Sunday, April 6, 2014

NCAA Basketball - It's Down to Two Teams

It will be Connecticut and Kentucky in the NCAA Basketball Championship Game on Monday night in Dallas, Texas after the UConn Huskies buried the top ranked Florida Gators, 63-53 while the young Wildcats, led by five freshmen, topped the Wisconsin Badgers, 74-73 on a late three-point jumper by Aaron Harrison.
These two teams were not considered by many to be able to get to the Final Four when the tournament started just over two weeks ago. Connecticut is 31-8 while Kentucky is 29-10 heading into the
Championship Game.
But here they are, two traditional basketball powerhouses going at it in the championship game. Kentucky won it all two years ago while the Huskies did the same just the year before, beating back upstart Butler University in the 2011 title game.
In fact, since the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament expanded to 64-plus teams back in 1985, these two schools each have won three championship games (Kentucky in 1996, 1998 and 2012 and UConn in 1999, 2004 and 2011), second only to Duke, which has four NCAA basketball titles (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010) in that same time period.
It should be a good game as both teams came in apparently under rated by the selection committee as the Huskies were the seventh seed from the East region and Kentucky was seeded eighth in the Midwest region.
Go figure.
So, for what it is worth (Heftyinfo had just Florida left as picked to go to the Final Four this year) here is the prediction for the title game.

CONNECTICUT 68, KENTUCKY 64

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