2010 NCAA Tournament: South/Midwest Regional Finals

#3 Baylor Bears (28-7, 11-5 Big XII) vs.
#1 Duke Blue Devils (32-5, 13-3 ACC)
Reliant Stadium – Houston, TX
South Regional Final

Well, it looks like the Dookies will finally be tested before their golden road paved by the tournament committee and CBS turns towards Indianapolis. Unfortunately, the testing will come from Baylor, a team that is immature and streaky…exactly the kind of team that Ratface and company tend to do well against. Baylor certainly possesses the horses to matchup with the Dookies, but I don't know if they possess the mindset.

Ratface somehow managed to drag this Dook team to the Elite Eight for the first time in a loooooooong time (especially considering the talent that he’s wasted the last few seasons). He also managed to be a team that was a fifth seed or higher for the first time in a looooooooong time. So two monkeys came off the back at once for the Devils. However, you need to look at that game honestly. Purdue had no business being a four seed in this tournament, and even if they did, the Boilermakers didn’t have the services of their top player. Despite that, Purdue hung with the Blow Devils for 35 minutes. At one point, they held the Dookies without a basket for an eight-minute stretch. To say that Dook is breezing through their soft early tournament slate would be false. They could have easily lost to Purdue; they could have easily lost to California. The tired legs which usually befall the Devils in early February have arrived. It may be a month late, but they are here nonetheless. Case in point: since their win against Maryland, The Screamer has shot a meager 32% over the last 13 games. The rest of the team’s shooting percentages haven’t fared much better. So in other words, the Dookies are there for the taking. All an opponent needs to do is score 65-70 points, and they should be able to win the game.

Meanwhile, the Bears finally showed why they were worthy of a #3 seed in their blowout win over Saint Mary’s. LaceDarius Dunn and Tweety Carter were ally-ooping. Ekpe Udoh was grabbing boards. The Bears used their eight-man rotation to wear out the Gaels. The bench chipped in 21 points and seven rebounds. Defensively, the Bears ran three different players at Omar Samhan and frustrated him all night long. Samhan didn’t appear comfortable inside until the game was well out of hand. While none of the three possessed Samhan’s offensive skills, they were simply more athletic than he was, and got him off his game in the early going. Before Scott Drew knew it, his team was up 29 at halftime.

The Bears have to come in to this game knowing that they will get zero calls. Without Kentucky, the CBS/NCAA conglomerate needs a marquis team in the Final Four. You think Butler is going to draw rating? The network is so sure it has the Dookies advancing, that CBS and the NCAA are probably already planning a half-hour special on former Dook-punk Christian Laettner…assuming that Laettner can put down the weed and make it to Indianapolis or a television studio. And since this is a young Bears team that doesn’t have a lot of experience playing 5-on-8 (Big XII basketball officials tend to be some of the better refs in the game…college football is a different story, but I digress), they can’t let early calls rattle them. Talent-wise, Baylor is the better team. They’ll also have the home-court advantage since they are playing about three hours from Waco. Dook’s front line has the same skill set of Omar Samhan. That means they can finish around the basket as long as they are playing someone smaller than and just as awkward as they are. Against a quick and physical front line, like that of Baylor, Dook’s frontcourt has no advantage. So if the frontcourt battle is a draw, and the Screamer can’t find his jump shot by about 5:30, Baylor should win this game. I guess I just talked myself into it.
Pick: Baylor 67, Duke 62


#6 Tennessee Volunteers (28-8, 11-5 SEC) vs.
#5 Michigan State Spartans (27-8, 14-4 Big Ten)
Edward Jones Dome – St. Louis, MO
Midwest Regional Finals

The Volunteers are really starting to annoy me. Of the eight teams that made it this far, they are probably the least deserving. Bruce Pearl’s act has gotten real old, real fast. And his son appears to be molded in the exact same clay. The annoying fauxhawk has to go. I kind of wish someone would deck young Steven Pearl. The kid doesn’t average two points a game, he’s only on the team because daddy is the coach and he only plays because half the team ended up in jail. Yet he runs up and down the court making a complete fool of himself, preening to the crowd whenever he gets a chance. It’s one thing when a guy like Greivis Vasquez does it, since he has the stats to back up his talk. But when a spoiled daddy’s-boy acts like that, it becomes very irritating.

Tom Izzo continues to dare you to pick against him. Is there any remaining doubt that Izzo is currently the best coach in the entire nation? I’d like someone to prove to me otherwise. Last season, he took the Spartans as a two seed, in what was supposed to be a top heavy tournament, and beat 3-seeded Kansas, top overall seed Louisville and another one seed UConn (and remember…MSU blew out Louisville and UConn, those games were never close). That was a very young and untested Spartans team. This season as a five seed, he’s had to deal with several injuries to his best two guards. While the bracket in front of Izzo collapsed a little bit, I don’t think many people would have had Izzo getting to the doorstep of another Final Four without Kalin Lucas and Chris Allen for the majority of his first three games.

The Izzo factor is good enough for me, considering that his opposition is Pearl. I’ve underestimated Tennessee, just like I underestimated Butler. I saw that Kansas State-Butler game as basically a tossup. I assumed that KSU’s athleticism would take over. But I knew if push came to shove, then Frank Martin would be too busy yelling as his players to focus on the game (and I was right, the Wildcats absolutely crapped the bed in the final two minutes of that game). However, I don’t see this game as a tossup, not with the coaching matchup so heavily favoring Michigan State. This may be the game where the Spartans undermanned backcourt finally catches up to them. This might be the game where they get tired because their depth has been exhausted. This could be the game when their jump shots finally stop falling. But I wouldn’t count on it.
Pick: Michigan State 71, Tennessee 63