Finally, the Final Four: Louisville Looks Like A Winner
After two weeks of March Madness surprises, there’s just one day until the Final Four. # 1 Louisville will kick things off on Saturday against #9 Cinderella Wichita State at 6:09 p.m. ET, followed by the battle of the #4 seeds: Michigan vs. Syracuse.
All four schools bring compelling stories to their Final Four journeys but in the end, there’s only one winner. And the leader of the pack throughout the tournament has been Louisville. The team is currently at -150 to win on Monday.
For the Cardinals, it was a smooth ride getting to the Final Four as they knocked off North Carolina AT&T, Colorado State, Oregon (their tightest win at 77-69). But the game college hoops fans will likely never forget is last Sunday’s Elite Eight win against Duke.
Louisville’s Kevin Ware
It was a decisive 85-63 win but it was also the game where Cardinals Kevin Ware had his gruesome leg break. His teammates hit the floor in tears and coach Rick Pitino and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski were also moved to shed some too.
Unless you could rewind on your TV, the injury wasn’t replayed again.
Ware successfully underwent surgery and will join his team on Saturday in Atlanta for the game.
Louisville will enter it with a 14-game win streak and a second consecutive Final Four appearance.
As for their opponent, Wichita State rides into Atlanta with upsets over Pitt, #1 Gonzaga, fellow underdog LaSalle and Ohio State. The Shockers entered halftime leading the Buckeyes last Saturday by 13 and in the middle of the second half, extended it to 20 points. They won 70-66.
But can its Cinderella run continue? The odds are +12oo to win it all and history is not on its side as a #9 seed but Louisville as a #1 seed has the advantage to win the championship game.
It is one game at a time and in this semifinal, Louisville is the favored team by 10.5 points with a 132.5 u/o.
Should Louisville make it to Monday’s game, regardless they will play a No. 4 seed in the final.
Michigan vs. Syracuse
The second game will begin at approximately 8:49 p.m. ET. Both teams haven’t been to the Final Four in quite some time but for Michigan the dry spell has been longer: 1993.
Michigan’s Trey Burke
The team’s sophomore guard Trey Burke has been vital to this team’s success and just this week he won AP’s player of the year award. He’s already been voted as the Big Ten player of the year and is 4 to 1 to win this year’s Big Dance most outstanding player.
For the season, he has averaged 19.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 6.7 assists and for 3-pointers, he’s shot 40.1 percent.
Michigan’s team is all about offense and youth as three of its starters are freshmen. The team has shown its resilience and talent in this tournament as it defeated South Dakota State,VCU, Kansas (an OT win that was epic) and Florida in the Elite Eight.
Then there’s Syracuse. An underdog pretty much in the entire tournament after its end-of-regular season 61-39 Georgetown loss, followed by its second-half implosion against Louisville in the Big East tournament, they’ve been a nice surprise.
When Syracuse is good, they’re very good but bad Syracuse is another story. In the tournament, they’ve defeated Montana, California, #1 Indiana and Marquette. Good Syracuse has arrived and will face a huge challenge on Saturday.
Just as Michigan brings its offense, Syracuse has veteran coach Jim Boeheim and his zone defense. Michigan doesn’t have any experience playing against it but Michigan’s coach John Beilein does and it’s not in his favor. In the nine games between Boeheim and  Beilein, the Orange are 9-0 (which includes Beilein’s coaching days at Richmond and West Virginia).
But these are different teams and while it would be great to see a Louisville vs. Syracuse championship game, the Wolverines sit at -2.5, 131 u/o to win on Saturday.
