Russell 4 "and-ones" dominate Vandy; Chamberlain Other Semifinal

The 2-time champion San Francisco Dons did not hit a single 3-pointer (the line wasn't there in 1956, but we do estimate some on the cards), and Bill Russell shot his average 50 percent from the free throw line.

And none of that mattered as they dominated start to finish to pull away to a 67-46 lead with five minutes to play before Vanderbilt 1997 finally hit a few threes at the end to make it look a little closer than it was at 73-60. A potential Chamberlain vs. Russell match-up looms if Kansas 1957 can beat Billy Donovan's Providence in a second matchup of a great center from the 1950s against a great point guard.

While the Dons hit no modern 3-pointers, Russell drew four basket and one on his card - a line that centers of old have in our game in the days before the stretch big men shot threes. He only made 3 of 6 free throws, consistent with his card of 1-10 made free throw, 11-20 missed free throw, but that didn't matter since four occurred after he had scored and in one case he missed the "and one" but teammate Mike Farmer scored on the rebound for a 4-point play.

San Francisco improved to #25 of the all-time great teams in our game, while Vanderbilt fell to #84 after winning their first game against VCU 1985. Bill McCaffrey, the brother of Superbowl Champ Ed McCaffrey, was held without a bucket until 8:17 left in the game (14 possessions) remaining. He finished with 9 points after scoring 23 in the win against VCU. 

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Russell led the way with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, but KC Jones was almost as strong with 15, 7, 4.

San Francisco started ranked as the 25th best team in the game, but opened with an upset loss to Arizona 2015, which was ranked No. 5 that season, to fall in the rankings. However, double digit wins in this tournament to two SEC schools (Mississippi before Vanderbilt) have them back within one spot of their original ranking at No. 26.

Pos	Vanderbilt 1993	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Actual Season
1-PG	Bill McCaffrey	9	1	3	0	0	3	3	0	1	6'4	20.6 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 3.6 Ast
2-SG	Kevin Anglin	15	2	3	3	3	2	2	0	4	6'4	10.7 Pts, 4.3 Reb, 3.2 Ast
3-SF	Ronnie McMahan	6	0	2	2	2	3	1	0	2	6'5	11.1 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 2.3 Ast
4-PF	Bruce Elder	4	0	2	0	0	7	0	0	1	6'5	11.4 Pts, 6.1 Reb, 2.6 Ast
5-C	Chris Lawson	2	0	1	0	0	4	0	1	5	6'10	11.5 Pts, 5.5 Reb, 1.4 Ast
1-PG	Dan Hall	6	0	2	2	3	1	0	0	1	6'8	6.0 Pts, 4.4 Reb, 1.1 Ast
2-SG	Frank Seckar	5	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'1	4.5 Pts, 1.6 Reb, 1.6 Ast
3-SF	Bryan Milburn	4	0	2	0	0	4	0	0	1	6'7	3.7 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 0.6 Ast
4-PF	Chad Sheron	7	1	2	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'7	2.0 Pts, 0.7 Reb, 0.5 Ast
5-C	Chris Woods	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'11	2.2 Pts, 1.6 Reb, 0.1 Ast
		60	5	19	7	8	29	6	1	19		11 Turnovers
Pos	San Francisco 1956	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Actual Season
1-PG	Hal Perry	6	0	3	0	0	4	2	0	1	5'10	9.1 Pts, 2.0 Reb
2-SG	Carl Boldt	10	0	3	4	5	5	1	0	5	6'4	8.6 Pts, 5.0 Reb
3-SF	K.C. Jones	15	0	7	1	2	8	1	3	2	6'1	9.8 Pts, 5.2 Reb
4-PF	Mike Farmer	6	0	3	0	0	7	0	0	1	6'7	8.4 Pts, 7.8 Reb
5-C	Bill Russell	23	0	10	3	6	10	1	4	1	6'9	20.6 Pts, 21.0 Reb
1-PG	Harold Payne	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	5'11	1.0 Pts, 0.1 Reb
2-SG	John Koljian	3	0	1	1	2	0	1	0	1	6'3	1.0 Pts, 1.0 Reb
3-SF	Mike Preaseau	2	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	1	6'5	4.1 Pts, 3.1 Reb
4-PF	Bill Mallen	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'4	4.2 Pts, 3.5 Reb
5-C	Gene Brown	4	0	1	2	2	2	0	1	1	6'3	7.1 Pts, 4.4 Reb
		73	0	31	11	17	41	6	8	15		15 Turnovers