Memphis' Derrick RoseHere we are, all waiting for that one thing that every fan loves to talk about and looks forward to every year. There have been bad ones, good ones, and everything in between, but nonetheless, you will have your eyes glued to the TV tonight to watch. Wait...I'm not talking about the game, I'm talking about "One Shining Moment." Of course, before we get to that point we have to crown a new champion in Men's College Basketball. If you are wondering who I am going to pick in tonight's matchup, perhaps the picture above may give you a little heads up. On to the matchup...
Kansas vs Memphis (-2.5)
We've all seen it coming, and yet no one until now has believed it. Memphis is by far the best team in the country and has been playing like it and steam rolling "good" teams one after the other. If you watched their Semifinal matchup against UCLA, who many had predicted would win it, you just never got the feeling that UCLA had a chance. Shipp hit two quick 3's, but then UCLA got caught up in the "run-n-gun" and Memphis absolutely began to dominate. With 12+ minutes to go both teams were right around 20 points and on pace to score in the 90's, but things did finally slow down, but not enough for UCLA to make a difference. It was almost as if Memphis got bored with them, and any time UCLA tried to widdle the lead down, then CDR (Christopher Douglas Roberts) and Derrick Rose would make a driving layup or hit a 3 pointer, and that was that. I'm expecting more of the same tonight against Kansas.
Speaking of Kansas (don't you love segways :-) ), they shocked not only myself and UNC, but the entire nation with their onslaught in the first 10 minutes of the game. In watching the game with my friend, I literally went to the kitchen for another beer with the KU lead about 7, and came back and he just said, "Well, Kansas is up by 18 now!" KU actually scored something like 18 unanswered and had roughly a 28 point lead 10 minutes into the game. And that was against the "top-rated" team in the tournament. WTF! Of course, this basically blew my tournament brackets apart, but UNC did make a valiant effort to come back and somewhat exposed to Kansas to weaknesses that Memphis will not have a hard time exploiting.
KU is made up of Chalmers and Rush, both good players, but I don't think Chalmers will be able to do much tonight. Rush might be Ok as he is a little bit taller and can handle the bigger guards of Memphis, but they won't be able to make up for the likes of Rose, Dorsey and CDR. Memphis is good...plain and simple. It's like watching the UNLV from years past that was simply so talented that all you could do was just be amazed. To think that Derrick Rose was playing in High School games last year just makes me shudder. Memphis is going to roll to victory tonight and Calipari will get his title, and Derrick Rose will be off signing endorsement deals as he heads into the NBA Draft.
