NCAA final prediction: Michigan State wins

It is rare that we have a win-win NCAA tournament final, but this is one of them. If Michigan State wins, then it is a story-book ending for the team and the city of Detroit. If North Carolina wins, it is a story-book ending for the four UNC players who came back for another year and tried to atone for their epic meltdown against Kansas.

It is no secret that we are not big fans of the way Big Eleven teams play and ruin the game of basketball by turning it into an ugly football-like fullback-style slugfest. Sure, Izzo tried hard to spin it during the Final Four, but let's face it, they play UGLY and they uglify the game.

Izzo tried to atone by running against UConn, but he didn't run for the sake of running, he ran because it was their best chance to win the game. And certainly Izzo deserves a lot of credit for his mastermind game planning, but as a high-profile coach at a big university, he is also responsible as a "Guardian of the Game" to play the game the right way. Not to uglify and slugfest it like a desperate Missouri Valley Conference coach whose only chance to win is a 39-33 game.


The Prediction
So why are we predicting that Michigan State wins? Because they have 11 players to run and wear down North Carolina. Yes, wear down North Carolina. UNC only has a nine-man rotation, but their perimeter, as we have seen against Nova were worn down by the crazy Nova guards. With Ginyard and Graves gone, there is a lot of pressure on Lawson, Ellington and Green to deliver. Izzo is likely to try to take away their legs by running at them and on them.

UNC however has some options up-front, and if they win, perhaps this may be the game where Tyler Zeller makes his presence felt. He was clearly like a fish out of water against Nova, but against the bigger Michigan State bigs, he may have a better chance of being more productive. Heck, we may even see some Mike Copeland checking his Spartan-equivalent chubby, Draymond Green ;-)

At the same time however, let us not forget ...


Scoreboard
Everyone focuses on the blow out at Ford Field in December 2008 at the ACC-BigTen challenge, but that's not all.

Ole Roy has also beaten Michigan State in the NCAA tournament in 2007 and 2005. Yes, every two years. What year is this? 2009!

But the same thing did not work for UConn: 1999, check! 2004, check! 2009, no championship!


Preference
We prefer North Carolina to win the game, partly to "reward" the players who returned to college (which was the right decision in this case), and partly because Carolina plays the game the way it should be played (unlike Izzo State and most Big10 teams).

And while the return may have not boosted the NBA Draft stock for Tyler Hansbrough, this season has been very beneficial for Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington. Lawson has shown his outside shot and game-changer capabilities, and Wayne Ellington went from a wine-and-cheese shooter to an all-around two-guard with shooting but also rebounding and defense. It's like he grew ...onions in the summer ;-)

Myles Brand indirectly takes shot at Vitale's Hooters

During his interview with Seth Davis of "CBS Illustrated", NCAA president Myles Brand took an indirect shot at Dick Vitale's "Hooters" promotion, when talking about the limits of commercialism in collegiate sports. He mentioned "certain restaurants", and it's no secret that he was talking about "Hooters". Why "Hooters"? Because the way they objectify women is not exactly something that the NCAA and the college presidents want to be associated with since they are institutions of higher education, not neanderthal tribal meetings ;-)

"It didn't bother me a bit"

The "Salute" to the Final Four, an event that took place at the Fox theater in Detroit is an event worth watching (online, or reruns on CSTV). It is a basketball-festive type of an event, and Jim Nantz seems to do a pretty good job hosting it (which is a bit of a surprise). Maybe he pretends its golf ;-)

During that event, there was a gem of a moment. When interviewing Jay Wright, Jim Nantz mentioned how Villanova beat up UCLA and Duke by more than 20. At which point, Roy Williams said "it didn't bother me a bit", and then everyone LOL'ed because they realized this was a Duke-vs-North Carolina rivalry comment.

And it has indeed turned out great for UNC vs Duke. You may recall a few years ago, at the end of a Final Four game, Coach Ratzilla told "Dumb Ole Roy", "if you come to UNC, I'm gonna beat your ass". Well, well, well, Coach Ratzilla, it looks like you only got half of what you wanted! Because since Roy came to Carolina he has gone to three Final Fours, won one national title, may win another on Monday, and had an Elite 8 which should have been a Final Four if they didn't have the typical Carolina "losing interest" meltdown.

And recruiting-wise, UNC can get just about any player they want, while Coach K-zilla is loading up his roster with players that would make Adolph Rupp proud but can't get you to a Final Four ;-)

They needed Jerome Dyson after all

Izzo earned a lot more "Hall of Fame" bonus points tonight, after developing a completely different game plan on how to dismantle UConn. He ran against them and slugfested against Louisville. He managed to beat two Hall of Fame coaches and two #1 seeds back to back. These two wins earned him more respect among people who think the Big10 is a slugfest league (me included) :)

UConn badly needed Jerome Dyson in this game. Not having enough perimeter players who can score threes will eventually catch up with you when you play against a game-plan mastermind like Tom Izzo.

And Izzo's team versatility, which was praised heavily in the pre-season, but due to injuries and other issues was not heavily showcased in the regular season has finally come through. They are quite possibly the deepest team in America.

