Final 4 is set! Texas, boo Syracuse, YEA! (Go earthy! ), Kansas, scary! , and my fav:
Wade gives Marquette day to remember
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Gene Wojciechowski ESPN The Magazine
MINNEAPOLIS -- Marquette's 83-69 wax-and-buff job against Kentucky wasn't even two seconds old when Golden Eagles' All-American guard Dwyane Wade grabbed the Wilson game ball and hugged it as if it were his little son Zaire. Wade didn't let go of the thing until his teammates snipped the Metrodome nets from the rims and returned to the locker room.
A full hour after the game he was still wearing a nylon necklace and a smile as wide as the Twin Cities. That's what happens when you lead mom-and-pop Marquette to its first Final Four since the bell-bottom, leisure-suit days of Al McGuire.
Wade didn't do much, just overpower helpless and hapless Kentucky -- and when was the last time you've seen those two words near Big Blue -- with his first career triple-double. It was nearly a quadruple-double if you add together his blocks, steals and dunks.
Dwyane Wade helped Marquette rekindle memories of 1977 -- the last time it reached the Final Four
Wade finished with 29 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists, four blocks, one steal and an array of Rucker Park-quality slams. He posterized half of the Kentucky roster and energized the entire Marquette team. No wonder the mostly MU crowd at the Bradley Center ... uh, Metrodome, began chanting, "One more year! One more year!" as Wade started scaling the aluminum ladder to cut the net. Considering his vertical leap, it was a surprise that Wade didn't just go ahead and jump and clip the cords.
"It was unbelievable," said Marquette point guard Travis Diener. "I mean, it was just unbelievable."
Kentucky felt the same way.
And now Danlo looked in that direction, too. He remembered that snowy owls mate in the darkest part of deep winter, and so along with this beautiful white bird perched in a tree a hundred feet away, he turned to face the sea as he watched and waited.
Ahira, Ahira, he called out silently to the sky. Ahira, Ahira<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 3/31/03 6:55:32 am </i>
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