Judging by this blog’s header, it is obvious that I am going to have a hard time being unbias with this post. But I will try.
So here we are. The Final Four, and how apropos is it that the best teams in the country all year long are still alive? At the beginning of the season, picking any of the four teams (Kansas, UCLA, UNC and Memphis) to win it all would have been a pretty safe bet. And as this weekend’s games approach, it still is…which kinda makes you wonder why were even had a season?
Anyway, in the first game of the night, we have Memphis and UCLA. Memphis has been the streakiest of the four teams over the last month, though it probably isn’t fair to call a team with one loss “streaky.” But the reason they don’t have more loses is that the haven’t played anyone.
UCLA hasn’t been particularly impressive either in the tourney, though. And Memphis is a very talented team with great size and speed. I know defense wins championships, and UCLA is one of the best defensive teams in the country this year. But despite all my prior picks in at least three tourney pools (I had Memphis going out in the Sweet 16), I’m going with the Tigers in this game. I think their bigs will be too much for Kevin Love, and Chris Douglass-Roberts will have a He-Man of a game to send them to the title game.
But that game is just an appetizer for the main dish of the night between UNC and Kansas. There are so many angles to this game. You have Roy vs. his old team, though none of his recruits remain. And another angle all too familiar to Kansas fans reared its head this week, when Sean Sutton resigned from Oklahoma State, opening Jayhawks coach Bill Self up to questions on whether he will return to his alma mater. Sounds a lot like 2003, when Ol’ Roy gave his famous “I could give a $#!^ about Carolina right now” quote after KU lost in the national final.
Don’t let the coaches fool you. Both of these will be a distraction for both teams heading in. Roy is nothing if not a sentimental old country boy, which is why I love him. It will be tough for him to muster enough anger at his former team to motivate his team to win. And KU fans, players and coaches will be worried about Self leaving, thinking “not again,” all the while praying that they can beat Ol’ Roy once and for all.
But when the ball is tipped, all that will be forgotten. Call me a fool, but I just don’t think anything can distract Tyler Hansbrough this year, and his drive will carry the team to the final game. Kansas didn’t exactly look like world beaters last weekend, and Carolina did. And the Heels beat Davidson by four, while the Jayhawks could manage just a two-point win. So there’s that.
That sets up what should be an interesting and very entertaining final between Memphis and UNC. Memphis may be the only team in the country with more talent than the Heels this year, and it should be a close game. But the Tigers have been known to be very undisciplined this year, as any John Calipari team is, and I think the Heels have the upperhand in both coaching and guard play, the two things that really win titles. That is, if there’s not more to Tywon Lawson’s injury than previously mentioned.
So I will be sitting in front of a television somewhere for much of the weekend and hopefully on Franklin Street Monday night celebrating.
GO HEELS!!!
