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 BOB'S CATCH-UP: The NCAA tournament reaches its climaxes over the next few days and our man on the spot in the USA, BOB CRAVEN, has an early report to bring us up-to-speed with the men's and women's Final Fours and how everyone arrived there. Sorry, no NBA but right now, the NCAA is way more interesting.

THIS past weekend the Dance went from the Sweet Sixteen to the Final Four for both the men and the ladies. 

On the men's side in the West Region, 6th-seed Clemson dumped the No.2 seed Arizona, leading pretty much the whole game doing it. 

Earlier, top-seed N. Carolina became the first No.1 seed to fall in a two-point loss to No.4 seed Alabama on a three-point play in the last 30 seconds.

Clemson and Alabama then played in the Regional Final where Clemson buried the Crimson Tide in an avalanche of 19 three-pointers, seven of them by Mark Sears.

In an East Region semifinal in a rematch of last year's championship game, No.1 UConn buried San Diego State by 30, 82-52. 

In the other semifinal, No.3 Illinois squeaked by No. 2 Iowa State 72-69. 

In the Regional Final, UConn scored 30 consecutive points at one stage and steamrolled Illinois by 25 to head to the Final Four.  UConn's smallest margin of victory in this year's tourney has been 17 points.

In the Men's Midwest Region, in one semifinal Gonzaga, which had endured a bit of an off year this year, hit a very high ceiling—about 224cm high—in overall No.1 seed Purdue and its​ monster in the middle, Zach Edey, the nation's leading scorer. 

Edey scored 27 and grabbed 14 boards in an easy 80-68 win. 

In the other regional semifinal, Tennessee defeated Creighton 82-75. The Regional Final was a slugfest of a game with six ties and eight lead changes.  Purdue finally came out on top 72-66 and both teams' star players more than lived up to that star billing. 

Purdue's Edey scored a career-high 40 points and added 16 rebounds, while Dalton Knecht led Tennessee with 37 points.  It was the first NCAA tourney game where the high scorer for each team scored more than half their team's points.

In the South Region, North Carolina State won its eighth game in a row by downing ice-cold shooting Marquette 67-58.  State is the only double-digit seed left in the tourney. 

In the other semifinal, Duke beat No.1 seed Houston by three, after Houston was forced play the last 26 minutes of the game without All-American point guard Jamal Shead after he badly turned his right ankle. 

The men's Final Four is now set for this coming Saturday, as UConn will take on Alabama and Purdue will tackle NC State in a battle of really big men in the middle: Purdue with Zach Edey at 224cm and 136kg vs NC State's DJ Burns at 208cm and 125kg.

IN the women's bracket in Region 4, North Carolina State managed to control No.2 Stanford's Cameron Brink and outscored Stanford 28-10 in the third quarter to take a 77-67 win into the regional final. 

There they will meet No. 1 seed Texas which used size and a smothering defence to take down local favourite, high-scoring Gonzaga 69-47.

In Region 2, top seed Iowa behind superstar Caitlin Clark's 29 points and 15 assists rolled over No.5 seed Colorado 89-68.  This set up a game everyone wanted to see—a rematch of last year's tit​le game with Louisiana State and star Angel Reese. 

Reese and Clark jawed at each other in last year's game a lot. Reese was quoted recently that LSU are embracing the role of "good villains" as they make a run to repeat as champions. 

LSU held off UCLA behind Flau'jae Johnson's 24 points and 12 rebounds, and Reese's 26th double double (16 and 12 before fouling out near the end). 

Their semifinal did not disappoint as Iowa and Clark reversed the result of last year's final.  Clark, as usual, led the way with nine 3-pointers and 41 points, along with 12 assists in Iowa's 94-87 win. 

The teams were tied at the half, but then Clark took over.  She hit four three-pointers, each one deeper than the last.  Her fourth, from out near the logo, put Iowa 12 points clear and they were on their way. 

Reese was no slouch, either, for LSU. She finished with 17 points and 20 boards before fouling out with 1:45 left.

In Region 1, overall No.1 seed undefeated South Carolina, survived a semifinal battle with Indiana after nearly blowing all of a 22-point lead in the second half. 

A big 3-point bucket in the last minute put them clear for the win, 79-75. 

The other semifinal saw Oregon State's bigs lead the way to a 70-65 win over No. 2 seed Notre Dame. 

Oregon State shot 60 percent from the field to Notre Dame's 36 percent, and also outrebounded the Irish 42-24.

In Region 3, top-seeded U. of Southern California, squeaked by Baylor 74-70 behind star first year player JuJu Watkins' 30 points. 

Watkins had a bad night shooting but managed to put together nine straight points near the end to lead them to the win and a highly anticipated match-up with UConn and star Paige Bueckers. 

Watkins is the second leading scorer in the country behind Iowa's Clark, and is now only eight points away from becoming the all-time single season scorer for first year players. 

For her part, Bueckers scored 24 points in leading No.3 seed UConn past Duke 53-45.  Bueckers was the national player of the year three years ago but has missed most of the past two seasons due to injury. 

In addition, thanks to other injuries, UConn only dressed eight players, and even then, only played six of those. 

In the final against No.1 seed USC and Watkins, Bueckers scored 28 in leading them to the win, while Watkins scored 29 in a losing cause.

Next up—the Final Four this coming Friday, where overall No.1 seed South Carolina will take on North Carolina State, followed immediately by No.1 seed Iowa and Caitlin Clark against UConn and Paige Bueckers.