The NCAA men's basketball tournament has wound down to two teams competing for the title, North Carolina, and Villanova. On Saturday Villanova took on Oklahoma in the first Final Four game of the day. Although before the game it was predicted to be a relatively close game, with most actually picking Oklahoma to win, Villanova destroyed the Sooners 95-51. At half the Wildcats held a fourteen point lead, but the game wasn't completely over at that point. But the second half was even worse than the first, it was a combination of Villanova shooting the lights out, and Oklahoma being ice cold. In fact it shows how much Villanova has improved because earlier in the season they got blown out by Oklahoma 78-55.
The next game of the double-header was slightly closer, but it wasn't much of a contest either, the Tar Heels used their size and depth to dominate the rebounding battle. Like in many of the games the Tar Heels won this tournament, they slowly but surely increased the lead until the end of the game. While on the one hand North Carolina has easily won all of their games, on the other hand they have had far inferior competition than Villanova. For example since the first round ended North Carolina has played and beaten #9 Providence, #5 Indiana, #6 Notre Dame, and #10 Syracuse. All of those teams are respectable and certainly capable teams, but none of them were truly considered championship contenders. While Villanova had to play #7 Iowa, #3 Miami, #1 Kansas, and #2 Oklahoma, other than Iowa, all of them were title contenders, with Kansas being the favorite for the title.
In terms of the actual game on Monday, us fans can only hope for a close game for once. Because most of the games past the opening weekend have been blowouts, which has sort of made the tournament boring. Villanova has been overlooked for most of the tournament, and they have also been shooting well above 50% each game, so I see no reason to pick against them now. Prediction: Villanova 84 North Carolina 79.
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