NCAA Tournament Preview - The Final Four

After it was all said and done, North Carolina proved that they might be the best team in college basketball.

The Tar Heels dominated the Oklahoma Sooners on Sunday as 7 point favorites in the BetUS Sportsbook 72 to 60 to make it to the Final Four. North Carolina didn’t have to keep Blake Griffin, Oklahoma’s superstar player, out of the paint because both Ty Lawson and Danny Green for the Heels went off. Griffin scored 23 points and grabbed 16 boards but it wasn’t enough to counter the 19 and 18 that Lawson and Green put up respectively.

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North Carolina’s dominating performance comes on the heels, no pun intended, of their destruction of Gonzaga last Friday night. In that game, NC beat the Zags into submission.

Now, North Carolina will go into their game against the Villanova Wildcats this Saturday in the Final Four as the favorite.

Or, will they? It’s not like ‘Nova didn’t play a fantastic game on Saturday to get to the Final Four. The Wildcats had to first beat Duke as a 2 ½ point underdog ATS on Thursday then they had to beat Pittsburgh as a 2 point underdogs against the spread on Saturday. Villanova dominated the Dookies beating the Blue Devils 77 to 54. Against the Panthers, things were tougher, but ‘Nova still came through with a victory, 78 to 76, versus their Big East rivals.

Villanova is more battle tested than North Carolina which is one of the reasons they should be considered an interesting long shot in their game this Saturday.

On the other side of the bracket, the Connecticut Huskies were in a rough and tumble game with the Missouri Tigers until around the 5 minutes mark on Saturday. That was when the Huskies turned it on and started playing the kind of basketball that they had on display in the first two rounds. Connecticut ended up beating the Tigers 82 to 75 and covered the 1 ½ point spread with ease.

Purdue didn’t pose much of a challenge to UConn on Thursday either as the Huskies beat the Boilermakers 72 to 60. Connecticut covered the 7 points spread with ease in that game and will now go into their Final Four match-up on Saturday as a 4 point favorite in the sportsbook.

Who are they playing on Saturday? The surprise team of this Final Four, the Michigan State Spartans. MSU out defended the defenders on Sunday when beating the Louisville Cardinals by a score of 64 to 52. It was a terrific victory of for Spartans after they fought tooth and nail against the Kansas Jayhawks on Thursday night. They beat the Jayhawks by a score of 67 to 62 and will go into the Final Four, like Villanova, as a more battle tested team than their rival.

Do they have a shot? If past history is any indication, the Spartans have a huge shot. Coach Tom Izzo is a master motivator and having to beat USC, Kansas and Louisville during this tournament should have them primed and ready.

It’s on to Detroit for the 2009 Final Four!