Defending champion, U.Conn (9-0) (9-0) And 3 Underdogs Advanced Last Night

While defending champion and now even money tournament favorite, Connecticut won their 9th straight tournie game by “enough,” the other 3 regional semis tilts last night manifested in outright underdog victories.

In the early L.A. game where attendance ‘battled” that city’s notorious traffic in a 4 P.M. local start, Clemson, which has trailed for less than a minute in the tournament, advanced to just their second ever regional final game, defeating West region “2” seed, Arizona. (The other was in 1980).

3 times, football schools Alabama and Clemson met for the college football crown with a semi-final clash thrown in to boot (boot a football term).

Tomorrow, in the later regional final tilt, one will advance to their first national semi, as last night, Alabama also in L.A. , took out the West region “1” seed, North Carolina.

Finally last night, slight underdog Illinois, as is the case with two thirds of the remaining dozen teams (U.Conn and Duke have 5 crowns), which has never won a title, took out Iowa State, and now is a pretty big underdog vs the Danny Hurley coached, Connecticut juggernaut in the earlier Saturday tilt.

Only North Carolina State (2) and Marquette (1) who meet tonight in a ’77 final round redux, other than U.Conn and Duke, among the dozen remaining teams has won a previous title.

Purdue, Houston, Creighton, Gonzaga, Tennessee, playing in tonight’s round of 16 and Illinois, Alabama and Clemson as cited above, already in the regional finals, have also never won a crown.

I recall Alabama with Leon Douglas, pictured above, upsetting North Carolina as they did last night and 48 years later, in the first round of the ’76 tournament.