March 22, 2007

Final Four to host all number one teams?
Stephen Howard
sjh001@marietta.edu

The 2007 NCAA Final Four Tourney is underway and will continue until April 2nd in Atlanta.   The one seeds  are  Florida, Ohio State, Kansas, and  North Carolina. Of the four Kansas has arguably the easiest road to the finals, as  their only real competition in their region is the number 2 UCLA Bruins.  Unlike in previous years no real Cinderella story  has emerged. In fact after the opening round the only real upsets were Winthrop  (over no.6 Notre Dame) and Virginia Commonwealth ( over no.6 Duke).  The Second Round games will be played on march 22nd  and the 23rd.  With the regional finals the following days, being the 24th and 25th.   You should have already one your brackets, as the competition for campus bragging rights has begun.  Here is an update of how the Final Four has gone and will proceed,  just in case you have yet to watch ESPN ( channel 25 in your dorm room).

              In the second round, The Ohio State Buckeyes were nearly upset by  Xavier, kept alive by a miracle 3-pointer to send the game to overtime.  Those Buckeyes,  paced by Mike Conley, Jr. will face a high-scoring Tennessee team in the regional semifinals.   In the bottom half of the South region  Texas A&M will meet Memphis, who is on the nations longest  win streak at 24.  In the Midwest Region the defending champs, the Florida Gators,  should  make it to the Final four, having to go thru Butler and  the winner of  the Oregon versus UNLV game.  In the West Region the UCLA Bruins will face a streaky Pittsburgh team led by Aaron Gray. While UCLA should advance to meet Kansas in the regional Finals, if Aaron Gray can dominate the inside Pitt could pull off the upset.  In the East region, Georgetown led by Patrick Ewing Jr. should advance to the regional finals and may upset one seed North Carolina to advance to the Final Four.  The Tar Heels, led by Tyler Hansborough  has been  less productive with his facemask ( caused by his broken nose), but could regain his dominance and make the trip to Atlanta.

            So my picks for the Final Four this year are Georgetown, Ohio State, Florida and Kansas.  With Georgetown facing off against  Ohio State in what could be the best game on the tournament.  Florida will take on a Kansas team that  should be beaten easily.  Georgetown has the determination to do what Xavier could not finish off the Buckeyes hope at a national championship.  However, if the OSU Buckeyes muster yet another miracle comeback a game versus the Florida Gators is a definite possibility. As, Florida should easily defeat Kansas  on the road to repeat as National champs. Perhaps the score of the Championship game will mirror the last time the two schools  played.  A 41-14 Gators victory for the NCAA Basketball National Championship? Unlikely but the Gators will become National Champs , with Greg Oden taking a cue from Troy Smith and  limp into the pros.