An NCAA Tournament full of incredible performances by midmajors has now given way to four #1 seeds in the Final Four, something that’s never been accomplished in the NCAA Tournament. While some people complain about the “chalk” of this Final Four, we’re sure to close this thing out with three incredible matchups. Without further ado, a brief breakdown of the Final Four, which begins at 6:00 PM EST tomorrow.

UCLA vs. Memphis
Certainly the more intriguing game of the two, to me anyway. Both teams have been national championship contenders the last few years, but both have needed enormous contributions from true freshmen to get over the top this year. Lets start with UCLA, a team that’s been raped and pillaged by twice defending champ Florida in the last two tournaments. We know the contributers: Collison, Westbrook, Shipp, Mbah a Moute and to a much lesser extent, Mata(-Real). But without Kevin Love, this team is already out of the tournament. The Pac-10 Player of the Year has been even better than advertised. While CBS has stroked themselves to his outlet passes, Love deserves all the praise he’s received.

As for Memphis, they’ve been proving people wrong all season long. Hell, I had them losing to Pitt in the Sweet 16 and when they got into the Elite Eight, I thought they’d get spanked by Texas. Nope. You can have Beasley, Mayo, Love or any other freshman phenom. If I have the 1st overall pick, I’m taking Derrick Rose. I’ll admit to not having seen much of Rose throughout the Conference USA season but against Texas, I saw all I needed to see. Rose will be a Chris Paul/Deron Williams type of player in the NBA. No doubt about it. After dominating against guys like Drew Neitzel and D.J. Augustin, I see Rose getting the best of Darren Collison as well.

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If you ever watch UCLA sports, you know their claim to fame, the one they boast about so often. Their 99 team championships are the most in Division-1 sports history. And if Arron Afflalo continues his ridiculous play, the Bruins may just get to #100. UCLA reached their 17th Final Four, another NCAA record, with last night’s 68-55 win over Kansas.

I don’t know if you’d consider yesterday’s sloppiness a result of bad offense, great defense, or a little of both. This thing resembled more of a summer pick-up game than an NCAA Regional Final. UCLA turned the ball over 24 times, while Kansas had 21 screw-ups of their own. The two teams combined for 32 steals, a simply ridiculous number. UCLA got four steals apiece from Josh Shipp and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute; their little point guard Darren Collison got five. On the opposite side, Kansas’ Mario Chalmers led all thieves with six steals, while his teammates Russell Robinson (five) and Julian Wright (four) got into the act.

A couple of things gave the Bruins a decisive edge yesterday. One was Ben Howland, who outcoached Bill Self through much of the game. For all the talent Kansas had, they looked lost. They didn’t have any success in the transition game and whenever they were confined to the half court offense, they were eaten alive by UCLA’s defense. Self failed to adjust to a UCLA defense that resembled a Southern Illinois defense from their Sweet 16 matchup. Good coaches make those adjustments and I don’t think Self is one of the better ones.

Another reason UCLA won? They have Arron Afflalo. The junior scored 24 points and brought the most individual intensity I’ve seen all tournament. He simply wasn’t going to let UCLA lose. Whenever they needed a basket, he delivered. Then he’d pound his chest, pumping up his teammates and the raucous UCLA supporters in San Jose. Kansas may have been the #1 seed but they sure didn’t have the home support the Bruins had. Even Bill Walton was there (with his freakishly short wife), cheering on UCLA towards #100.

Well played Ben Howland. That’s what you get for scheduling a game as poorly as this one. UCLA was upset by West Virginia yesterday, 70-65. But in reality, it wasn’t that close. The Bruins were down by as much as 19 points before rallying back to make it a game. In the midst of a phenomenal season by UCLA, I hope this road trip doesn’t put them into a funk. Here’s what I said in yesterday’s What to Watch.

This is really odd scheduling by UCLA. They have to go cross country to play in a God-forsaken state, while trying to come out of a hostile environment with a win. West Virginia is 12-1 at home this year. Coming off the USC game, I don?t like this matchup for UCLA.

Is West Virginia a great team? No, but they’re a good team. They’re now 19-5 and 7-4 in the Big East with an RPI in the 40s. They came into this game as underdogs but they had won four of their last five. Their home record was 12-1, meaning UCLA wasn’t going to waltz out of Morgantown with a win. It simply wasn’t going to happen.

Why would UCLA be motivated for this one? They were coming off an emotional win against rival USC. They have games with three ranked teams coming up in the next few weeks. If they lose, it’s no big deal. They’re a pretty secure one seed and probably didn’t have the urgency of a team that really needed a win. But West Virginia did.

When UCLA comes into town, they’re getting every team’s best shot. West Virginia knew a win over the Bruins would be ENORMOUS in the eyes of the tournament selection committee. And they got it. UCLA had nothing to gain and West Virginia had their entire season to gain. That’s why this matchup sucked to begin with.

Throughout much of the nonconference college basketball schedule, I made sure to focus on a few things. Usually, it would be the ACC, usually the standard for college hoops excellence. Not this year. There’s the SEC, which boasts the defending champ Florida Gators. Then there’s the Pac-10, who have two legit national championship contenders (hell, how about favorites), not to mention a handful of other quality teams.

