Final Four time again, and at least I got one of the four participants right, picking West Virginia to defeat Kentucky. The young, talented, and clueless Wildcats cooperated in full by heaving up enough bricks against the Mountaineers to satisfy even Ignatz Mouse. I also correctly predicted the Butler-Kansas State and Duke-Baylor Elite Eight set-tos but got the winners wrong. Extenuating circumstances may be claimed in the former case, as the NCAA and CBS obliged K-State to play the early game last Saturday after the Wildcats had barely survived an epic double-OT thriller with Xavier two nights before. Nicky can vouch for the fact that I predicted that K-State would poop out long before CBS' Gregg Doyel made the same point in his blog after the fact. Between getting a fried opponent in the Regional final and playing an Arinze Onuaku-less Syracuse in the Sweet 16, Butler's first Final Four appearance benefited from a huge helping of good fortune. Remember that the Bulldogs only beat Murray State (the school in Kentucky, not the dancing academy) by two points in the second round. Butler getting to play the national semi a few miles from its campus in Indy is a great story, and I certainly wouldn't mind if they scratched out two more wins in their unspectacular but effective fashion, but my gut tells me that Michigan State's experience will prevail in Saturday's first Final Four game.
The game between Duke and West Virginia will probably decide the national champion. Here, I think that Duke's team intelligence will rule the day. Mike Krzyzewski is not going to stand idly by like a mannequin, as John Calipari did while Kentucky was melting down and missing shot after shot. I figure that, given the extra time to prepare, Coach K will figure out how to get his shooters good looks. I like Duke over WVU by a handful of points. Then, in Monday's final, last year repeats itself as Michigan State hits the wall, Duke wins relatively easily, and Krzyzewski bags his fourth national title -- and his most unexpected one apart from 1991, when a youngish Blue Devil team shocked unbeaten UNLV in the national semis.
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Speaking of big-time (relatively speaking, that is) sports showdowns this weekend, #1 Stevenson plays #2 Salisbury in men's lacrosse on Saturday afternoon at the Owings Mills athletic complex. The two schools' women's teams will play in the morning. This is as big as it gets for Stevenson athletics -- the games have been hyped on Stevenson's home page for a solid week -- and I hope to get over there with Nicky to see at least part of the action. Neither of us "get" lacrosse, but it is definitely an "in" sport around here and the laxers are the closest thing Stevenson has to big athletic stars on campus.
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