The tournament, in what seems like warp-speed fashion, has now played itself down to the best of the best. The Final Four. It will be the lowest total combined four seeds (1, 1, 2, and 2 for a total of 6) since 1993 when the total of the seeds was five. It will also mark the second year in a row without an ACC team, something that hasn’t happened for over 20 years – the 1984-85 tournaments.
Florida will have the rare opportunity to capture back-to-back
Tourney Titles. The last to do it was Duke after the 1991-92 seasons. The Big 12 will not get an opportunity to end their drought as they have not won the tournament since 1988 when they had both teams in the final with Kansas besting
Oklahoma.
Overall, you’d have to say the selection committee did a great job seeding the teams this year as the upsets were minimal and the higher seeds for the most part prevailed. So who will be wearing the crown when the last horn sounds next Monday Night?
Ohio
State was high on a lot of pre-season lists to be here. And of course
Florida with everyone back, UCLA with most everyone back, and
Georgetown with Green and Hibbert.
Ohio
State has been interesting. They have just three losses the entire year with two of those coming at the hands of No. 1 seeds and the other to a No. 2 seed. Yet they barely survived two games earlier in the tournament to stay alive. Georgetown looked down-and-out versus
North Carolina, but rallied to push the game to OT. UCLA has lost games during the season that defies them being here. Losses to California, Stanford and
Washington made many believe they would not get to the Final Four, but they proved the naysayers wrong.
Florida did not finish well either, but seemed to flip a switch to run the table in the SEC tourney. They kept that momentum going, surviving without a major challenge thus far. Their closest game has been seven points, the largest of all survivors. Could the No. 2 seeds pull off twin upsets on Saturday? Certainly they could, but we have seen just one No. 2 vs. No. 2 final in 22 years. Whatever happens it will be hard to argue that these aren’t the four best teams in the country, which isn’t always the case when the tourney reaches the Final Four. Four teams left, three more big games, two survive the weekend, one champion, and a lot of shattered dreams. Welcome to the Madness!
Tags: Cavs predictions against the spread, NBA Picks 2010