The time has come…its time to crown a champion in Men’s college basketball. This year’s Final Four includes the Butler Bulldogs, Duke Blue Devils, West Virginia Mountaineers, and returning after being in the championship game from a year ago is Michigan State Spartans. There are plenty of storylines as well: Can Michigan State return to the championship game and win it his year? Is Butler going to be able to feed off the home court advantage and win the entire thing. Can Duke win Coach K his fourth title? What will Joe Mizzoula do for an encore after the Kentucky game?
Can Michigan State return to the title game? First instinct is no. Not without injured start guard Lucas. After mulling it over for a second, yes. It is tough to bet against a coach like Tom Izzo who has taken his teams to the Final Four 6 times in the past 12 years. If Michigan State is going to win the tournament they will need big games from Draymond Green and Durrell Summers also, Korie Lucious cannot hurt the Spartans and turn the ball over. But all Spartan hopes depends on the play of Raymar Morgan, as he will need to lead his team to victories in all aspects of the game and not just points.
How will Butler handle home-court advantage? Butler is the first team since the 1972 UCLA Bruins to play the Championship game in their own home city. Butler needs to feed off the home crowd if they want to win the tournament. They are going to have a tough time with all the Final Four experience their first opponent will throw at them (Michigan State). Butler is a young team and has never been on such as high as a stage as this but Butler should be able to handle all the hype and stage fright. Butler’s suffocating defense is going to need to be just as good if not better as it has been in the tournament thus far. Ronald Nored is where the defense intensity starts. Of course you must score points to win and Butler has their fair share of big time scorers, and as Gordon Haywood and Sheldon Mack both average 15 points per game.
Can an over-achieving Duke team win Coach K his fourth title? I have been very skeptical of this Duke team all year because I don’t see how they earned a number one seed in this years tournament. Yes they did win the ACC regular and tournament title, but ACC was down this year. I thought Duke would make it to the Sweet 16 and get bounced by Purdue, as you know that did not happen. If Duke wants to win its fourth title with Coack K they will need Jon Scheyer to continue his timely shooting and use his leadership skills to keep his team from losing focus during games. After Sheyer the only scoring threats left are Nolan Smith and Kyle Singular. Both are average over 17 points a game and Duke will need them to compliment Scheyer if they want a chance to bring home title number four.
Can Joe Mazzulla keep up his stellar play with Darrell Bryant out? Going into the Kentucky game all eyes were on back-up guard Joe Mazzulla. Mazzulla, who isn’t known for his shooting ability, but in the Kentucky game he went for a career high 17 points. West Virginia is going to need him to continue that success if they want to beat Duke come Saturday. The player to keep an eye on is De’Sean Butler. As he goes, the team will go. He can’t have an off day or West Virginia could be going home early. West Virginia’s best chance to win will be how they score in the post. If they do that they should be in the championship game.
PREDICTIONS
Duke v.s. West Virginia
Duke’s guard play will be key to a victory.
Mazzulla scores big then West Virginia wins.
Duke 58 West Virginia 60
Michigan State v.s. Butler
Michigan State will have to have stellar play from Kori Lucious.
Butler’s D will need to be just as good if not better than it has all tourney.
Michigan State 70 Butler 60
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