Final Four Prognostications

ESPN reported today that of the 5 million-plus brackets on its website only two had selected the Final Four correctly. Although DBSF erred with the masses, he did have over half of the Final Four teams still alive in the second round. This preamble is included simply to qualify predictions, which based on past prognostications at least, will likely result in the opposite outcome of what is predicted.

VCU-Butler: VCU is a fart away from the Washington metro-area. The DC area is to basketball players what rural Louisiana is to football players, but multiplied--by like a lot (ironically, VCU has 0 players from the DC area, but its effect on talent must be a contagion). Honestly, University of Maryland Eastern Shore could probably win two games in the tournament if it were ever given something better than a 15-seed.

For a reason that has yet to be determined there is a wealth of basketball talent in the DC area. And, even though Butler has 1.5 pros on its team, DBSF likes VCU's size and speed. But, according to the commentators on Sportscenter that tell DBSF what to think everyday, VCU's game is predicated on building a lead with threes and maintaining it.



Winning the entire tournament while relying on threes presents consistency problems. And, considering that VCU is the first team in the history of the NCAA to win 5 straight games and not be in the Championship, DBSF is suspicious of their being able to stay hot from behind the arc (not to mention they were something like 3-13 from 2's in the first half verse Kansas). Verdict: Butler 68-58.

Kentucky-UConn: Younger super-athletes meet slightly older super-athletes. Kentucky can beat a third of the NBA's teams if it wants to. Kentucky can also lose to one of those junior colleges where bench players also work at the scores table/ concessions stand during games should the psychological state of certain Wildcat players deteriorate.

When they played in November, UConn won by 17. Kemba Walker has gotten to the point where he is now college basketball's version of Derek Rose--he makes phenomenal athletes look like they're being controlled by someone's little brother in a video game (see Brandon Jennings below . . ). Verdict: UConn 70-65.