Final Four preview

Butler vs Michigan State

The first Final Four game features two number five seeds, Michigan State out of the Midwest region and Butler out of the West.

Players to watch

Durrell Summers- MS; guard

Raymar Morgan- MS; forward

Korie Lucious- MS; guard

Gordon Hayward- B; guard/forward

Shelvin Mack- B; guard

Matt Howard- B; forward

Why Butler will win:

Hayward and Mack will shoot over 50 percent, and the defense, led by Howard, will force Michigan State into a half court game. Butler is playing in Indianapolis, where there home is located, and if they can jump out to an early lead based on good shooting and smothering defense, the crowd will give them an edge.

They must force turnovers and stop the transition offense of the Spartans. Lucious loves to pass it to Summers down low, so Hayward and Howard have to stay with the zone. If Butler forces the game into a low-scoring affair, they have a great chance to win.

Why Michigan State will win:

They will control the tempo, and Lucious will lead the team without making unforced errors. With Kalin Lucas out, Lucious will need to play smart. There has been too many times where he played like a freshman. The Spartans will also have to control the paint. Summers and Morgan like to run to an area and shoot. If they can force Butler to cheat towards the inside, the Spartans will have open jump shots for their shooters.

The Spartans also have the more experienced coach in Tom Izzo. If the game gets into a chess match, the Spartans have the edge.

Prediction: Spartans 63, Butler 60

I think the experience will be just enough to propel the Spartans to victory. Izzo will have his team ready to play, and although Butler will have some success slowing the tempo, the Spartans have already had success against Wisconsin and Northern Iowa versus the half court scheme. I also see Lucious playing his best. The game will come down to the final seconds, and the Spartans hit their free throws in pressure situations.

Duke vs West Virginia

In the second game for the Final Four, the only No. 1 seed will square of against a No. 2 seed that already defeated a No. 1. Duke is out of the South region, and West Virginia is out of the East.

Key players

Nolan Smith- D; guard

Jon Scheyer- D; guard

Kyle Singler- D; forward

Da’Sean Butler- WV; forward

Joe Mazzula- WV; guard

Kevin Jones- WV; forward

Duke will win if:

The Blue Devils play the defense shown throughout the season. Duke has had its best defense in a long while, maybe ever. If their big three of Singler, Scheyer and Smith knock down their shots and Brian Zoubeck stays out of foul trouble, Duke will be very hard to beat. They can score in the half court and in transition.

They are the underdogs despite their seeding, and they could use it as a motivational tool. If Duke builds a lead, it will be hard to come back.

West Virginia will win if:

Butler and Mazzula take over the game. Butler can be a beast in the paint and Mazzula can use dribble penetration to weaken the Duke zone. If they can control the paint and force the Duke big men into foul trouble, the Blue Devils will have a hard time without much depth on the bench.

West Virginia just knocked off Kentucky by forcing them to be shooters. If Scheyer or Singler cannot hit outside shots, the Mountaineers will be able to control the game and force Duke to play catch up.

Prediction: Mountaineers 75, Duke 63

I believe West Virginia will force Duke to make jump shots, and Butler and Mazzula will force the Blue Devils into foul trouble. Without big men or a high shooting percentage, the Mountaineers will jump out to a lead and force Duke to play harder defense.

The Mountaineers have the scorers to match Duke’s three, and they have more depth.

Michigan State/New Mexico State offer the evening's most exciting game

Gonzaga, almost went wire to wire in its game versus Florida State. The Bulldogs won 67-60.

Matt Bouldin led Gonzaga with 17 points and eight rebounds. He was one of four Gonzaga players to reach double figures. Steven Gray had 15 points, Elias Harris had 13 and Robert Sacre had 13 to assist the Bulldog attack.

Elsewhere, Duke made easy work of play-in qualifier Arkansas-Pine Bluff, despite Woody Paige’s surprise. No one would argue Winthrop would have given a better fight, but Arkansas-PB came up stale.

Duke won the game, 73-44. Kyle Singler finished with a double-double, scoring 22 points and gathering 10 rebounds. Jon Scheyer scored 13 points, Lance Thomas had 12 and Nolan Smith scored 10.

The Georgia Tech Yellowjackets dispensed of Oklahoma St.

In a game, fought evenly throughout, Georgia Tech won, 64-39.

Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors scored 14 and 12 points, respectively to lead the Yellowjackets.

In the tightest game of the evening New Mexico State and Michigan State duked it out.

