Wow what a Final Four! The giants of college basketball have fallen, toppled by two long shots and two other solid teams who couldn’t rate better than a 3-seed. Connecticut, the Big East tournament champion who is riding on the back of their stellar point guard, Kemba Walker will meet Kentucky in one semifinal. The other semi will pit Butler, last year’s runner-up against VCU, the team that all the pundits said didn’t deserve to be in the tournament.
On paper Butler and VCU don’t belong here. These two “mid-major” schools don’t get the big name high school recruits that power programs do. However they’ve proven their worth where it counts, on the court, and are now two wins away from a national championship. So how is it possible for teams like this to compete with the big boys? Well it’s a numbers game. Unlike in football where a team needs 40+ excellent players to compete nationally, in basketball you only need a few. Also, the most highly touted players at marquis schools tend to play only a year or two before going pro. That doesn’t happen often at Butler or VCU where the players stick around and have more time to develop.
My basketball prognostication skills are lousy as evidenced by my being knocked out of a pool early with the brilliant pick of Louisville to win it all. Louisville lost in the first round to a huge underdog. I also was quoted in a prior blog as saying that VCU, like all the other low seeds, had no chance of winning. So I’ve learned my lesson. There is no point in me predicting the outcome of this tournament. However I can’t resist. I like Kentucky to outlast UConn and VCU to continue its run by beating Butler. Then John Calipari and the Wildcats make all the fans in the blue state of Kentucky proud with their eighth national championship. Apologies and excuses to follow in the next blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment