2010 NCAA Tournament: East/West Regional Finals

#2 West Virginia Mountaineers (30-6, 13-5 Big East) vs.
#1 Kentucky Wildcats (35-2, 14-2 SEC)
Carrier Dome – Syracuse, NY
East Regional Finals

So it looks as if the Wildcats are the only powerhouse team left standing. CBS got their dream regional final, and are now just inches away from their dream Final Four matchup with Kentucky and the Dookies. So if you are West Virginia, don’t expect ANY calls in this game. You’re not going to get them. Especially not with the reputation Bob Huggins has with the referees.

I was actually impressed with Kentucky’s performance against Cornell. Even though the Cats were stronger, faster and taller than just about any player the Big Red threw on the court, they still had to think their way through that game. Superior athleticism alone wasn’t the reason Kentucky won. They had their struggles, like when they only scored nine points in the first 12 minutes of the 2nd half, but they played a good defensive game and were workman-like on offense in the back stretch. And thanks to the bozos at CBS, most of us in the Washington area were subjected to the majority of that crime against basketball that Cornell was playing instead of being allowed to watch the much more exciting Kansas State-Xavier game.

Ok, to this game. Those at home want to find some sort of fault in Kentucky. Well, the schedule is one. When the Wildcats scheduled North Carolina, UConn, Louisville and Indiana, they thought that those four traditional powerhouses would be respectable. Only Louisville had a decent season…and when the two teams played in early January, the Cardinals were playing terrible basketball. So the four premier games outside the conference that Kentucky set up didn’t live up to expectations. The Cats also played Stanford (and needed overtime to beat them) and Sam Houston State, along with the usual assortment of scrubs and guaranteed wins. Then Kentucky descended into their SEC schedule, and weren’t really challenged for most of that slate. On the other hand, West Virginia scheduled just as aggressively as Kentucky did, but their gambles actually paid off. The Mountaineers had games against Texas A&M, Purdue and Ohio State. While Purdue embarrassed the Queers, WVU won the other two games. Then West Virginia had to trek through their Big East schedule. For the second straight year, we’ve seen that the Big East is vastly overrated. But no matter what you think about the Big East, it was still leaps and bounds better than the SEC. So the one big advantage WVU has is the fact they’ve been tested a few more times than Kentucky. The other main advantage is experience. West Virginia is led by two seniors, a handful of juniors and sophomore Devin Ebanks. The Wildcats obviously rely on a core group of freshman and junior Patrick Patterson.

That’s pretty much where the advantages for WVU stop. Between Ebanks and Da’Sean Butler, West Virginia may have one bona fide NBA prospect on its roster. Kentucky not only has four guys who are shoo-ins for the NBA, all four players may be lottery picks. The talent is slanted heavily in Kentucky’s favor. West Virginia is a great rebounding team, but Kentucky is better. West Virginia plays great team defense, but Kentucky can beat it. The Mountaineers haven’t seen a team with two stud post players, two guys who are lights out beyond the arc in Eric Bledsoe and Darius Miller, and they’ve certainly never seen a player as quick as John Wall in the Big East. Combine that with the fact that John Calipari-teams tend to overachieve in the NCAA Tournament, while Huggins has a long history of underachieving (while at Cincinnati and last year's one and done as a six seed), and the talent discrepancy on the floor and on the sideline is bordering on unfair.

In a just world, there would be a way where both of these scumbag coaches found a way to lose this game. Unfortunately, unless the Carrier Dome roof collapse, that doesn’t look very likely. On a personal level, I guess I loathe Huggins a little more than I do Calipari. Kentucky also stands a better chance of beating Duke if they advance. So for the sake of the rest of college basketball, the Wildcats need to win this game. And besides, chances are Kentucky will have to forfeit this game sometime in the next couple of years.
Pick: Kentucky 73, West Virginia 66


#5 Butler Bulldogs (31-4, 18-0 Horizon) vs.
#2 Kansas State Wildcats (29-7, 11-5 Big XII)
Energy Solutions Arena – Salt Lake City, UT
West Regional Finals

Butler has a chance to do what only George Mason could accomplish in 2006. They have a chance to get to the Final Four before their other powerhouse mid-major brethren like Gonzaga, Xavier or pick-your-favorite Mountain West team. Like Mason in ‘06, I’ve overlooked the Bulldogs every step of the way (well, I guess I picked them over Murray State). I can promise you that I will continue to overlook them as the tournament moves on.

I do want to thank 15-year-old coach Brad Stevens and the Bulldogs for ridding the tournament of Syracuse and Jim Boeheim. Like Huggins and Calipari above, Boeheim is scum that doesn’t deserve another National Championship ring (he barely deserved his first), and the Bulldogs saved me from a potential Syracuse-Dook national final game. Ugh, what a nightmare that would have been. Similar to Patriots-Cowboys Super Bowl or a Yankees-Phillies World Series (I’m told those two teams played last October, but I’m pretty sure I blocked it out). Furthermore, the annoying Syracuse contingent at work can stop making plans to travel to Indianapolis next weekend. On second thought, I hope they do go to Indy (since it’s far away from me), but they won’t get to see their Orange. Tough break.

This is one region where I was pretty much on the money (other than underrating Butler). I had Syracuse, Kansas State and Xavier all in the Sweet 16. I had Kansas State reaching the Final Four. If I thought the Wildcats could beat the Orange a week ago, then it’s going to be pretty tough to convince me that they won’t beat the Butler. Crazy Frank Martin can run players at you in waves. KSU is a legitimate 10-deep. Almost all their players are a couple of inches bigger than their position counterparts. They can all run up and down the floor. Denis Clemente, who was an afterthought at Miami, has transformed into a guy who can score 17 points a night in a variety of ways. Obviously Jacob Pullen is the engine that makes it all go. And Martin uses five different big men who can all board and love to operate within 10-feet of the hoop. The size and depth (something Syracuse did not have) of the Wildcats should allow them to slip past the Bulldogs.
Pick: Kansas State 70, Butler 65