A FINAL FOUR TO REMEMBER

After two weekends we are left with four teams and three more games before this Madness comes to a close. 99.9% of the sport-viewing world did not pick the 2010 Final Four to consist of Duke, West Virginia, Butler and Michigan State. But, what a brilliant Final Four! The 2010 NCAA Tournament has given a lot of help to the people that think expanding the field to 96 is a good idea. We’ll have some time to digest that topic. In the meantime since your bracket is out the window and most of the favorites are gone here are some reasons for you to root for each Final Four Team.

Butler:

Butler’s league, the Horizon League, before the 2010 NCAA Tournament never had ONE team make the Elite Eight and Butler has less than 4,000 undergraduate students. This small school, from a no-name conference is about to play AT HOME (in Indianapolis) in the Final Four. It’s a real life ‘Hoosiers’ story. One might expect Coach Brad Stevens’s pre-game speech to look EXACTLY like this. If you want to root for the underdog then Butler is your team.

Michigan State:

How do you lose your best player in the 1^st round and still make the Final Four? Some would argue that it’s because Michigan State has had a remarkably lucky road to the Final Four (Northern Iowa, Tennessee). I would argue that Michigan State has a great team identity (rebounding/Defense), experience (Final Four last year, remember?), a FANTATSIC coach and that those variables will always lead to success in the tournament. No Final Four team has overcome more adversity than MSU and no team is tougher than MSU. If you want to root for a team who personifies toughness and the ‘no one believed in us’ attitude then MSU is your team.

West Virginia:

WVU has played the best basketball of any team in the tournament. Bob Huggins is woefully underrated as a coach. This is their first Final Four since Jerry West was in a WVU uniform. They won the Big East tournament as underdogs and as far as I’m concerned they go into the Final Four as the favorite. If you want to root for the favorite or the team that is simply playing the best basketball right now then WVU is your team.

Duke:

Duke is the only #1 seed left. Duke is the only long-standing powerhouse of the four schools remaining. Is anyone rooting or going to root for Duke that is not from Durham? Didn’t think so. I think I’ll save this space.

What do you think? Who do you want to see cut down the nets?

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