A Formidable Final Four
With Kansas squeaking by Davidson 59-57 Sunday afternoon, all four top seeds are in the Final Four for the first time in NCAA history.
It’s a fitting year for this historic development though, because these four teams—Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina and UCLA—have dominated college basketball all season long.
So far, they have combined for a record of 143-9, and have owned the polls as much as they have owned their opponents.
In my admittedly woeful bracket, I have Kansas and UCLA meeting in the National Championship game with the Jayhawks coming out on top, but right now, that doesn’t look too promising.
As good as Kansas and UCLA are, neither seem to be playing their best right now, with Kansas struggling against a 10-seed and UCLA having several close calls dating back to the close of the regular season. On the other hand, North Carolina and Memphis have been demolishing good teams.
I still think Kansas has the best starting five in the country, and that if they can pull it together they can beat UNC or anyone else, but one thing’s for sure: it should be a fun Final Four.
4 comments:
I also had Kansas winning it all. They're still a great team, but UNC keeps looking better and better.
Kansas was the only Final Four team I got right, as it turned out. My wife had all four one-seeds, so I have another long week ahead of me.
As a Kansas fan, I highly approve of your choice, but I don't think that they'll pull it off - especially if they lose control of the game like they did with Davidson.
John,
I feel your pain. I actually had three of the four in (I had Memphis losing in the Elite 8, but to Stanford), but my wife's bracket is considerably better than mine.
Ever since she correctly picked Davidson to upset Georgetown, I haven't really heard the end of it.
V,
One thing that all of the remaining teams have in common is that they all have a plurality of very good players (unlike, say, Davidson), but I still maintain that Kansas has the best group of 6-7 players in the country.
Sometimes though, none of them really take command and they play pretty tentatively, almost as if they're trying not to lose (that's how I felt they were playing in the first half against Davidson, which was all I got to see).
Hopefully they'll pull it together before Saturday, because UNC is the best team they'll see all year. I think the winner of UNC/Kansas will win the championship.
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