The Men's National Championship game in college basketball takes place tonight between the Michigan Wolverines and the Louisville Cardinals. The game is scheduled for a 9:23 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on CBS. Currently the odds for the game have Louisville as a small favorite.
With the college basketball world looking upon Atlanta tonight, we're expecting a game between two very good basketball teams. When the brackets came out just a few weeks ago, many predicted that Louisville would be in this position for a chance to win the national championship. Not many picked Michigan to get to this point and in fact, the Wolverines bested a lot of great teams to get here.
In tonight's matchup we see a team that has a great time playing defense in Louisville compare against a team in Michigan that ranks first nationally in offensive efficiency. Of course, having a guy like player of the year Trey Burke doesn't hurt that. Burke's been on a mission since returning to Ann Arbor following a brief look at a possibility in the NBA Draft last season. There's little doubt he'll be heading there, win or lose in this game tonight. But what Burke does is get his teammates involved at all costs. Sure, he's the team's leading scorer and does take bad shots from time to time, but he knows his role as a point guard is getting the team going and feeding the ball to his teammates.
Louisville is going to come with a lot of pressure in this game. They trailed by double digits to Wichita State in the national semifinal on Saturday night but stormed back, aided by their defense, to pick up a win in that game. They've rarely trailed at all in the tournament and Russ Smith has a lot to say about that. The junior is averaging 25 points on 50 percent shooting over five NCAA tournament games.
The Cardinals have already won 34 games this season compared to 31 from the Wolverines. Despite the clash between the way these teams play and their strengths, this is going to be a great game. Look at all the stars on the floor. Both teams have great players and that's what makes college basketball great. Tim Hardaway Jr. hasn't had the best tournament for Michigan, but he will be looking to have a big game tonight. Michigan has big guards and that's only going to help them tonight. Glenn Robinson III can play that swing position but because of Louisville's bigs, he'll probably have to see some time down low.
Rick Pitino, who almost became Michigan's coach in 2001, know how big this game is for his team. They are playing with a lot of emotion because of the Kevin Ware injury, but remember this team was the No. 1 overall seed coming into the tournament, so they are expected to be here.
The matchup between Peyton Siva and Burke is going to be huge. If Burke can keep Siva from beating up the Michigan defense and make Louisville work on their possessions, Michigan is going to stay in this game until the end. And another great matchup will be Michigan's Mitch McGary and Louisville's Gorgui Dieng. Both have high motors and McGary has emerged as a premier big guy inside for Michigan, which is a big reason why they are playing for the national title.
The Cardinals have made 53.2 percent of their shots in five NCAA tournament games. Michigan withstood Syracuse's patented zone Saturday and now it has to deal with the Cardinal press. The good news for the Wolverines is their 9.37 turnovers per game average is the best in school history and obviously leads the nation. They're efficient, don't foul and don't turn it over.
Michigan has been very efficient all tournament and is playing like they're the best team in the country. They've withstood several stifling defenses from VCU, Kansas and Syracuse and won't be intimidated by Louisville's guards. We like the Wolverines to cut down the nets in this one tonight. Offensively they are going to get it done and they've been rebounding well in the tournament. Both will be critical in tonight's game.
Free Pick: Michigan 71, Louisville 67