Apr 04 2009
Final Four
I hope some day to see the excitement of the Final Four in College Football.
The best part of this weekend in my opinion is that the teams earned their way here. With the lack of major upsets, all four teams had to make it here on the merits of playing the best competition. Of course to most observers, Michigan State and Villanova are the “surprises”. Not as glamorous as their opponents, both of these teams have track records which would indicate this is legit, and not all that much a suprise.
Jay Wright has had this Villanova program heading in the right direction for years, and this is the end result of that hard work. It is good to see a team from the Philly area represent, as it has been a notoriously good college and high school basketball city. Is it just me or is it so strange that New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago and DC really haven’t had good, consistent programs for seemingly decades?
Tom Izzo leads the Spartans back to the Final Four, and I am willing to admit that I don’t give them enough credit. I’ve always respected Izzo, but at the same time, year after year I look at his no name teams from the generally weak-average Big Ten, and just bypass them. But here they are again, something like the 5th Final Four in about 10 years?
UConn and UNC are the glorious teams here. They have the big time future NBAers, All-Americans, coaches with reps bigger than their states. Thabeet, Price, Adrien, Lawson, Hansborogh, Green etc, all top tier players. They are the elite of the elite, the teams kids dream of playing for the first time they pick up a basketball. Even UNC’s color, Carolina Blue, is legendary. But they also represent the difficulty to win a championship. Jim Calhoun has two championships despite being the dominate programs coach for 20+ years. Roy Williams has had great team after great team at Kansas and now UNC, and yet has just one title. We often forget how difficult it is to get a team of teenagers and early 20 somethings to focus and bring their A game for six straight games against top competition.
Who do I like? I want UConn and UNC to meet up for the ultimate showdown. And the reality is, there is no reason it shouldn’t happen, except that Nova and MSU are not intimidate, have played teams of this caliber this season and know and relish in their underdog status. Unfortunately, I’m thinking it is a year for the bigs, the elites, to make it happen. UConn and UNC will meet for the championship Monday night.
North Carolina will win it all.
