Give the people what they want. Thank you Louisville and Michigan, for setting the stage for the best possible national championship matchup for Monday night. As much as we love Syracuse – and we do love the ‘Cuse – going into Saturday’s games, clearly the most entertaining title matchup was going to be the Cardinals and the Wolverines, and that’s what we’re getting … In Game 1 yesterday, Louisville withstood a withering, physical attack from a rough and tough Wichita State team, coming back from being down double figures with 11 minutes to go to win, 72-68 … Louisville is moving on to Monday night, but it so easily could have been the Shockers in the title game. They were in control for much of the game and even after Louisville took over down the stretch, Wichita State was still in a position to wrest control and win the game. The mode for State on offense in the last 10 minutes seemed to be, “Get a good look and then go get every rebound,” and that’s what they did. State’s Cleanthony Early had 10 rebounds and it seemed like every one of them came on the offensive end in the final few minutes, collecting misses and putting them in … Louisville just couldn’t get inside on offense, but they got an out-of-body experience from junior forward Luke Hancock (7.4 ppg on the season) who went off for 20 points last night on three triples as well as multiple keys runs into the lane … The play (or non-play) that may haunt Wichita State came when they were down two with eight seconds left and pressing Louisville, desperately hoping to foul a poor shooter to send them to the line to hopefully miss foul shots. The pass came in to Georgui Dieng – he of 65% from the stripe – and the Shockers inexplicably did not foul him. The ball eventually found its way to Russ Smith (21 points) and the game was over … Random fact tweeted by Darren Rovell during the game: Louisville has a disability policy through Lloyd’s of London that would pay them in Rick Pitino couldn’t coach for medical reasons … The Cardinals will be facing Michigan on Monday night, after the Wolverines figured out Syracuse‘s zone (sort of), and held on to win in the face of a furious ‘Cuse rally, 61-56 … The play that will be remembered will always be when Brandon Triche drove the lane with a chance to tie it with 19 seconds left and was hit with a questionable-at-the-very-best charge call. It was a wrap after that … Despite the fact that he seems to miss a ton of mid-range short jumpers, Mitch McGary likely solidified his NBA Draft Lottery status with a supreme all-around effort of 10 points, 12 boards and six assists (his career high was two dimes entering the game) … Not so wonderful in terms of the draft boards? Trey Burke. The top college basketball award winner was totally bottled up by the top of Syracuse’s zone (i.e. – NBA-sized guards with NBA length). He finished with seven points on 1-8 shooting. At his size (6-0), without Iverson-like athleticism and explosiveness, it’s just not going to happen as an off-guard … Phil Jackson‘s zone attack advice on Twitter during the game: “vs zones one if it’s a 2-3 zone you must mismatch point gd offense-if it’s a 1-3-1 must use 2 gd front.” … In the NBA, LeBron came back from his short three-game absence (hamstring) to put 27 on Philly (12-17 from the field) in a 106-87 W for their 60th victory on the season … The John Wall wave of destruction rolls on. He put 37 points, five assists and a huge block on Roy Hibbert in a 104-85 win for the Wiz… No Ty Lawson and Danilo Gallinari, no problem for Denver. They smashed Houston 132-114 – it’s crazy that they can still put up numbers like this without two vital pieces of the machine … In the game, James Harden was 10-10 from the foul line, broke Moses Malone‘s FT record for a season … We’re out like Boeheim.
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