By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service

It is a Final Four where somebody's time has come. Now we just have to find out whose.

Maybe Roy Williams, a winning machine, with integrity beyond repute. But his void - the one where a national championship is supposed to go - seems as wide as Kansas.

Or Jim Boeheim, who has put 22 Syracuse teams in the NCAA Tournament, and been second place twice.

Maybe Marquette, not seen on this stage since 1977, but now reliving the glory days of Al McGuire as something of a Cinderella, two years after his death.

Or Texas, a school with 42 national championships on its books. But none of them in men's basketball.

Texas last reached the Final Four in 1947, when the entire tournament was eight teams, and it took but one win to get there. The Road to the Final Four was a driveway.

It is a Final Four of stars for every taste, or at least class.

Syracuse freshman Carmelo Anthony. Texas sophomore T.J. Ford. Marquette junior Dwyane Wade. Kansas seniors Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich.

It is a Final Four with the first Conference USA team in history, and two Big 12 teams for the second straight year.

And a field that underwent last-minute renovation.

The past weekend began with all four No. 1 seeds closing in on regional titles, but ended with Texas the only one standing.

Still, there will be nobody shocking in New Orleans. Nobody was seeded lower than No. 3. All four are ranked in the top 10.

It is a Final Four of tradition and flavor. Of Bevo the Texas steer, and Boeheim's zone defense.

Of Marquette's charm, with the same five guys starting all 32 games and all of them from the neighborhood - Wisconsin or Illinois. The Golden Eagles are the first Catholic school to get this far since Seton Hall in 1989.

And Kansas' glorious past. The Jayhawks have been to 12 Final Fours, and won 1,800 games. Among former employees was James Naismith, who invented the game and is buried just down the road from campus.

Texas has deep tradition, too. It just happens to be in another sport.

There were 30,169 fans in the Alamodome on Sunday for the brightest moment in Longhorn basketball history. But on Saturday, 35,500 were at the spring football game.

So the big news in Texas the past weekend was that the Longhorns are going to the Final Four, and the new quarterback looked good. But that might be in the wrong order.

It is a Final Four where two of the coaches know the pain of coming close.

Williams had Kansas in the championship game in his third season. But that was 12 years ago, and he hasn't been back since, even with a contender every March.

Boeheim was within eight seconds of a title in 1987, until Indiana's Keith Smart hit a baseline jumper and ripped out his heart.

That was in the same Superdome where Syracuse will play Texas on Saturday, in a battle of orange and contrast, with its famous zone against Ford and the Longhorn slashers.

It is a Final Four partly molded by location.

Syracuse won a regional in Albany, N.Y. Texas won in San Antonio, where the small Michigan State crowd Sunday looked like a green sailboat on a burnt orange lake.

It is a Final Four that must have the NCAA Tournament committee trying not to chortle. Remember the heat it took for not arranging the brackets so Kentucky could meet Arizona in the championship game? Billy Packer nearly went into convulsions on Selection Sunday.

Well, the Kentucky-Arizona matchup will be brought to you by Marquette and Kansas. Their moment is here.

Or someone's is.