March Madness has once again been a thrilling, entertaining competition and the National Championship game between Michigan State and North Carolina should provide an excellent finish to the tournament. This articles breaks down the match up in the biggest College Basketball game of the season.
Routes to the Final:
Michigan State- Drawn in a bracket that included favorites Louisville, defending champions Kansas and highly-rated Wake Forest, MSU were over-looked in much of the pre-tournament talk but Tom Izzo’s team team gradually established themselves, improving from round to round. After a comfortable opening round win over Robert Morris, Michigan State did well to defeat an up-and-coming Southern California side by 5 points and set up a Sweet 16 clash with Kansas. Their tournament looked all but over when the Jayhawks burst out to a 13 point lead and held a 9 point advantage at the half; however a spirited comeback led by tall center Goran Suton saw them edge the defending champions in an exciting contest.
Michigan State put in another dominant second half performance to crush pre-tournament favorites Louisville and claim a Final Four berth with Goran Suton once again the star man. Even after pushing aside Louisville, MSU still entered their Final Four match up with Connecticut as heavy underdogs, but good performances from Raymar Morgan and Kalin Lucas secured a Final place in front of a huge home crowd.
North Carolina- North Carolina enjoyed a less dramatic route to the final, advancing assuredly through each round showcasing a superbly talented group. Crushing victories over Radford (101-58) and LSU (84-70) demonstrated the Tar Heels offensive talent and Ty Lawson’s return against LSU added to the belief that this team was a National Championship caliber team. Tyler Hansbrough enjoyed a dominant game as North Carolina scored 98 points brushing aside Gonzaga in the Sweet 16.
Blake Griffin and Oklahoma looked like a potential stumbling block, but Griffin was held relatively quiet in the first half and Ty Lawson led the Tar Heels to another relatively comfortable victory and a Final Four berth. Villanova and North Carolina was an obvious mis-match and the Tar Heels ensured that the Wildcats never really got close to complete a truly impressive run to the National Championship game.
Men to Watch:
Ty Lawson (NC) - Tyler Hansbrough gets the majority of the attention but Ty Lawson is the man who really runs this North Carolina offense, excellent at both ends of the court Lawson will undoubtedly make a very good NBA player.
Kalin Lucas (MSU) – On a team that uses 10+ players and 5 guards, Lucas is the player that stands out on a truly consistent basis and has scored 20+ points regularly so far in this competition, he is very much the guy Michigan State turn to for the big shot.
Wayne Ellington (NC) –It is very easy to forget a player like Ellington on a team filled with stars but his shooting ability is amongst the best in College Basketball and he has been a consistent offensive contributor on this Tar Heels team.
Goran Suton (MSU) –Suton has done a lot to enhance his reputation with an excellent performance in March Madness 2009. He had a less impressive game matched up against Hasheem Thabeet in the Final Four but expect him to return as a strong presence against North Carolina.
Michigan State v North Carolina: What to Expect….
Michigan State has shown the value of depth and strong contributions from their bench will be crucial if they are to win the National Title. Tom Izzo’s team play tough, disciplined and crucially seem to get key contributions from several different sources at the big times with Raymar Morgan the most recent hero. On the other hand North Carolina is pure offense and pure talent, scoring comes from several different sources and the Tar Heels play a fast, speedy style of basketball.
Expect a fast end-to-end game, Michigan State will need to be more efficient on offense than they were against Connecticut if they hope to keep pace with North Carolina, meanwhile the Tar Heels will need to continue to play solid enough defense so that they are not relying solely on their high-scoring offense.
Prediction: North Carolina 85-75 Michigan State
MSU has enjoyed an excellent and surprising run, but the Tar Heels will simply have too much offensive firepower and run out winners to win the National Championship.
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