Minneapolis notebook: Last but not least of the Final Four

Notebooks: Washington, D.C. | Minneapolis
Features: Father of the Pride | Finishing with a flourish

Regular-season highlights: Florida

MINNEAPOLIS – Many of the fans and nearly all of the media arrived at their seats after the starting lineups were introduced for Sunday's Florida-Villanova title bout.

Late-arriving crowd? Not at all. When Metrodome officials neglected to put the can't-be-happening George Mason-Connecticut ending on its big screens, fans and reporters jockeyed for spots in front of the few television sets on the arena concourse and media area.

As the final regional to be decided, Minneapolis was in a unique position to watch history unfold. Many among the crowds gathering around those TV sets were not just pro-George Mason fans, they were anti-UConn, bothered by a purportedly great team that had not approached greatness in more than a month, by a point guard who might have gotten off light with an 11-game suspension, by any number of things.

In Minneapolis, you could take college basketball's pulse.

The great Georgetown-Houston Final Fours of the past are long gone, but it was concluded that the NCAA Tournament's second week might be replacing the opening weekend as the greatest four days in sports. And this past weekend might have been better than last year's. Is it possible for the NCAA Tournament to keep topping itself?

It was in Minneapolis, too, that it soon became clear that if Villanova didn't win, this would be the most wide-open Final Four in years. Maybe since 1980, the last time one was played without a No. 1 seed.

UCLA, at No. 19, was the only ranked team among the Final Four going into the season.

The games here were interesting, entertaining, sometimes exciting and rarely aesthetically pleasing. The four teams shot a combined 37.0 percent over the three games, and Florida was the only team to score more than 62 points. With three teams that played in the Big East just a year ago, the games became the "old-school, Big East wrestling" matches that Villanova coach Jay Wright had correctly predicted of the Boston College-Villanova opener. And Florida of the SEC was right in there, exchanging half-nelsons with the best of them.

The Gators' defense kept them right in tune with LSU and UCLA in another developing Final Four theme. (The most amazing thing in a series of amazing things about George Mason's stunning upset might be that the Patriots didn't have to hold Connecticut in the 60s to achieve it.) Florida held opponents here to 56.5 points per game, not because of its press, which produced only six steals among 18 turnovers in two games. The Gators were dogged in the halfcourt, though, holding their two opponents to 30.7-percent shooting.

Joakim Noah, their 6-foot-11 elastic man, blocked 10 shots, allowing the Gator wings to contest 3-pointers (20.5 percent) without fear of being taken for a drive to the basket.

Here are a few other observations and memories from the Minneapolis regional:

Best player: Noah. Randy Foye was fearless, carrying Villanova with 54 points in the two games when his teammates' pistols were out of bullets. But Noah, the only other true star in this regional, was the difference in both games. His statistical line – 18.0 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.0 blocks per game – was most impressive.

Best defensive player: Again, Noah. Small forward Corey Brewer is considered the Gators' defensive stopper, but when Noah wasn't blocking shots, he was altering them. And when he wasn't altering them, he was persuading opponents to pull back and start the offense over again.

Best coach: Billy Donovan. This should go a long way toward quieting the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately critics who pointed to a string of first- and second-round roadblocks since reaching the 2000 championship game. And toward changing his reputation as a recruiter, first and foremost, since the current class of sophomores was less-regarded than some of Donovan's other classes.

Best storyline: Florida's sons of pro athletes. If Noah wasn't the son of former tennis star Yannick Noah, the media would flock to Taurean Green, the son of ex-NBA forward Sidney Green. And if it wasn't for Noah and Green, they would go to Al Horford, whose father, Tito, was his day's Greg Oden – coming out of high school in 1985.

Best play: Villanova's game-winning out-of-bounds play. Allan Ray set a pick, then popped out to the 3-point line, drawing a pair of Boston College defenders while Will Sheridan made a beeline for the basket. Kyle Lowry sold the play with a pass fake to Ray, leaving Sheridan with a layup that was goal-tended by B.C.'s Sean Williams. "The shot of my career," Sheridan said, "and I didn't even get to make it."

Worst time for a shooting slump: Any Villanova starter other than Foye. Such as Ray (8 for 34), Sheridan (2 for 11), Lowry (4 for 17) and Mike Nardi (2 for 14). The four shot a combined 21.1 percent.

Best quote: "Poor, hungry, driven. P-H-D. Unngh!" – Florida's Noah.

John Akers, the editor of Basketball Times, covered the Minneapolis regional exclusively for Yahoo! Sports.