Gonzaga or North Carolina: Which is the real Final Four favorite?

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Luke Maye won it on this jump shot for North Carolina against Kentucky. (AP/Brandon Dill)

If the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament failed to overwhelm, the next two threatened to overload us with dramatic tension. Sunday’s Elite Eight doubleheader sent things to the next level, with a South Carolina-Florida thriller followed by a North Carolina-Kentucky showdown that felt more like a national title game.

This stuff never gets old.

And now, we brace for one heck of a transition. We go from the Tar Heels’ 75-73 victory over the Wildcats — a matchup of ultimate March titans — to Saturday’s first national semifinal, Gonzaga vs. South Carolina in a clash of Final Four never-beens.

“Anyone that’s in sports dreams of moments like this,” said Gamecocks coach Frank Martin. “It’s not something that you start dreaming the year you win 25 games. You dream it every single day.”

Matter of fact, three of the four Final Four coaches — Martin, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and Oregon’s Dana Altman — have reached this stage of the tournament for the first time in their stellar careers.

It’ll be an unforgettable first for one of them … or title No. 3 for Cryin’ Roy Williams. The latter scenario would be some kind of story, too, considering UNC’s devastating buzzer-beater defeat in last year’s title game.

Some of the other storylines we’ll be obsessing over all week:

The favorite: Which No. 1 seed is it, Gonzaga or North Carolina? It all depends on how you look at it.

The Zags have what seems to be the lesser semifinal opponent (though to take South Carolina lightly at this point would be delusional), so maybe it’s them. Yet the Tar Heels were higher than Gonzaga on the NCAA’s overall seed list and offer far more in the been-there, done-that department.

Should we go with co-favorites? Nah. Let’s just look at it this way: If the Zags and Heels were playing each other tomorrow, which team would more folks pick to win? Easy answer — blue-blood UNC. Atlantic Coast Conference over West Coast Conference. Or, if you prefer, Michael’s Jordan’s alma mater over John Stockton’s alma mater.

The superstar: There are some great players in this Final Four. UNC’s Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II. Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss and Przemek Karnowski. Oregon’s Tyler Dorsey and Dillon Brooks.

But — sorry, dudes — Gamecocks senior guard Sindarius Thornwell is the man. In four games, he has scored 105 points, hit one clutch free throw after another and battled amid the bigs to pull down an amazing 30 rebounds. He’s your player of the tournament thus far, and it isn’t even close.

“Thornwell was just being Thornwell,” Florida coach Mike White said after the East Regional MVP hung 26 on the Gators. “He’s one of the best players in the country.”

The better semifinal: Given the way 33-game winner Oregon dismantled top-seeded Kansas in the Midwest Regional final, the answer has to be Ducks-Heels. It’ll certainly be the more-hyped game, and it probably should be.

What’s so notable about Zags-Gamecocks, though, is that it marks the first head-to-head meeting of Final Four newcomers since eventual runner-up Memphis State beat Providence in 1973. There haven’t even been two newbies in the same Final Four field since UMass and Mississippi State made it in 1996. Crazy, right?

The Cinderella: It’s South Carolina, of course. But is America really ready to fall in love with a team whose coach looks — at all times — like a man who just swallowed a fistful of red habañero peppers?

The luck of the draw: Gonzaga has been a terrific program for a long time, and many around the country understandably are glad to see the well-liked Few and his team get to compete on the college game’s ultimate stage.

Yet let’s be real about this: The Zags haven’t exactly faced a murderer’s row of opponents thus far in this tournament. For example, while East No. 1 Villanova had to battle (and lost to) eighth-seeded Wisconsin — as tourney-tested a group as there was in the country — in the second round, the West No. 1 Zags got eighth-seeded Northwestern, which was Dancing for the first time. And Northwestern played like it throughout the first half, digging itself into a giant hole.

In the West final, the Zags played 11th-seeded Xavier. Now they get seventh-seeded South Carolina, whose last NCAA tourney win before this year came over four decades ago. Perhaps luck is on Gonzaga’s side. It’s something to think — and talk — about.

Follow me on Twitter @slgreenberg.

Email: sgreenberg@suntimes.com

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