In the end, this is what we all really want, don’t we? The best playing the best? Cinderellas from the Big South and mid-majors from the Midwest add cute story lines to the NCAA Tournament, but admit it. All they really do is botch your bracket.
Or did you really think George Mason had a chance in last year’s Final Four? Thought so.
This year, there is no clear favorite. No. 2 seed Georgetown (30-6) vs. No. 1 Ohio State (34-3), followed by No. 2 seed UCLA (30-5) vs. No. 1 Florida (33-5), on Saturday look to be two tight games. Pick two winners. Then pick another.
Good luck. But, actually, we’re all lucky. This is the most balanced Final Four since 1993, when second-seeded Kansas joined No. 1 seeds North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan in New Orleans.
It is four regular-season champions of major conferences located in the West, Midwest, South and East, all converging in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, draped in intriguing matchups. Florida and UCLA replay their title game from last year. Georgetown’s 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert and Ohio State’s 7-footer, Greg Oden, meet in one of the biggest clash of titans the Final Four has seen.
And for sentimentalists, there is the perfect human interest story to tug at heartstrings. Coach John Thompson III and forward Patrick Ewing Jr. help lead Georgetown into its first Final Four since 1985 when John Thompson, the father, and Pat- rick Ewing Sr. lost to Villanova.
The Thompsons’ heartfelt embrace Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J., with the father putting down his radio headset to grab his son, showed this Final Four will be more than X’s and O’s, help-side defense and open-court picks.
The mind games have begun, however. UCLA coach Ben Howland was on a national conference call Monday and said of the Gators, “They’re the best team in college basketball, and they’re improved this year.”
But is Florida a clear favorite over a UCLA team that had 15 steals Saturday against Kansas, arguably the quickest team in the country? Can you pick Florida over Georgetown, which held North Carolina – North Carolina! – to 2-for-23 shooting at the end of Sunday’s regional final? Or will Florida’s Al Horford and Joakim Noah meet their match against Oden, a freshman who has improved every game in the tournament and would be the NBA’s top draft pick this year?
“What they’ve done this year with the bull’s-eye on their chest is amazing,” Howland said. “Both Horford and Noah are, down the road, future NBA players. They’re the best big-man tandem on the same team I can remember.”
For what it’s worth, Las Vegas odds opened with Florida as a three-point favorite. But Georgetown-Ohio State is a pick-’em game, meaning there is no favorite. The UCLA-Florida line may be based on Florida’s 73-57 win over the Bruins last year. All five Florida starters are back, they’re more experienced and, as Gators coach Billy Donovan said Sunday, “Night in, night out, we get everybody’s best shot.”
But UCLA, with three new starters, is better defensively with new point guard Darren Collison recording the third most steals in school history. Plus, do not underestimate the revenge motive.
“It was horrible,” UCLA star Aaron Afflalo said Monday. “As a person you’re always trying to make your mark, whether it’s going undefeated or winning a championship. Winners who do things special are never forgotten. Second best is not enough.”
Georgetown vs. Ohio State is a bit of a rematch, too, but no one will bring up the Hoyas’ 70-52 rout in last year’s second round. Oden still was in high school. So was Buckeyes point guard Mike Conley Jr. Ohio State has four new starters.
Warning to Georgetown: The wrist injury that made Oden essentially play one-handed through February has healed.
But he will get a handful in Hibbert, who learned from the man who learned from the man who was one of the greatest big-man coaches of our time.
“This is the greatest thing that could happen to me,” the older Thompson told reporters Sunday. “I’m lucky to be able to share in my child’s life, and that’s more important than getting another spittoon or a statue.”
John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
