Louisville 82, Michigan 76 was one for the ages. So many fantastic basketball players in the Georgia Dome, maybe the all-time greatest coach in college basketball not named Wooden and one of the best championship games I’ve ever seen. Wow! That was fantastic.
Little known Spike Albrecht of MIchigan played like Michael Jordan in the first half. He was just dominant, all 5’10” , 170 pounds of him. 17 points. Four-for-four from trifecta. Spike was unstoppable. Then Luuuuke Hancock took over the game from the 2:59 to the :59 second mark of the first half with four trifectas himself. It was a spectacle. In the second half, Peyton Siva and Chane Behanan took over for the Cardinals. Siva with his beautiful drives to the rim and finishes. It was like great art. Behanan was the ultimate warrior on the boards. If that put back from the three offensive rebounds he got wasn’t NBA material those scouts are smoking pot. Somebody said last week that this Louisville team might win it all without any NBA players. Are you kiddin’ me? Siva, Behanan, Hancock, Gorgui Dieng and even Russ Smith. All of those guys will play in the NBA even though Smith was a total liability for the Cards last night.
Hancock was named MVP of the tournament and he deserved it. While Behanan and Siva were the key players for Louisville in the second half, Hancock carried the team throughout the Final Four. He was brilliant Saturday against Wichita State and he was brilliant in that first half stretch where he literally took the team on his shoulders, brought them back from a 12 point deficit and would not let them lose. In the second half the other guys got the Cards over the hump.
What else needs to be said about Rick Pitino’s coaching ability? It’s other worldly almost. The guy is a master motivator and strategist. I love watching his teams play. I love watching him coach on the sidelines. The beauty of it all is that Pitino is signed up with Louisville until 2022. We’ve got nine more years of this. I hope he and S stay in as long as possible because there is some brillance ahead with both those gentlemen coaching football and basketball respectively. It’s interesting though. John Calipari has six five-stars coming to Lexington next year and this is a spectacular group of players he’s recruited. There are twin brothers who are phenomenal guards mixed in with some power forwards and a center. Kentucky will be back in a big way next year. Three or four of the freshmen from this year’s class will be back next year at UK as sophomores. So they are going to be stellar. Pitino has four, four-stars coming in. It’ll be interesting to see who comes back onhis team. Dieng may go. Siva is a senior. Smith is a junior, but he needs another year in my opinion. Hancock is a junior. Behanan is a sophomore. Wayne Blackshear is a sophomore. Kevin Ware will be back, hopefully fully recovered from his injury. Montrezi Harrell will be back. Depending on who comes back, the Cardinals should be in the hunt for the national championship as well next year.
For all the negative talk about college basketball and lack of scoring this year, I really enjoyed the season. Thought it was thrilling. I enjoyed the SEC. Just like it all. And what an ending. College basketball is back in a big way and with Pitino around for a long time, and Coach K not planning on leaving any time soon, with Kansas, Carolina, Michigan, Indiana, Florida under Billy D. and now teams like Wichita State, it’s going to keep up this awesome momentum. The SEC should be good next year with teams like Florida, Vanderbilt, and others trying to take down UK. The ACC adds Syracuse and Pitt next year then Louisville in 2014-15. The league that has broken off from the Big East with Gtown, ‘Nova, Marquette and adding Butler and Xavier should be excellent. The state of college basketball is very healthy in my opinion and will be just as electric next year as it was this year. Wow, what a year.