauley-Stein left the game in the first half with an ankle injury and on Saturday, John Calipari said he would be “stunned” if the sophomore big man will be able to play.

Calipari Has The Wildcats Peaking At The Right Time

Michigan arrives to its second straight Elite Eight after a 73-71 victory over 11-seed Tennessee. Against the imposing frontline of the Volunteers, the Wolverines used another marquee performance from senior forward Jordan Morgan (a team-high 15 points and seven rebounds), who has equated himself magnificently in the first three games of the tournament. John Beilein‘s squad also displayed its knack for perimeter, as it hit 11 three-pointers for the game and hit seven-of-nine from behind the arc in the first half. The sophomore trio of Nik Stauskas, Caris LeVert, and Glenn Robinson III combined for 37 points and in the process, displayed why they are one of the best offensive trios in the country. Sunday will be Michigan’s second Elite Eight appearance in as many years, so if experience is a factor, six of the team’s eight rotation players have experience in the Elite Eight setting.

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