On Monday, April 5th, the NCAA basketball season will come to a close. The championship game is not Kansas-Kentucky. It doesn't have two #1 seeds. It doesn't even have any of the AP All American first-teamers. Instead, it will be played by a 5 seed and the lowest 1 seed. I finally had a perfect post and nailed the Final Four prediction: Butler will play Duke for the National Championship. A large majority of the people I know had Kansas winning, some had Kentucky, a few had Syracuse, and then one or two had West Virginia or Ohio State. I don't know anybody who had Duke or Butler playing for it all, but the Blue Devils and the Bulldogs will each have a shot at 9:21 tomorrow night.
In this matchup, Duke is the heavy favorite. They are great at offensive rebounding, dishing it back outside and hitting threes. Duke has tons of momentum as well: they know that many people had them losing early in the tournament, whether it was in the Elite 8, Sweet 16 or even against Louisville or California. However, only one team is riding a 25-game winning streak. Only one team has a 33-year-old coach who has led his team to three straight Horizon League titles. That team is the Butler Bulldogs, and I am going to pick Butler to win tomorrow night.
Duke has a lot going for them in this matchup, but I just have a gut feeling that Gordon Hayward and company can come away with a win. Butler hasn't lost at home this season, and technically, they are home in this game (the Final Four has been played at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts). The crowd will definitely benefit Butler, as they play just six miles away from their home and Duke is one of the most hated teams in basketball. I think this should be a great game, but this tournament has been full of upsets, and I think that the final game will be an upset as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment