I must say that the Elite Eight was a much better round to watch than the Sweet Sixteen. A two seed and a three seed winning might not be much of an upset, but it at least gives the final four a little bit of that Cinderella groove back. Now everyone rooting for the underdog will cheer for Michigan State versus UConn and Villanova in the game with UNC. The question is will those cheers be wasted on teams that are simply too overmatched to keep their NCAA season going.
Michigan State versus UConn
The Michigan State Spartans get to play its fourth consecutive opponent with a decent big man. This time the small Spartans get to try and contain the 7-foot-3 giant Hasheem Thabeet. This match up is not as lopsided as it may appear in the post though.
Center Goran Suton has contained USC’s double-double machine Taj Gibson; a Kansas center, Cole Aldrich, having a monster tourney; and Louisville’s Earl Clark, a player who can play the in the post and in the perimeter. Of course, none of these players has been more than an inch shorter or taller than Suton, but each was supposed to decimate the Eastern European import. As we saw, none of them even close to outplaying the Spartan big man.
Goran has proven to have learned enough tricks on defense in the post to front post players effectively while drawing them out thanks to his range that extends to the three point line. Thabeet and the rest of the UConn Huskies are used to playing man-to-man defense, so either they must switch to zone or the Tanzanian giant will have to lurk away from the rim. Without Thabeet close to the rim, UConn’s size advantage dwindles away. Jeff Adrien has been a double-double contributor, but he is hardly an NBA-sized power forward.
Let’s be clear. In no way is UConn the underdog in this game. Senior point guard A.J. Price is quick and experienced, forward Stanley Roberts has done a great job replacing some of the scoring they team lost when Jerome Dyson stopped playing, and UConn has managed to handle teams that play tough (Purdue) and teams that are uber-athletic (Missouri).
Much is sure to be made of the Spartans home court advantage since the Final Four is selling tickets for games in Detroit, but playing as a slight underdog in front of a sea of green could just as easily lead to massive choking. If this was East Lansing things would be different, but this is a different arena on the national stage for Michigan State.
The Spartans also have to deal with some dual personalities. Will sophomore point guard Kalin Lucas be the player who mistake after mistake in the victory over Kansas show up or will he play calm and under control like he did in the win over Louisville? Will senior Travis Walton and the rest of the guards brick threes all day long like they did against the Jayhawks or will they find their collective stroke like in the Louisville game?
Villanova versus North Carolina
Villanova defeated a tough division opponent in Pitt. They have been steadily improving with each round in what many are dubbing as a new 1985 (the ‘80s are definitely back). This gutsy team is truly the Cinderella in the Final Four. They are the lowest seed left and they have few true NBA prospects on the team (let the NCAA Tourney fervor diminish before you start talking about Scotty Reynolds’s NBA career).
The win in the Elite Eight was a Big East Beat down by all accounts, but they are playing a team that was once the favorite to win the tourney at the beginning of the season and has since found a deep roster that goes 10 deep. Still the seven-man rotation for Nova is hardly something to dismiss. Junior guard Reynolds and senior forward Dante Cunningham are the floor leaders and will need to start out strong. They also need to guard UNC’s two best players, Ty Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough.
This game will really be in the refs hands. Villanova is a Big East team that is going to need to play with Big East toughness to defeat the sweet shooting UNC Tar Heels. If the refs do not let the Wildcats play a little rough then look for the seniors to be sitting on the bench hiding their faces and tears with a towel with six or seven minutes left.
The reality is that UNC still wins with a smooth flowing game. Lawson brings the ball up and penetrates setting up shooters like Wayne Ellington and Danny Green for three or pulling a defender forward to let Hansbrough or Deon Thompson get some rim shattering Sportscenter highlights.
Villanova will be best served to slow the pace down and they have the personnel that ca do this. The line is simply a thin one, but luckily the Wildcats can play without fear of any expectations since they are not supposed to be in the game and few think they can actually win this contest.
UNC knows that they are the favorites and they also know that this is Tyler Hansbrough’s last chance to shine in college before he goes onto to be a bench player on an NBA team. If the game gets rough, this team will need to step up and add a little black to that Carolina Blue.
The win over Oklahoma was nice, but I saw a Sooners team that seemed to have little clue as to what to do other than feed it in to future number one NBA draft pick Blake Griffin. They are going to play a team that is sure to be hyped up by memories of a championship run in 1985. They will also be playing a much more balanced team with more than just one or two options on offense.
This tournament was close to looking like another snoozer, but the Elite Eight breathed some knew life into March Madness and now the Final Four looks like it has the requisite underdogs and storylines to justify the week-long tournament coverage on ESPN.