North Carolina Wins 5th National Championship

Monday night, North Carolina breezed past Michigan State 89-72 at Ford Field in Detroit, capturing the 2009 NCAA National Championship. With the win, the North Carolina program now owns five National Championships (tying with Indiana for third place on list of programs with the most National Championships, behind only Kentucky and UCLA). North Carolina had previously won National Championships in 1957, 1982, 1993 and 2005.

North Carolina dominated Michigan State from start to finish. The Spartans surprised the "experts" with their Final Four run. They had upset supposedly superior teams in Louisville and Connecticut to advance to the Final Four and Championship game. But North Carolina was clearly the superior team. The Tar Heels were simply too talented, too athletic, too deep at every position, and too focused for the Spartans.

Congratulations to the 2009 NCAA National Champion North Carolina Tar Heels.

(Image: USA Today).

UConn, Michigan State, North Carolina, Vilanova Advance to Final Four

The first two rounds of the 2009 NCAA Tournament are over. The 65-team NCAA Tournament field has been whittled down to four remaining contestants. Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Villanova have survived and advanced, and, thus, constitute the field for the 2009 Final Four.

On Saturday, April 4, Connecticut will play Michigan State and North Carolina will play Villanova in Detroit's Ford Field.

As 1-seeds, North Carolina and Connecticut were expected to reach the Final Four. Michigan State and Villanova, while both seeded highly (2 and 3-seeds, respectively) upset 1-seeds in the Elite Eight in order to advance to the Final Four.

Michigan State's presence in the Final Four is particularly noteworthy. As members of the much-maligned Big Ten conference, most college basketball "experts" expressed the opinion that the Spartans did not have what it takes to reach the Final Four. Most experts expected Louisville to defeat MSU handily in the Elite Eight, and thus, become the third 2009 Final Four participant from the Big East conference. In fact, it was widely believed that Louisville would run Michigan State off the floor.

But Tom Izzo and the Spartans had different ideas. Izzo's superior game plan put his team in position to take advantage of its strengths (superior guard play, strong play in the paint), and neutralize Louisville's strengths (full court pressure defense, athleticism, three point shooting, switching zone defenses, depth). Most analysts expected Michigan State to wilt under Louisville's famed full court pressure. But the backcourt duo of Kalin Lucas and Travis Walton (along with occasional help from big man Goran Suton) broke the Cardinals' pressure with ease. And the Spartans' torrid three point shooting relegated the zone defense ineffective.

Also of note, since his promotion to the position of men's head basketball coach prior the 1995/96 season, Tom Izzo has taken Michigan State to five Final Fours. Even more impressively, since becoming head coach, every one of Tom Izzo's who has completed his four years of eligibility has participated in a Final Four.

Although he's regularly overlooked by the Big East & Atlantic Coast Conference-obsessed national sports media, Tom Izzo is clearly one of the top coaches in college basketball. What's more, he's widely regarded as one of the true good guys in a notoriously shady sport (college basketball) that is filled with smooth-talking, but often unscrupulous coaches.

Drive and Dish expects Connecticut to beat North Carolina to win the 2009 National Championship (as we've said all year), but we tip our hats to Tom Izzo and Michigan State. We thought MSU would probably make it to the Elite Eight, but fall short of making the Final Four (even though we picked Kansas in our final official bracket). But we're thrilled to see Izzo and the ever-tough Spartans back in the familiar territory of the Final Four.

Drive and Dish Reveals 2009 NCAA Tournament Picks

Since the NCAA Tournament starts later this morning, Drive and Dish is revealing our (until now) super-embargoed NCAA Tournament Brackets. Long time Drive and Dish readers may remember that we did the same thing last year. Back then, Mark Buckets and Trashtalk Superstar filled out separate brackets for Drive and Dish. This year however, we only have Trashtalk Superstar's bracket, as Mark Buckets' position has been eliminated due to the effects of the recession on the sports blog industry.

So without any further ado, we present the official 2009 Drive and Dish NCAA Tournament filled-out bracket (click on image to enlarge):


Notes:

* Indicates games in which Drive and Dish thinks the underdog team is likely to challenge the favored team and give them a "scare" before, ultimately, falling short of pulling off an upset.

** Drive and Dish picked Michigan to beat Clemson and Wisconsin to beat Florida State, despite the fact that we think Clemson and Florida State should win those games.

As we've said before, we're not sold on Clemson. We think Michigan's 1-3-1 zone could prove difficult for Clemson's offense. And we think Clemson will have trouble defending Michigan's Manny Harris. If Clemson struggles with Michigan's zone defense, and if Manny Harris has a big night, Michigan will win (despite the fact that Clemson has a better balanced team).

Florida State's Toney Douglas is one of the best guards in the game. He's not big, but he can break defenders down easily, can shoot effectively off the dribble and has, as they say, a motor that doesn't quit. Douglas torched opposing teams throughout the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Douglas should cause problems for Wisconsin. However, if Wisconsin can dictate the game's tempo, Florida State (and Douglas in particular) could find themselves stuck in a plodding, bruising, half-court game. If this happens, the Seminoles will have trouble scoring.

Earlier in the season, Northwestern -- the ultimate slow-it-down, plodding Big Ten team -- upset Florida State in the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge. Florida State has better talent than Wisconsin, but Drive and Dish expects the Wisconsin to be effective in slowing FSU down and forcing them to operate their offense out of half-court sets. If this occurs, Wisconsin should be able to knock Florida State out of the NCAA Tournament.