And this was a great outcome, we wanted the Spartans to get to the Final to give Detroit a nice psychological boost. We also wanted the winner of Nova/UNC to win it all because of Izzo's slugfest. But if Izzo is willing to play fast and not slugfest it out, then we'll be happy if he wins playing basketball the way it should be played. Basketball, not football-basketball :)

Ray Allen reveals Calhoun scandal

This is not an April Fool's day joke! During an interview yesterday with Mike and Mike on ESPN2/ESPN-Radio, Ray Allen, the former UConn great, revealed that during his college career, when visiting Kentucky, Calhoun took his team to a farm and showed them two horses mating. This is not a joke! Look it up in the ESPN archives!

Ray Allen said Calhoun did this to show them what a "real stud" is. Calhoun showing his team live horse p*rn? Oh my! That is SHOCKING ;-)

Final Four edition of OTL today

Don't miss today's Outside the Lines (3pm eastern), they will have an NCAA tourney doulbe-feature, evaluating the chances of UConn for winning both the men's and the women's national championship, and then taking a look at the wine-and-cheese program of UNC (North Carolina).

Check a preview and more at the OTL page at espn.com.

(NOT!) Arizona gets a reality check, hires Tim Floyd

Updated on Friday March 3rd 2009: Well it turned out to be NOT so. Tim Floyd rejected the Arizona job he was offered and he is staying at USC. Did he simply "play" Arizona for a bump in his USC salaries and standing? If so, he will get "showered" with all sorts of pleasantries next year when USC visits McKale.

So much for preserving the run and gun legacy of Lute Olson. Apparently the brass at Arizona was delusional in thinking that they could just bring in just about any coach they wanted. They seem to have forgotten that Arizona basketball IS Lute Olson, and without Lute, it's just another college in the Pac-10 and nothing more.

And certainly, the last three years of drama and revolving head coaching door did not help at all.

So, instead, they were forced to face reality, and pick someone, anyone they could get to sign. I'm glad they didn't pick the ugly Dookie.

Tim Floyd has his advantages, he is already familiar with the Pac-10, he has NBA and NCAA experience, he has ties to the South, which can help with Arizona recruiting.

From Floyd's perspective, this has its advantages too. He goes from being an afterthought in a city of thousands of stars, to a place where he is the only game in town. Much like his Iowa State job. And oh yes, Lute Olson was the head coach at Iowa before he arrived at Arizona. Coincidence? :)

Highest paid college basketball coaches

ESPN News featured a Wall Street Journal list of the top-paid college basketball coaches as of right now. Their salaries are annualized based on the length of their contract:

1. John Calipari at Kentucky, $3.96m per year (8 years, $31.6)
2. Billy Donovan at Florida , $3.3m per year
3. Bill Self at Kansas, $3m per year
4. Thad Matta at Ohio State, $2.5m per year
5. Tom Crean at Indiana, $2.36m per year
6. Rick Pitino at Louisville, $2.25m per year

Calipari filibusters press conference, ESPN News

Words coming out of Billy Gillespie's mouth were just like his offense. Slow, awkward and choppy. But today, Kentucky fans got their anti-Gillepsie and their anti-Pitino, all in one person, the new Blue Messiah, John Calipari, and they couldn't get him to stop talking and talking and talking.

This was a classic Calipari performance, the guy is a natural with crowds and people, BS or no BS. He managed to praise dozens of past Kentucky greats, commit his 12-year old son to the program, parade his family to appease the "family values" crowd, mention the medical program and his daughter at graduate school to appease the academia, signed the frakking contract to appease everyone with a common sense, and he even had time to go back to Memphis and give "farewell interviews", complete with an emotional bolting out of the interview and then returning for more.

Before the 2008 Election, there was a saying, "don't get between a camera and Joe Biden". The same can be said for Calipari. He will NOT stop talking. And that's cool :-)

We still haven't finished our opinion blog post on how the Calipari-at-Kentucky move will change the world of college hoops. Coming later this week/month/year :-)

Yikes! Ugly Dookie leading candidate for Arizona

As we said, Mark Few would not leave Gonzaga for Arizona, especially after the last three years derailed the program into yet another Pac-10 college, and Pitino would obviously not leave a great recruiting class and a shiny new arena, unless he wanted to "retire" in the dessert.

However, we do not like Jeff Capel as a coach in the Pac-10. Enough already with the Dookies. Already Dawkins is at Stanford. One is too many already. Arizona should honor their run and gun tradition and go for someone like Mike Anderson or maybe bring in Nolan Richardson for instant impact. Although Richardson may be a better match for Memphis, he would bring them a continuity in big coaching names there.

Calipari and big contracts on OTL

We still need to find some time to write about the Kentucky hire of Calipari, but for now, be sure to check Outside the Lines, today's edition will have a segment talking about big contracts. This segment of course inspired by the Calipari hire.

And don't forget the McDonald's All-American all-star game tonight on ESPN and ESPN-HD (8pm eastern, 5pm pacific).

Shocker! Tyler Hansbrough gains a fifth year of eligibility

North Carolina managed to shock the world of college hoops today by taking advantage of a very obscure and archaic rule that allows a four-year player to gain a fifth-year of eligibility. This is a controversial rule, similar to the Senate using an archaic procedural mechanism to bypass a filibuster.

The lawyers at UNC quickly moved in and filed all the necessary paperwork, giving the NCAA no option but to declare Tyler Hansbrough eligible for a fifth year!

This is official and legal and Tyler Hansbrough will be eligible to play UNC Hoops in 2009-2010 at UNC! Oh my!