Freeman’s journey through the tourney
Tonight is the big night. When all college basketball fans will be watching to see who will prevail as this year’s national champion. Michigan will rely on its solid play from their big man, Mitch McGary, and their point guard Trey Burke. Louisville will look to Peyton Siva and Russ Smith lead them as they have throughout the tournament.
Louisville found themselves down by double digits later in the second half in the national semifinal against Wichita State. Wichita had turned the ball over 3 times in the first 32 minutes of play which limited the number of easy baskets Louisville was able to capitalize on. Siva struggled to shoot the ball from the perimeter and Smith finished the game 4/10 from the free throw line after shooting 80%+ in the tournament to that point. Louisville got a huge boost from walk-on Tim Henderson who went 2/3 from 3 point range late in the second half. They also relied on Luke Hancock’s 20 points off the bench to claw their way to the victory.
Michigan showed what a talented team they were by shredding Syracuse’s 2-3 zone in the first half. They put on an absolute clinic of getting the ball to the free throw line against the zone and attacking it from there. They hit big time shots in key spots and Syracuse made some dumb decisions in crunch time that potentially cost them the game.
As for my Final 4 and what happened to my teams. Kansas is probably the most disappointing for me. They had Michigan beat. They were up 12 with less than 5 minutes to go in the second half and could not close them out. Trey Burke sent the game to overtime with a step back 30 foot shot and in overtime it was all the Wolverines. Miami was taken apart by Marquette. Marquette then turned around and was held to 39 points for the game against Syracuse’s zone. Ohio State advanced to the regional final before falling to the Shockers of Wichita State. Needless to say my bracket was shredded and I only lost money this year.
Tonight will be a game that will bring Michigan it’s first title since the Fab 5 or will bring home a banner to the Bluegrass state for the second straight year. Rick Pitino the Louisville head man was inducted into the basketball hall of fame today and nothing would make his week better by finishing it with a national championship.