Championship game, Martin Laird, Rory, at Valero, Masters week
The stage is set for a classic. 9:23 PM ET/8:23 CT tipoff for Louisville-Michigan on CBS.Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg and Steve Kerr calling the game and Wolf doing sideline reporting.
Wow, I’m looking at a war here. Louisville took a hit at the guard position when sophomore Kevin Ware went down with injury in the Elite Eight game versus Duke and they were taken to the brink by a very good Wichita State team on Saturday. In fairness to the Cardinals, the refs were calling it way too tight against Louisville and the Cards could never get into a rhythm offensively until the last eight minutes when the refs let up on the whistles when ‘Ville was on defense. Walk-on Tim Henderson hit a couple of huge threes to get the team back in the game. And junior small forward Luke Hancock took over offensively in the last 10 minutes, and really throughout the game, as the Cards survived the Shockers, 72-68.
Michigan had a tight one themselves with the ‘Cuse, winning 61-56. Mitch McGary, the Wolverines 6″10″, 250 forward-center, is a load and he is one heckuva passer and player in general. He’s been the No.1 guy in this tournament in making his team better. He’s an exceptional passer and has a nice shot and can he ever bang in the middle. Rugged, tough player. He’s going to give Louisville eraser Gorgui Dieng (6’11”, 245) everything he wants tonight. Louisville guards Russ Smith (18.9 ppg, 83 steals) and Peyton Siva (9.8 ppg, 5.7 assists and 86 steals) are going to have to play a ton of minutes tonight and they will be tested severely by the awesome Michigan point guard Trey Burke (18.5 ppg and 6.7 assists). Tim Hardaway Jr. (14.5 ppg) and Nik Stausjas (11.2 ppg, 44 percent from 3) will be challenging for the Louisville guards and defense as well. McGary is averaging 7.5 ppg and 6.3 rbg, but he has turned it on in this tournament and has been dominant. He’s playing like a fifth year senior. Dieng is averaging 9.8 ppg and 9.4 rbg. Should be a war in there between those two. Glen Robinson III (10.9 ppg) is another scorer for the Wolverines.
The teams only common opponent is Syracuse and Louisville split games with them losing at home but beating them later in the season at ‘Cuse. Michigan beat ‘Cuse by five Saturday.
With all that said, in Pitino and the defense I trust. The ‘Ville only gave up 58 points per game to opponents this year. Michigan was not too bad either at 63 ppg. Michigan averages 75 points per game, while ‘Ville is at 74. I think there’ll be more scoring in this game than usual. Louisville will have to be pretty good on offense to beat this team and they’ll have to be stellar on defense. The Louisville defense does enough and the Cards make enough shots to capture their third national title in school history. I’ll keep the score the same as I’ve had it.
Louisville 80, Michigan 72
What a performance by Martin Laird in the Valero Texas Open yesterday. Shot 63 and came back from five strokes down on Sunday to capture his third title on the PGA Tour. He won the Arnie two years ago and won the Justin Timberlake tourney in 2009. He had 23 putts yesterday, just incredible. Birdied 16,17 and 18 to hold off the hard charging Rory McIlroy, who shot a 66 himself. Laird beat Rory by two shots.
That was a really good sign for Rory though heading into Augusta this week. It was such a good move for him to play this past weekend and get that tourney experience and do so well heading into the Masters this week. Rory will be in the hunt. Man was he hitting the ball well yesterday. He has two majors under his belt. He’ll be right there in the mix. I’m not conceding this thing to Tiger. He hasn’t won at Augusta since 2005. He’s been very good this year, but every course he’s won on he’s owned. He’s won at Torrey eight times (where he won the Farmers in February), he’s won at Doral seven times (where he won in early March at the WGC-Cadillac) and he’s won at Bay Hill nine times (where he won the Arnie three weeks ago). So this is not a slam dunk at all. I don’t think he’s as unflappable as he used to be and the competition is not shying away. He doesn’t play a lot, and he hasn’t competed in three weeks, so that could be a factor. Like Rory, Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Phil, maybe Poulter, even Ernie, Brandt and others to challenge. This will be an epic Masters. This year may be as good as ever. The weather doesn’t look great Thursday and Friday, so we’ll see what transpires there. There is a chance of severe weather on Thursday, and Friday, last I checked, there was a 70 percent chance for t storms. Will have full preview on Wednesday afternoon. Write up on championship game tomorrow. Also spring football games have commenced. Georgia and Florida write ups this week.
Note: Louisville played Syracuse a third time in the Big East tourney final and won 78-61.
