If you have a bracket similar to me or the majority of the country, your bracket is pretty much finished. If it lasted past the first weekend consider yourself a genius. I won’t drag on and bore you back #13 LaSalle or #15 FGCU heading to the sweet 16 because I am sure by know you know what they did. Let’s get to the Final Four.
- #1 (Overall) Louisville
- #4 Syracuse
- #4 Michigan
- #9 Wichita State
The way the bracket’s have shaped, The Louisville Cardinals will play the cinderella Wichita State Shockers at 6:05 PM and the Syracuse Orange will take on the Wolverines from Michigan at 8:49PM this Saturday April 6th. These game’s are tough, it would be easy to say that the Shockers will go down because they are a 9 seed taking on the number 1 overall, but they already have 4 wins in this tourny and have slain Goliath a few times and I don’t see why they couldn’t continue. ON THE OTHER HAND, Louisville (-10.5) is the best team in the country and just “boat raced” #2 Duke by 23. Wichita State although its a nice story, the Cardinals in the final year of the legendary Big East conference led behind Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino should take this game by a score of 78-64, and by doing so cover the (10.5) point spread. So if you were going to bet take Louisville. WICH ST. will hang close throughout the first half and into the second but will loose steam as the “Fighting Pitino’s” will send the Shockers back to Kansas.
The second contest is a lot harder to choose. Both the “Cuse” and Michigan have been ranked #1 in the Polls this season, and both have gone through dry spells as well. Luckily for both they got hot at the right time and now find themselves in the national semifinals. These teams are very evenly matched on the floor, but on the sideline Syracuse has a huge advantage. Coach Jim Boeheim has won 920 games in his Hall Of Fame Career and is 3-0 in National Semifinal games and won the 2003 National Championship behind Carmelo Anthony over the Kansas Jay Hawks. In addition Boeheim plays a defensive scheme called “The 2-3 Zone”. This zone have been a staple of Jimmy for many year’s in the Big East conference and it is said that this year he has his best cast to performance the scheme. By this time of the night #1 Louisville from the Big East will have already clinched and it will seem fitting for fellow conference mate Syracuse to join them for one last conference showdown. If you haven’t figured it out already i’m taking Syracuse (+1.5) to win the game and of course cover the spread by a final score of 59-52. Michigan leads at half time but the Cuse makes half time adjustments and outscore’s the wolverines by a large margin in the second frame.