* * Final 4 Picks with write ups * *

Hi All, in a much earlier post, I had anticipated the Final 4 and National Champ coming down to 4 teams....two of those teams are still playing.  Houston and Gonzaga.

Gonzaga/UCLA - IMO, Gonzaga is the greatest college basketball team I've ever seen from a team chemistry and offensive efficiency perspective.  They look like a well oiled machine and are the "Golden State Warriors of college basketball".  UCLA is a feel good story to go from first 4 to final four, but the ride ends here.  I've seen many great teams come up short in years of watching college basketball (ex- 1991 UNLV, 2001 Duke, 2008 UNC, 2015 KENTUCKY to name a few) but this is as big a mismatch I can recall in a long time.  The Zags are superior in all aspects of the game and in addition to the lethal offense, possess the 5th best efficient defense.  I believe this game will get UGLY.  If the Bruins pull the upset, I would consider it the greatest upset I've ever seen at this stage of the NCAA tournament.  Play Gonzaga -13.5

Baylor/Houston - As I stated in an earlier thread, Houston to me is the likeliest candidate to emerge from opposite the Gonzaga bracket.  Houston has the 8th most efficient defense compared to Baylor's 28th ranked defense, whereas offensive efficiency perspective, these two teams are only separated by 4 positions.  I've seen a ton of basketball matchups over the years where two solid teams face off, and more often than not, when such a matchup occurs, the team with the superior defense prevails.  If this game is tight in the closing minutes, I see a lot of value in Houston covering the number and possibly securing the outright win.  Teams outside top 20 defensive efficiency have not won a national championship since the Kenpom.com site began accumulating data, and Baylor and UCLA are both in this category.  Kelvin Sampson is a longtime coach of the game, arrived at this stage in 2002 but denied a title game shot in an upset loss to Indiana.  I believe he gets the title game shot that eluded him 19 years ago.  Play Houston +5, smaller play on Houston ML

BOL  

  Like both, good stuff my man

Like Gonzaga but the greatest NCAA is hyperbole.  With one and done and tranfer portal they look better because star freshman go bye bye. Can you imagine the monster teams Kentucky,  UNC and Duke would have right now if the players had to stay for 3 years. Covid and the worst teams the Bluebloods have fielded in 70 years,  literally by the numbers and wins. Not being able to practice with their incoming classes hampered teams and not having fans made this season boring and historically bad. Baylor has been able to retain most of their talent til their Jr and Sr years a very rare experience indeed. As Jay Wright said my National Championship team played these same players I don't have one player on the court from that team.  Gonzaga is fun to watch and a cover machine but they play in a less than mid major crap conference were they are favored by 30 every night not lonely based on their talent but the poor teams that play in high school gyms. They didn't have to battle at all besides a soso BYU team. 

@hehateme_OLD_15815

I agree with you that Gongaza would be able to hang 20+ point over UCLA easily ...but everyone knows that. If there is no funny business going, I would bet the house on the Zags.