One Shining Moment

Well, let's just say I had a post with full predictions for the Final 4 all set to go on Friday but I never got around to posting it up. And to make it worse, all of my predictions were dead wrong. I went on and on about Georgetown's offense and UCLA's perimeter play. Well Georgetown's offense was alright, but the point guard play of Mike Conley was terrific. I know that Greg Oden's simply being on the floor is so important to the Buckeyes, but does anyone doubt that Conley is the MVP of this team. He creates so many open looks for his teammates and most importantly, he always seems to be the one with the ball when the shot clock is winding down and a play needs to be made. I'd love to see him stick around for another year or two and finally escape Oden's shadow. By the way, if Oden spread his legs on that dunk attempt when Green tried to take that charge, I think we would have seen VC over Fred Weis II. He makes about 5-10 plays every game that makes me turn to whoever's next to me and say, he's the #1 pick without a doubt.

The Gators looked great. I didn't think that their perimeter guys would be able to handle UCLA's pressure as well as they did. For the first 10 minutes or so, it seemed like they were adjusting. Then Brewer made a couple big 3s and forced UCLA to stretch the defense a little bit opening up the inside for Noah, Horford, and Richard. If Florida's guards perform like that tonight, I can't see them losing.

As for my prediction, I'm rooting for The Ohio State University, but I can't see them beating Florida after the way they played on Saturday. I think Florida is just the better team with the better coach. Then again, I do think Ohio St will have the 2 best players on the floor, but then Florida has numbers 3-7. I think Ohio St. should try and go big to keep Oden from having to contend with Noah and Horford by himself and limit him from foul trouble. Oden should stay away from Noah when on defense as he can be very active on offensive end and might lead to cheap fouls for the big man. Oden should guard Richard whenever he's in the game so that he can concentrate on coming over on the weakside whenever Noah and Horford make a move toward the basket.

Florida needs to continue to shoot well from the perimeter. As long Humphrey, Green and Brewer are knocking down shots, they're close to unbeatable. This strategy is contrary what many coaches usually teach about attacking inside first to open up the outside shots, but with a team like Florida with 2 of the top 5 big men in America, teams will consistently double down and sag to help. By hitting a couple of deep shots early, OSU will be forced to stretch it's defense and leave Oden by himself under the basket as a one man help. This can work against teams with only one big man, but with a team that has Horford and Noah, its a recipe for disaster.

Prediction: Fla. 81 OSU 74

And I can't wait for One Shining Moment. For anyone who loves college basketball or even anyone that has a soul, this has to be the best part of the college basketball year. I'm a huge geek about it and I actually got a tape with every single One Shining Moment from when it started back I believe in 1985 until 2005. Then I proceeded to record last year's to the tape and fully plan on doing it again this year. And once again, yes I'm a geek.

I despise Alex Rodriguez.