March Madness lives on. Following the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament, The Post projected the final bracket and spent the rest of the week presenting round-by-round results produced via online simulation, thanks to our friends at whatifsports.com. This is the final story of the series.
In an alternate reality, the Seton Hall Pirates would be champions. In a world without the coronavirus, the 1989 ghosts finally would be put to rest.
P.J. Carlesimo would watch courtside with pride and tears in his eyes as Kevin Willard’s team makes everyone forget about John Clougherty and the phantom foul, bringing a national championship at last to South Orange, N.J. Myles Powell and his teammates would etch their names into program lore, rising to the momentous occasion.
In The Post’s NCAA Tournament simulation, the Pirates are the last team standing, the ones cutting down the nets in Atlanta after knocking off fellow three-seed Duke, 97-84, bringing Seton Hall its first national championship in its second national title game appearance.
Unlike their dramatic finish against Oregon in the national semifinals and late comeback over Louisville in the South Region final, the Pirates don’t have to sweat out the final seconds this time. They sink 18 3-pointers, Quincy McKnight locks down Duke star Tre Jones (11 points on 4-for-12 shooting) and the second half is a coronation of this dream season.
As in the win over Oregon, Powell doesn’t need to carry the load. Hounded by Jones, Powell scores 17 points on 6-for-15 shooting, but the story is the supporting cast, which became so much more in this tournament. McKnight goes for 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds, Sandro Mamukelashvili adds 16 points and Myles Cale scores 15. Six Pirates knock down at least two 3-pointers and eight different players score. The team that relied on defense all year prevails on lights-out perimeter shooting.
Early on, favored Duke — which owns five national championships and nine title game appearances under Mike Krzyzewski — looks more comfortable. A 12-5 run helps the Blue Devils build a 10-point lead. From there, Seton Hall finds its footing, outscoring Duke by 23 the rest of the way. The deficit is four at the break, which is nothing for a team used to rallying from behind and dealing with adversity.
The Pirates start out red-hot from 3-point range, hitting six of their first eight attempts of the half, two apiece by McKnight and Myles Cale. In a 20-9 run, 18 of those points come from a distance, as Seton Hall builds a seven-point lead it never relinquishes. After a Shavar Reynolds 3-pointer, the lead is in double figures with 9:31 left, and Seton Hall can start to taste it. The Pirates start pouring it on and go up by 18 following an Anthony Nelson triple. They are just 5:45 away from winning it all.
The Blue Devils have one last run in them and get within nine. Seton Hall hardly blinks. Nelson converts a three-point play and Powell puts the exclamation point on this dominant performance, sinking his trademark step-back jumper with 40 seconds left.
It’s the finish to the legendary career Powell dreamed about. It’s the tournament the battle-tested Pirates thought — no, knew — was possible.
In reality, we’ll never know how March would have played out for the Pirates. But there is this possibility — as illustrated by The Post’s simulation — it could have been a month nobody around here would ever forget.