NCAA Men's Regional Finals in St. Louis

On Sunday, we headed back downtown St. Louis for our NCAA Men's Basketball Elite Eight (Regional Finals) at the Edward Jones Dome.  Our pre-game landing and dry (due to the annoying rain) spot today was the Skybox Sports Bar & Grill over near Lacledes Landing

Today's game was (6) Tennessee Vols vs. (5) Michigan St.  This was a tough one for me personally since I was cheering for the Vols for my Dad's sake and because it would have been the first time they advanced to the Final Four.  On the other hand, I am a big fan of Tom Izzo and what he's done with at Michigan St., so I wasn't going to be horribly upset to see them return to the Final Four.  

It was a gritty first half.  Tennessee jumped out to a quick lead, but it didn't last for long as no team led by more than 6.  Even though Tennessee held the lead 41-39 at half, it was certainly anybody's game. At least you could tell that both these teams wanted the game (maybe not defensively) and there was a lot of emotion on and off the court.

The second half was pretty much the same scenario with the score never favoring one team by more than 6 points.  With 3 minutes remaining, Michigan St. grabbed the lead with a 3-pointer by the player of the games in St. Louis, Durrell Summers.  Brian Williams answered with a huge slam dunk causing an roar to erupt from the Orange Crush.  Both teams missed their next shots and the scored remained at 68-69 Michigan St. when Scotty Hopson on Tennessee was fouled with 12 seconds remaining. 

He made one...missed one.  All tied.  Raymar Morgan was quickly fouled after getting the ball back up the court for a shot, so he stepped to the line.  He made one...missed the second one.   The score was now 69-70 favoring Michigan St.  J.P. Prince got the ball at the far center court from the inbounds play.  Dribbled. Took a shot, but it was way short.  Michigan St. was going to the Final Four!  We stuck around for some of the post-game ceremony and the net cutting.

See more pictures from the games in my photo album and also a video of Tom Izzo's acceptance speech.