Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Years from now, Mason Gillis will be the answer to this trivia question:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who was the first player to reach the Final Four in consecutive years with different teams?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last April, the 6-foot-6 wing advanced to the sport\u2019s big stage with Purdue. <\/p>\n
This week, he\u2019s in San Antonio as a Duke reserve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a roller coaster,\u201d Gillis said Thursday as the Blue Devils prepared to face Houston on Saturday night in a national semifinal. \u201cIt\u2019s been a blessing to be able to be in the position I\u2019m in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gillis came off the bench in his fourth season with the Boilermakers last winter, the same role he has with Duke. <\/p>\n
His numbers have dropped this year slightly \u2014 going from 6.5 points to 4.2, 3.9 rebounds to 2.6 and 21.2 minutes to 15.0.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But stats can\u2019t define his value, according to coach Jon Scheyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at our season, some of the toughest moments we\u2019ve been in, the toughest spots, Mason has really won us the game,\u201d Scheyer said of the New Castle, Ind., native. \u201cYou think about [Dec. 8] at Louisville, we\u2019re down double digits. Cooper [Flagg] gets four fouls in the second half. Mason comes in, we make a comeback and we win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Wake Forest, we\u2019re down six in the second half. Mason comes in, hits the biggest 3 of the game. We win. Actually, our one loss [of 2025] we had was without Mason.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On a team led by projected one-and-done lottery pick freshmen such as Flagg, Khaman Maluach and Kon Knueppel, experience has been vital for the Blue Devils. Gillis has been through all of this before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he opted to enter the transfer portal, Gillis could\u2019ve found a school where there was more opportunity, a chance to pile up big numbers. <\/p>\n
Want to tune into as much March Madness as you can? DIRECTV Stream and Hulu + Live TV both have you covered with every channel you\u2019ll need, plus free trials.<\/p>\n
But that didn\u2019t interest him. <\/p>\n
He wanted another crack at a national championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He will have that this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a cool thing. Last year was Purdue\u2019s first time making it to the Final Four since 1980, and that was a great thing,\u201d Gillis said. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t win it all. So leaving there, you leave with a bad taste in your mouth. I was able to have the opportunity to find another school to try to make it back here. Definitely a blessing, definitely a really cool thing, but we just got to keep our mind on the job at hand and come away with it all this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a sign of the transfer portal times, Gillis isn\u2019t the only player in his second Final Four with a different team. Florida\u2019s Alijah Martin will become the first player to start a Final Four game with two programs. <\/p>\n
He made it with Florida Atlantic in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There will be others. <\/p>\n
But Gillis will be the first to do it in consecutive seasons with two teams. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s hoping this trip ends with him cutting down the Alamodome nets.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Years from now, Mason Gillis will be the answer to this trivia question:\u00a0 Who was the first player to reach the Final Four in consecutive years with different teams?\u00a0 Last April, the 6-foot-6 wing advanced to the sport\u2019s big stage with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":262948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-262947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262949,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262947\/revisions\/262949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}