Quite an Elite Eight weekend last weekend. The Kentucky-Notre Dame game last Saturday Night was out the roof good with Karl Anthony Towns, Kentucky's stellar 6'11', 255 big man, going for 25 on 10-of-13 from the field. He was unstoppable, and the amazing thing was, Notre Dame didn't do enough to stop him. They never doubled down on Towns sending a guard to trap Towns down low when he had the ball in the paint. So Towns just dominated, but the Wildcats had to survive a heckuva battle with the Fighting Irish, 68-66, to advance to play Wisconsin, which went off from behind the arc against Arizona, as 6'6" small forward Sam Dekker finished five-of-six from trifecta with his high arching shot that didn't look like it would even touch the rim when the ball was in the air, but it swished right through the net almost every time. He was phenomenal in Wisconsin's 85-78 victory over 'Zona. Michigan State advanced to their seventh Final Four under Tom Izzo by outlasting Louisville, 76-70, in overtime, and Duke, behind Justice Winslow's and Matt Jones' 16 points, defeated Gonzaga, 66-52. Duke plays good offense, but they also get after it pretty well on D.
Here's a look at tomorrow's Final Four games at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Michigan State (27-11) vs. Duke (33-4)
6:09 PM ET/5:09 PM CT
Network: TBS
Tom Izzo and Coach K have combined for 19 Final Four appearances between them entering this Final Four game. That's outrageously good. Izzo has seven appearances and K has 12, tied with John Wooden for the most ever. Izzo has said through the course of this season that this is not the most talented team he's ever coached. He's said in the past that you need three NBA players in your rotation to win it all. I don't know if that's totally true, but a lot of times, it probably is true. And he's got three guys, Branden Dawson, Travis Trice and Denzel Valentine, who look like they'll play in the NBA. So he's got that part of the equation handled. But Duke has proven throughout the season that they are up to any challenge they face. They beat Wisconsin by 10 at Whiskey in November. They beat Louisville by nine at Louisville after they had lost two in a row and people were starting to write them off. They went to Virginia in early February when U.Va was the hottest team in the country, and knocked off the Cavaliers on some late stellar three point shooting. They have passed the mental toughness test. This will not be an easy game for them, but I like Winslow, point guard Tyus Jones and big man Jahlil Okafor to advance to the championship game as Coach K sets his sights on a fifth national championship and further cements his status as the one of the two greatest college basketball coaches ever along with John Wooden, who won 10 national titles in 12 years. Coach K's resume is not complete, so I don't want to judge him against the Wizard of Westwood until he finishes his career, which may be several years from now, at least I hope that's the case. Love him in the game.
Duke 69, Michigan State 60
Wisconsin (35-3) vs. Kentucky (38-0)
8:49 PM ET/7:49 PM CT
TBS
Wisconsin can really shoot it from trifecta and you have to do that to beat the Wildcats. Notre Dame played a great game against Kentucky, but didn't sink many threes. But their offensive game plan was good taking it right to the rim against the big fellas of the Wildcats. Still, you need to make at least six or seven threes in a game to beat them and, of course, shoot around 85% or better from the line if you get your free throw opportunities. Wisconsin can certainly shoot it, and they're highly proficient from the line, and they'll need to be because it's going to be hard for Frank Kamisky, the Badgers' 7'0" big man, to get a lot done in the paint. He may surprise me, but it's going to be hard against five combined 6'11" and 7 footers. Wisconsin should give Kentucky a good game, but it's not going to be enough because of Kentucky's marked advantage inside, their ability to get boards and put backs and their ability to score in the paint. And guards Aaron Harrison and Devin Booker are pretty solid three point shooters. They seem to make the clutch three when it counts, particularly Harrison. Aaron's twin brother, Andrew, and Tyler Ulis are pretty good guards, too. I expect a close game, but I like the Wildcats to advance and get Cal to his third NCAA championship game if you're not counting against him for his 2008 championship game at Memphis that was expunged from his record due to NCAA violations. But who's counting? Cal's never let rules get in the way of winning.
Kentucky 74, Wisconsin 73
MLB predictions
American League Championship Series
Oakland over Detroit in 7
NLCS
St. Louis over Washington in 7
World Series
Billy Beane has done an excellent job as general manager of the A's. He gets low priced, but high quality players and uses all kinds of statistical analysis to figure out if he can win with these players. And he does. Michael Lewis's book, Moneyball , chronicled Beane's methods which have led to pretty good success in a small market. The A's are usually in the bottom five of team salaries every year, but they make the playoffs most years. They haven't gotten over the hump and won a World Series yet, but they've put together a team this year, much in line with their teams of the past several years, to make a run in October. Oakland had the best team in the majors last year at the All-Star break, but Beane made the biggest mistake of his career before the trade deadline at the end of July by trading slugging left fielder Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox for Jon Lester, a stellar pitcher. Beane was going for pitching, but the loss of Cespedes from the lineup– he's a 25-30 home run and 90-100 RBI player–ruined the A's hitting chemistry. They didn't hit the rest of the season and lost out in the wild card game of the playoffs. It was a colossal blunder by Beane. But in typical Beane fashion, he traded away some key guys from last year and added some pieces, maybe some better bats as it turns out. The pitching is very good; Oakland always has good pitching. The A's have the best record in spring training at 22-9. They defeated the defending World Series champion Giants 8-2 last night. I'm going to go out on a limb and pick them over the most solid organization in baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals, which has a very good team and will upset the loaded Washington Nationals in the NLCS. A's get it done this year in October.
A's over the Cardinals in 7