The Final Four

So, how’s your bracket? Mine isn’t doing so bad, considering I actually have two teams in the Final Four, which is better than almost everyone. LSU is this year’s “team I picked to lose in the first round but made it to the Final Four”. Other hall of fame TIPTLITFRBMITTFFs include Syracuse in ’03 and Ohio State in 1999. The fact of the matter is, nobody picked George Mason, to get this far, and everyone picked either Duke, Connecticut or Villanova to win the tournament this year. Clearly, that’s not going to happen.
The people that are in charge in their office pools right now are the ones who picked Florida or UCLA. Perhaps you should have listened to me then, no? Instead of flapping my gums about how my bracket has been ruined, or how George Mason is the greatest Cinderella of all time, why don’t we look to the future?
LSU looks like the clearly superior team against UCLA. They have Glen Davis, who is clearly the Shaquille O’Neal, dominant center of the NCAA tournament. He can control a game from the paint. UCLA plays a smaller game, with more emphasis on their guard play and defense. Both teams play a slower pace and LSU is better equipped for that type of game. The only way I see UCLA pulling this game out is if they press and force the tempo. The Bruins are more athletic, but the Tigers are simply bigger. The first half will tell me who will pull it out, but if both teams play the way they have been, without changing their game plans, LSU will reach the finals.
In the other semifinal, you have Florida, who looks unstoppable right now. They have three things that I look for in a national title team. 1) Athleticism 2) Tenacity 3) A ridiculously ugly star player who I don’t want to look at anymore. The Gators are getting by almost exclusively on hustle. You have to respect that out of a team. George Mason, on the other hand, is getting by on luck. They, to be fair, flat out dominated Michigan State, and beat up Wichita State, but against teams without a “State” in their name, they have struggled. They gave Connecticut all the chance in the world, and the young North Carolina team didn’t really show up to play. Florida proved against Wisconsin-Milwaukee that they don’t take teams lightly and will keep up their grit and dogged play for 40 minutes and put away the Patriots early.
In the title game, theoretically between LSU and Florida, I give Florida the edge. Joachim Noah posesses the athleticism to get around and over Davis. Think of him as the Tim Duncan (with worse hair and more energy) to Davis’s O’Neal. Most importantly, LSU has been giving their opponents chances to win ever since they played Duke in the Sweet 16, and Florida has been taking advantage of their opponents’ gaffes. If things continue as they have, I foresee the Florida Gators as the 2006 NCAA Champions. I would listen to me on this one…