A look at the Final Four

George Mason vs. Florida

GETTING THERE

George Mason (27-7) stunned the college basketball world by capping its first Final Four run with an 86-84 overtime win over Connecticut on Sunday to win the Washington Regional. The 11th-seeded Patriots matched LSU in 1986 as the lowest seeds to reach the Final Four. They are the first team from a mid-major conference to get there since Penn of the Ivy League and Indiana State of the Missouri Valley in 1979.

Florida (31-6) gave the Southeastern Conference half the Final Four with a 75-62 victory over Villanova to win the Minneapolis Regional. The third-seeded Gators are in the Final Four for the third time and the first since losing to Michigan State in the 2000 championship game.

Both No. 1 seeds that played Sunday lost – Connecticut and Villanova – marking the second time since seeding began in 1979 that no top-seeded team is in the Final Four. The other time it happened was 1980. LSU is the other SEC team in the Final Four.

OFFENSE

The Patriots average 69.2 points per game and all but 10 of the points come from the starters. Six-foot-7 forward Jai Lewis leads the way with a 13.5 average.

Florida averages 78.6 points per game, 15th in the nation. It is also a balanced effort with the starters all in double figures from Joakim Noah’s 14.0 per game to Lee Humphrey’s 10.7.

DEFENSE

George Mason allows 58.9 points per game, on pace to set a school record. The Patriots, who led the Colonial Athletic Association in field goal percentage defense at 38.4, held seven opponents to less than 50 points this season.

Florida like to gets out in the open court and run but the Gators still do a good job on the defensive end, holding teams to 63.9 points per game.

INTANGIBLES

Those who believe in karma have to love George Mason. One of the controversial at-large selections in the field, the Patriots beat two teams from last year’s Final Four (Michigan State and North Carolina) and the last two national champions (Connecticut and North Carolina) in their run.

Little was expected of the Gators with four sophomores in the starting lineup. The Gators blew away any thought of a sophomore jinx by winning their first 17 games and then winning the Southeastern Conference tournament.

LSU vs. UCLA

GETTING THERE

Fourth-seeded LSU (27-8) needed an extra five minutes to get to its first Final Four since 1986, beating Texas 70-60 in overtime on Saturday to win the Atlanta Regional.

Second-seeded UCLA (31-6) beat Memphis 50-45 to reach the Final Four for a 16th time, tying North Carolina for the most ever. The Bruins were last in the national semifinals in 1995, when they went on to win their record 11th NCAA championship.

OFFENSE

LSU averages 74.1 points per game and three of the Tigers’ four double-figure scores are frontcourt players. Glen “Big Baby” Davis, the hard-to-miss 6-foot-9, 300-pound-plus forward, leads the team with an 18.5-point average.

The Bruins average 68.8 points per game and the two leading scorers are sophomore guards Arron Afflalo (16.2) and Jordan Farmar (13.6).

DEFENSE

LSU was a more than solid defensive team all season but the Tigers really turned it up in the tournament, holding Duke to its lowest point total since 1996 in the regional semifinals and then holding Texas to 30.4 percent shooting from the field in the regional final.

UCLA has become one of the better defensive teams in the country under Ben Howland, whose Pitt teams were known for holding teams well below their average numbers. The Bruins are 10th in the country in team defense (58.7).

INTANGIBLES

Darrel Mitchell is the only senior on the LSU roster and the other key players are extremely young. The Tigers have played the “no respect” card throughout the tournament and they will keep it going in the Final Four.

UCLA has changed its image under Howland with the accent now on defense. UCLA could still be riding the emotion of rallying from a nine-point deficit with 3 minutes left against Gonzaga.