That said my final four has Carolina, Kansas, UConn, and Stanford making it to San Antonio.
The Carolina pick is obvious; Louisville will make it to the regional final, but there is no way that team can stop all of Carolina's weapons. Besides talent, this team is tough minded with a refuse to lose attitude. It's simply hard to beat the Heels. Finally, I love to watch the Heels take down a Pitino team, which most famously happened in 1995 in the east regional final. Stack and 'Sheed were fantastic in that game, as was Donald Williams.
Kansas is the obvious pick in their regional. Georgetown may give them a game, but the Detroit regional may be the easiest of the four. Wisconsin in the weakest 3 in the field and the fourth seed, Vanderbilt, could easily lose in the first round to Siena.
Texas should be the favorite in the Houston regional since they will be in their home state. But as I blogged before, Rick Barnes will find a way to mess that up. Like many, I think Memphis is overrated and will wilt in the tournament. I wouldn't be surprised to see them lose to Tyler Hansbrough's brother's team, Mississippi State in the second round. That probably won't happen, but they probably will lose to Pitt in the sweet 16. This is another relatively weak bracket. I see Stanford taking down Texas in the sweet 16, and then defeat Pitt to make it back to the Final Four.
In the Phoenix regional, I initially had a weak UCLA team winning that bracket. But upon further review, I can't see them getting past the Huskies. This could be a wide open bracket, with top four seeds UCLA, UConn, Duke and Xavier each having a semi-legit shots at the four. Duke should make it to the 16 but they're 5-4 in their last nine games, Singler is slumping, and when the jumpers aren't falling Duke has trouble. I have them losing to Xavier. When UCLA, a faux-Big East team, meets a real Big East team, the real Big East team should win. So I guess it's going to be UConn and Xavier in the regional final, with UConn going to San Antonio.
That said, UConn peaked a few weeks ago so who knows how that game will go. It's a toss up.
Either way, I think my dark horse pick Stanford will beat either UCLA or the Huskies, and in the Maudlin Roy Williams Bowl, Carolina will pour salt in the wounds of Jayhawks fans and take down Kansas in the other semi-final.
Stanford will try to slow down the Heels in the championship game, but Ellington and Green will calmly hit shots from outside, Lawson and Ginyard will fill the lane, and Hanbrough will out work and outscore both Lopez brothers.
For Carolina's second national championship in four years, and fifth overall.
1 comment:
That's the thing about this season: parity has come to college basketball. Even though the cream has risen to the top, the cream is in a very shallow glass.
Carolina has been good — and at times dominating — but there hasn't been a night in which we haven't been vulnerable. We've had to come to play.
That should help us in the tournament.
That, and the fact that we've got good guard play. In cases of parity, there are two big differences between winners and losers: guard play and coaching. With Ty and Le Q in our back court, it's hard not to like our chances.
We should go deep into the tournament rounds.
- Joey
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