Troy Gillenwater hit a 3-pointer with 21 seconds remaining for New Mexico St. to bring the game within one. Raymar Morgan hit only the front end of his late free throws, but a lane violation gave Mich. St. the ball back. Morgan hit the free throw on his second try.

New Mexico State came up short on its 3-point effort and Michigan State survived.

Duke and Michigan State taking care of business; WIAA Division 1 boy's basketball going Madison Memorial's way

The other two games aren’t as exciting. Duke is taking care of business versus Arkansas- Pine Bluff winning 39-20. Kyle Singler has 13 points, and the Duke defense held the Golden Lions to 25 percent shooting.

Michigan State is also blowing out their opponent. They lead New Mexico State 42-29 lead by Kalin Lucas with 14 points. The Spartans are shooting 56 percent from the field, and the have hit six of 12 from beyond the arc.

The higher seeds should cruise in these games, because the opponents simply do not have the weapons to compete. The lower seeds will have to hope for a miracle, which would include great 3-point shooting and missed shots by the opponent. I don’t see either happening.

For those who are interested, Madison Memorial is crushing Appleton East 61-42 late in the fourth quarter in the WIAA Division 1 state semifinals.

Big Ten looks to get six bids to the Big Dance

The Big Ten has the opportunity to maybe push their tournament bids to six teams if Minnesota can play well enough versus Ohio State today.

Illinois punched a ticket in my eyes after beating Wisconsin for the second time and nearly pulling out an epic double-overtime game against Ohio State, who are in consideration for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

The Buckeyes and Fighting Illini will join Michigan State, Purdue and Wisconsin in the tournament. Minnesota needs some work to do after being on the bubble and losing some tough Big Ten games against opponents they should have defeated. But with a win against Michigan State and the beat-down handed to Purdue, the Golden Gophers are in a good position to make the field, especially since the Big Ten is a much better league than most believe.

Regardless of how bad an opponent has played, the Big Ten has three attributes – defense, protecting the ball and teamwork. The Badgers, lacking true NBA star power, are one of the best, but all Big Ten teams play tough.

If Penn State has a game where they don’t turn the ball over, they can get a big performance by Taylor Battle and win at Ohio State. The same goes for Indiana or Northwestern or Iowa. No team should be considered an easy win or a bad loss, because they can all win a game at any time.

Therefore, Minnesota can already be in. It wouldn’t hurt to beat Ohio State, however. A win would give an automatic berth, and the talk would be on Illinois to make the Big Ten a six-bid league.

Badgers big win opens door for Big Ten race

In an effort to begin 2010 with the biggest understatement of the new decade, the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team’s win over No. 5 Michigan State Tuesday night was big.

For starters, the No. 16 Badgers (17-5 overall, 7-3 conference) didn’t squeak out a win like they did against Michigan and Penn State. Rather Wisconsin poured it on, beating the Spartans (19-4, 9-1), who were previously undefeated in Big Ten play, by the final score 67-49. The Badgers shot slightly better than 50 percent overall from the floor and connected on nine 3s to the Spartans two.

Furthermore, Wisconsin dominated Michigan State without former-leading scorer, Jon Leuer, who is still recovering from a wrist injury. Keaton Nankivil stepped up again in Leuer’s absence to lead the team with 19 points and five rebounds.

Beyond that, Wisconsin whooped the Spartans early and took a 15-point lead into halftime with guard Trevon Hughes on the bench with two fouls. Jordan Taylor took over the game, scoring 17 points – including three 3s. He also chipped in four rebounds and four assists. Jason Bohannon did his part behind the arc also, shooting 3-for-9 from long range.

By far the most impressive stat was how few turnovers the Badgers committed. Wisconsin turned the ball over a mere five times compared to 13 Spartan turnovers. The ball control is a great demonstration of how the Badgers rise to task of important games – a good sign headed toward the tournament. Tuesday marked the third time this year Wisconsin has beat a top-10 team (Duke Dec. 2 and Purdue Jan. 9 were the others).

The best part of Tuesday’s win – at least in the eyes of other Big Ten teams – is Michigan State won’t run away with the conference season championship. The Spartans are just two games ahead of Wisconsin, and two and half games ahead of Ohio State, Illinois and Purdue who all play either Wednesday or Thursday. Michigan has to play Illinois again, Purdue twice and Ohio State once more – all while wearing a big target on their back. The Badgers, however, only have to play one team, Illinois, who has a winning conference record. Wisconsin will play them twice, though.

The Badgers’ win Tuesday night has guaranteed the Big Ten regular season race will be a good one coming down the home stretch.