The men’s Final Four is complete after Houston and Auburn both won Sunday in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Top-seeded Auburn won the South Region and advanced to the program’s second Final Four by holding off second-seeded Michigan State 70-64 and denying Spartans coach Tom Izzo from reaching what would have been his ninth Final Four since 1999.
Earlier Sunday, Houston won the Midwest Region by beating Tennessee 69-50.
Next weekend in San Antonio, Duke will face Houston in one national semifinal, while Florida will face Auburn in an all-SEC matchup.
Each team was the top seed in its region, making it the first time since 2008, and only the second time in tournament history, that all four No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Final Four.
Auburn survived a scare in the second half when Johni Broome, a candidate for national player of the year, left for the locker room with 10:37 to play after falling awkwardly.
At the time, Broome had 22 points and 12 rebounds, but even with him out the Spartans were unable to trim their deficit to less than eight points while the forward was being evaluated.
X-rays on Broome were negative, and he returned with five minutes to play to rousing applause from Auburn fans inside Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. Quickly, he gathered a one-handed rebound, then made a three-pointer on the other end for a 12-point Auburn lead.
Broome finished with a game-high 25 points and 14 rebounds, and Auburn advanced despite being out-rebounded and making only 28% of its three-pointers and 11 of its 20 free throws.
The Tigers were superb with their passing, however, assisting on 16 of their 26 field goals, and got 18 points combined off the bench from Chaney Johnson and Tahaad Pettiford.
Forward Jaxon Kohler led Michigan State with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
