National Championship Prediction!

By: Nick Lee

(1)    Kansas versus (1) Memphis

Why Kansas will win:  Kansas shocked the world on Saturday by dominating the North Carolina Tar Heels in the first half.  For the first ten minutes of the game I thought I was watching a 16 seed versus a 1 seed.  Kansas has arguably the best set of athletes to match Memphis’ athleticism.  Their guards are a bit larger than Texas and UCLA’s guards so that may help in slowing down Rose and CDR. 

Brandon Rush has played pretty well the last several games- and when Rush plays well Kansas is an awful tough team to beat.  For the Kansas faithful hopefully they were watching film and watched Memphis’ only defeat this year to Tennessee.  In that loss the Volunteers challenged Memphis to make three pointers and I think Kansas would be wise to play some zone and challenge the Tigers to hit some threes.

Why Memphis will win:  Over the last two weeks Memphis has established that they have the best backcourt in America.  Derrick Rose will be playing his last game in a Memphis uniform (unless he ends up in the draft being drafted by the Grizzlies) and will be one of the top 3 picks in this year’s NBA draft.  Chris Douglas Roberts has been taking the ball to the rack.  Memphis will need to continue to hit the boards and limit the number of second chance points by the Jayhawks. 

Memphis has also been shaping up at the free throw line.  Their 87% performance against the Bruins is huge.  If this game comes down to free throws down the stretch- Memphis will need to keep the ball in the hands of their backcourt and they may need to hit free throws down the stretch. 

Who will win:  Memphis is poised and ready to win their first Championship behind their backcourt of Rose and Douglas-Roberts (averaging 45 points between both of them in the tourney).  I just think that as a team they are truly playing their best basketball and they have shown that killer instinct.  Kansas looked shaky against Davidson and almost had the most monumental collapse in tournament history before a late run propelled them to the championship.  I don’t see Memphis having large lapses like that and I think that Rose can penetrate and lead Memphis to their first NCAA title.

Final Four Predictions