Author: John Paulsen (Page 885 of 937)

The pretenders are all gone. So are the Cinderellas. The two remaining teams are simply playing the best ball at the right time of the year, but only one can win the title. So who will it be?

Florida goes into the game as a one-point favorite, led by four sophomores – Joakim Noah, Taurean Green, Corey Brewer and Al Horford. The other starter, Lee Humphrey, is a three-point specialist who hit six from long range in the Gators’ win against George Mason. They are balanced offensively and have been playing great defense as well, containing their opponents’ big men while harrassing their three-point shooters.

Offensively, the Gators will find the going tough against the Bruins. UCLA’s defense during the tournament has been superb, allowing their opponents just 52.8 ppg over the first five games. They matchup well with the Gators defensively, Ryan Hollins should be able to counter Noah, while Luc Richard Mbah a Moute tries to handle Horford. The question with UCLA is – will they be able to score enough to get the win?

These two teams are very evenly matched and barring one team being completely off their game, I think it is basically a tossup. I’m going to go with the Bruins as they’ve shown more late game grit, while Florida, aside from the Georgetown game, has had pretty easy going thus far in the tourney. Mentally, I think that UCLA feels they are a team of destiny after their unlikely victory over Gonzaga in the Regional Semifinals.

The over/under (127.5) seems high. I think this game will be in the 50’s. Both teams play great defense and I suspect the shooting might be a bit off early on as the players feel the pressure. After two boring semifinal games, I sure hope this one is a thriller. It promises to be a good one.

The Final Four kicked of yesterday, and the two semifinal games were snoozers, completely unrepresentative of this year’s tournament. Defense reigned supreme in both games, with Florida shutting down George Mason’s three-point shooting (2-11) and containing the Patriots’ interior players (23 points from Jai Lewis and Will Thomas on 9-25 shooting). The Gators were on fire from behind the arc, going 12-25 from long distance, en route to a 73-58 victory over this year’s Cinderellas.

I thought the under (121) would be a good bet in the second game, and as I watched both teams struggle scoring in the second half, I was kicking myself for not placing a wager. The final score had the Bruins on top, 59-45. UCLA shut down LSU’s inside game, forcing Glen Davis into 5-17 shooting. Davis also missed six of his 10 free throws, which didn’t help. UCLA’s defense is becoming stuff of legend, but their offense showed up in the first half as they scored 39 points against a good LSU defense, giving them a 15-point halftime lead. Freshman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had a great game, scoring 17 points and grabbing 9 rebounds in the win.

The Florida / UCLA title game is set for 9:21 pm (ET) on Monday. Stay tuned for a preview of the game.