雪與陽光下

剛剛在CBS上看到的

還蠻好笑的

This weekend, welcome to Detroit!

來感受一下Michigan的寒冷和熱情吧

Final Four forecast: shivers, anti-Detroit sentiments ... and Tar Heels

March 30, 2009
By Gary Parrish
CBSSports.com Senior Writer

Congratulations North Carolina, Michigan State, Villanova and Connecticut.

You're headed to the Final Four.

Now I hope you like rain and snow!

Because while the average fan was checking the opening lines, I was checking the 10-day forecast at weather.com, and sources close to the 10-day forecast told CBSSports.com that it's going to be cold and wet and possibly icy, which would be great if this were the Winter X Games. But this is the Final Four -- not the Frozen Four -- and the Final Four is something best held in a warm climate, as is pretty much everything ... except the Winter X Games.

Which is not a knock on Detroit.

Let's be clear about that.

I hate it when writers pick on a city with a questionable reputation, because it's something that happens to my hometown all the time, mostly because my hometown excels in shady politics and violent crimes. But you know what? I love my hometown and all of its flaws. So I can sympathize with Detroit residents who will almost certainly spend this week reading one bad joke after another about their city, and I'm here to promise right now they won't read those jokes from me, because any city with a Marriott and a bar is tolerable for a week, far as I'm concerned.

It's just that I hate cold weather.

It makes me cold.

But I'll pack a coat and deal with it the best I can.

And here's your first look at the Final/Frozen Four ...

The matchups

• Connecticut vs. Michigan State (on Saturday at 6:07 p.m. ET)
• North Carolina vs. Villanova (on Saturday at 8:47 p.m. ET)

(After I checked the weather, I did check the opening lines because I feel it's necessary to keep the degenerate gamblers informed. For those curious, UConn is favored by 4.0 points over Michigan State while UNC is favored by 7.5 points over Villanova. My advice: Lay the points!)

Four storylines

1. Hansbrough's last chance: Tyler Hansbrough's college career is among the best in NCAA history from a statistical standpoint, but he'll be viewed one way if he never wins a national title, another if he gets this done. The ACC's all-time leading scorer is a four-time All-American who has now made three Elite Eights and two Final Fours. But that national championship is missing, and if he doesn't get it, his career will forever be missing something.

2. MSU in Detroit: It's 91 miles from the Breslin Center to Ford Field, so you can expect to see a lot of green in the building Saturday, which should give the Spartans a home-court advantage. Of course, last time they played at Ford Field, they lost to UNC by 35 in December, and they had a nice home-court advantage then, too. So who knows?

3. From fourth in the Big East to the Final Four: Villanova finished fourth in the Big East, lost to Louisville by 14 in the Big East tournament semifinals, and the Wildcats were never considered among the best in their league. People argued the merits of Connecticut, Louisville and Pittsburgh, debated the order of those three all season. But almost nobody allowed the Wildcats into that conversation, and yet here they are, two wins away from a national title. Good for them.

4. Those cheating UConn Huskies: This should be a great time for UConn fans, and I'm sure it is. But there's no denying every great thing that happened last week is -- and every great thing that could happen later this week will be -- somewhat tainted by the alleged recruiting violations surrounding Nate Miles, a student-athlete who enrolled but never played at the school. Like it or not, that's reality. And I just hope Jim Calhoun figures out some better answers to the questions before the press conferences Thursday, because the press conferences last week didn't go so smoothly.

Ranked by the RPI (entering Selection Sunday)

1. North Carolina (No. 3 RPI)
2. Michigan State (No. 6 RPI)
3. Connecticut (No. 8 RPI)
4. Villanova (No. 13 RPI)

Ranked by offensive efficiency

1. North Carolina (No. 1 offense)
2. Connecticut (No. 12 offense)
3. Villanova (No. 19 offense)
4. Michigan State (No. 23 offense)

Ranked by defensive efficiency

1. Connecticut (No. 3 defense)
2. Michigan State (No. 9 defense)
3. Villanova (No. 15 defense)
4. North Carolina (No. 18 defense)

Been there, done that (except for Jay Wright)

• Jim Calhoun: Third Final Four, two national titles.
• Tom Izzo: Fifth Final Four, one national title.
• Roy Williams: Seventh Final Four, one national title.
• Jay Wright: First Final Four, no national titles.

Back to normal

We've had four schools from four different leagues make the Final Four each of the past two seasons, and that was really rare. How rare? Consider that in the eight previous seasons (1999 to 2006), every Final Four featured two schools from the same league, meaning this is the ninth time in 11 years that two schools from the same league have made it.

Here's the breakdown ...

1999: Big Ten (Michigan State, Ohio State)
2000: Big Ten (Michigan State, Wisconsin)
2001: ACC (Duke, Maryland)
2002: Big 12 (Oklahoma, Kansas)
2003: Big 12 (Texas, Kansas)
2004: ACC (Duke, Georgia Tech)
2005: Big Ten (Michigan State, Illinois)
2006: SEC (LSU, Florida)
2009: Big East (Connecticut, Villanova)

(One thing worth noting: In the eight previous years that a league placed two schools in the Final Four, those leagues only won three national titles. So recent history suggests the Big East is guaranteed nothing despite having two of the four participants.)

My National Championship Game

• North Carolina vs. Connecticut

My National Champion

• North Carolina

My Most Outstanding Player

• Tyler Hansbrough