Final Four old guys aged well. Duke teens should respect these elders

[ad_1]

Duke, Florida, Auburn, Houston punch their ticket to the Final Four

The madness continues as Mackenzie Salmon previews the Men’s Final Four matchups, which will feature all No. 1 seeds for the first time since 2008.

Sports Seriously

SAN ANTONIO – Welcome to the Final Four, brought to you by the AARP, the Social Security Administration and Geritol. By college basketball standards, the Alamodome this weekend might as well be a nursing home. If you’re looking for a collection of players who are, shall we say, unusually mature to still be in college, you’ve come to the right place.

Meet No. 1 overall seed Auburn, a team whose starting lineup averages 23.4 years of age – the same as the Oklahoma City Thunder and older than the Portland Trail Blazers or Atlanta Hawks.

Meet Houston, a team that starts a pair of 23-year-olds who have played a combined 316 games of college basketball.

Meet Florida, a team that has gotten 56 percent of its scoring in this NCAA Tournament from just three players – all of whom are age 22 and older.

And then there’s Duke, the only team remaining with a teenager in its starting lineup. In what seems like a sacrilege in this era of college basketball, the Blue Devils start three of them.

“I think there’s a part of you that feels maybe you’re a little crazy at times, just because it’s so different,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said.

Back in 2008, the last time there were four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four, you had Memphis, whose best player was 19-year-old Derrick Rose. You had a UCLA team led by 19-year-old Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook. North Carolina had spectacular 20-year-olds in Wayne Ellington, Danny Green and Ty Lawson supporting 22-year-old Tyler Hansbrough. And national champion Kansas was the grizzled team of the bunch, whose starting lineup averaged a ripe old 21.4 years of age.

That’s how college basketball used to be.

For better or worse, that’s not how it is anymore.

“The landscape has definitely changed,” said 23-year-old…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/columnist/dan-wolken/2025/04/03/auburn-houston-florida-old-final-four-young-duke/82800423007/

Author :

Publish date : 2025-04-03 23:40:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.