January 20th and February 17th. You might as well mark your calendars now. If you watch two college basketball games all year, these might be the ones to watch. It’s UCLA vs. Arizona. UCLA is undefeated with 14 straight wins, four of those over ranked teams. Then there’s Arizona, whose only loss came by three points at Virginia. What UCLA gets done with poise and teamwork, Arizona does it with absolutely freakish talent and athleticism. These two teams will be in it ’till the very end. If you want to see a handful of lottery picks on the court at one time, watch Arizona vs. the Bruins. But definitely watch Arizona play North Carolina on January 27th. It’s Lute Olsen’s standard to throw in a brutal non-conference game in the middle of the Pac-10 season. I’d say he picked a decent opponent in the Tarheels.

But after those two teams, there’s certainly a lot more. Oregon was undefeated until last night’s home loss to…USC, a team that is quietly shaping up to be pretty damn formidable. The Trojans have beat ranked teams Wichita State, Washington, and Oregon in the last two weeks. Everyone knew USC was on the rise with the opening of the Gale Center and next year’s insane recruiting class. I’m tired enough of USC pulling countless five star players in football. Now they’re going to do it in basketball?

Throw in the tough teams of the Pacific Northwest and we might be looking at the deepest conference in the country. It’s certainly close. Washington St. is off to a great start, Oregon is 13-1, and the talented Washington Huskies will find themselves in the top 25 for most of the year (although they’re off to a 0-3 Pac-10 start). It’s not far-fetched to see five or six teams from this conference making it to the dance.

Then they’re were four. We’re down to four undefeated teams in college basketball and a couple teams on that list are very surprising. Surprisingly, we don’t have an undefeated mid-major team on the list, partly because those tough small conferences like the Missouri Valley Conference and Mountain West Conference are scheduling tough opponents to start the year and their name out on the national radar.

UCLA: Every time I watch the Bruins play, I’m more impressed with them. Today was no exception, as they teabagged Michigan. They seem to be doing just fine despite the departure of Jordan Farmar. They’ve already beaten three ranked teams, including two in during their Maui Invitational win. They’re getting four guys to average in double digits, including Aaron Afflalo, a guy that could be on some All-American teams when the year is over. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle Washington’s phenom freshman Spencer Hawes. But Luc Richard Mbah a Moute should be up to the test. If he isn’t, they can just have Lorenzo Mata look at him. Mark your calendars for January 20th, when Arizona will visit Pauley Pavillion. Read the rest of this entry »

Every day (or so) for the next month I will be previewing one of the upcoming college bowl games. I will give my thoughts on the teams playing, players to be on the lookout for, and a general overview of the bowl.

The Emerald Bowl looks great on paper, pitting two storied programs against each other in Florida State and UCLA. It seems hard to believe that a relatively obscure bowl like this would get an ACC vs. Pac-10 matchup. Then you just have to look at the records and the 6-6 FSU record and 7-5 UCLA record makes it fairly obvious why these teams are headed to San Francisco.

Florida State, which typically boasts a good team, has really struggled this year. This could be because of the fact that they have yet to settle in on a quarterback and keep switching between Drew Weatherford and Xavier Lee. I would imagine this would get frustrating as an offensive player, especially a wider receiver. You could never get into a rhythm. With Weatherford you assume its just going to be a pass, but with Lee you could get a pass, or you might have to block down field. If it is a pass from either of these two, it probably isn’t going to end up well. They have a combined 18 touchdowns to 15 interceptions, and that is a really bad ratio. FSU relies on their defense to win games, and really, there isn’t anything wrong with that. The most points they’ve given up was in an ugly 30-0 loss against Wake Forest, but they have played well besides that, keeping it close against a bunch of other tough teams. They lost by five to Boston College and seven to Florida, so they have been putting it together a little bit. The problem is consistency, they don’t have it. Maybe they’ll get it next year when their players mature.

UCLA follows the same path that FSU does. Bad quarterbacking, pretty good running game, and a standout defense. This has been their formula for success all season long. The perfection of this formula is obvious in their victory over USC in the last week of the season. They may not have looked great on offense, but they didn’t let SC score, and they got just enough points to get the win. I guess this is what you could call one of those teams that is just gritty, they just find ways to win. It was this attitude that kept them within three points of Notre Dame and ten points to Oregon. Considering that UCLA is in a rebuilding year, they had very good success. The problem with teams like this is when they get behind, they’re basically done. They don’t have a passing game to speak of, and they can’t afford to just chew up clock. This leads to an obvious trend in UCLA’s season. When they get involved in shootouts they struggle, where if they can manage to keep they game low scoring, they have had success.

This makes the formula for UCLA very simple. Don’t let FSU get into an offensive flow which would allow them to get ahead. If UCLA can strike first, I think that they have the ability to win this one. And I think UCLA will be able to strike first, mainly because consistency isn’t in the vocabulary of Florida State players (no that isn’t a shot at their education level). I’ll be expecting a defensive battle where UCLA refuses to budge to the FSU offense.

My Prediction: UCLA Wins