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.

Virginia Tech Deals Undefeated No. 1 Wake Forest First Loss; Northwestern Upsets No. 7 Michigan State

Over the last several days, Drive and Dish has devoted a lot of time to talking about Wake Forest and Northwestern (more here, here, here, here, and here). How fitting then, that Wake Forest and Northwestern were participants in Wednesday night's two shocking upset games.

Virginia Tech traveled to Winston Salem, NC, and stunned No. 1 Wake Forest 78-71, handing the previously unbeaten Demon Deacons their first loss of the season.

And Northwestern ventured into Michigan State's intimidating Breslin Center and upset the No. 7 Spartans 70-63 (more here). With the stunning win, the Wildcats ended Michigan State's 28-game home winning streak and earned their first road win over a top ten team since the early 1950's.


What's more, the Wildcats' newfound winning ways have prompted some Northwestern fans to start looking down the schedule and speculating about the broader implications of the 'Cats' two recent upset wins (and it's prompted Drive and Dish to link to the fine Northwestern blog Lake the Posts for the third time this week):

Before you go into "coulda, shoulda, woulda" mode with the Purdue and Penn State games, just be thankful we grabbed this one thanks to a combination of stellar defense and poor Michigan State shooting. Northwestern moves to 10-6 (2-4) with several winnable games in the near future (Iowa, Chicago State and Indiana). However, after winning AT Michigan State, it makes you wonder what game isn't winnable? To the Carmody-must-go-ists, including myself, it makes you also wonder if he secured another year with tonight's win (along with at least four or five more to be .500-ish).

As alluded to above, Wake Forest and Northwestern have taken to making college basketball headlines, and have, thus, been the subjects of several recent Drive and Dish posts. If the Demon Deacons and Wildcats stay at the forefront of college hoops, Drive and Dish will be forced to continue talking/writing about them. Sure, we're well aware that with all our recent WFU/NU talk, we run the risk of looking like WFU and NU fanboys (fanboy pictures: here, here, here, here and here). But what's a basketball blogger to do? If the aforementioned teams keep making waves, we'll have to keep writing about them ... although we might be well advised to stop wearing the Demon Deacon underoos (more here) and to stop sleeping in the purple and white Wildcat sheets.

Minnesota Upsets #9 Louisville

On Saturday, the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers upset the #9 Louisville Cardinals 70-64 on a neutral court in Glendale, Arizona. At a perfect 10-0, Minnesota is off to its best start since the 1976-77 season.

Al Nolen led Minnesota Gophers with 18 points. Blake Hoffarber had 15 points off the bench for the Gophers.

The game reunited Minnesota Head Coach Tubby Smith with his former boss, Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino. Smith served as an assistant to Pitino at Kentucky for two years before leaving to become the Head Coach at Tulsa. Smith later succeeded Pitino as Head Coach at Kentucky when Pitino left to become the Head Coach and General Manager of the NBA's Boston Celtics in 1997.

Hiring Tubby Smith in 2007 was nothing short of a coup for Minnesota. Sure, Smith was on the hot seat when he left Kentucky for Minnesota; his days in Lexington were likely numbered. But his arrival in Minnesota delivered instant credibility to the Gophers basketball program. In his first season as Minnesota's coach, Smith turned a program that had been either mediocre or bad for several seasons into a scrappy, 20 game winning team. Now Tubby Smith has the Gophers undefeated, and with a major upset under their belt with just one week to go before Big Ten conference play begins.

Drive and Dish was impressed with Minnesota's hire of Tubby Smith, and last year we predicted that Coach Smith would have the Golden Gophers competing for Big Ten championships in the near future. But that future may have come sooner than even we realized.

More:

On a side note, Minnesota's upset of Louisville marks yet another impressive upset of an AP Top 10 rated team by an unheralded upstart from the Big Ten. When combined with Michigan's upsets over then-#4 UCLA and then-#4 Duke, Minnesota's upset over Louisville should serve notice to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, if not the talking heads at ESPN and in the national media, that the Big Ten might not be "down" again this year (sure, Michigan State's drubbing by North Carolina didn't do much to help the Big Ten's image, but their thrilling 67-63 upset of #5 Texas on Saturday surely did).

Izzo in Running For Chicago Job?

Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski and Dan Wetzel are reporting that along with Rick Carlisle, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo may be in the running for the Chicago Bulls' coaching job:

"When reached on Tuesday night, Izzo told Yahoo! Sports that he hadn’t been contacted by the Bulls, but sounded willing to discuss the job with them.

'I’m not counting out any (job openings) because you can’t,' Izzo said. 'College or pro.'

'I go back and forth on (coaching in the NBA),' he continued. 'I still think it’s the ultimate level. There is something about it. I look at it and say, ‘It’s a real challenge.’ But I love what I do too. I go down and look at what the Pistons (coaches) do in preparation and I think, ‘That’s insane.’

'But I look at what I do in terms of recruiting and I think, ‘That’s insane.’”

Wojnarowski and Wetzel continue:

"The Bulls are under the impression, sources said, that Izzo is eager to speak with them. Some believe he has grown restless in East Lansing, and it’s believed he would’ve become the Kansas coach had Bill Self taken the Oklahoma State job."

Davidson Whips Wisconsin, Elite 8 Field Set

Last night, Davidson punched its ticket to the Elite 8 by embarrassing Wisconsin 73-56 in Detroit's Ford Field. Wisconsin had been the 3 seed in the Midwest Regional. Davidson (undergraduate enrollment 1,600) is the 10 seed.

Davidson's amazing Tournament run has been led by guard Stephen Curry. As Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel writes:

"Curry, whose star has risen so high in the span of eight days that LeBron James came just to see him play (mouthing a visible "Wow" on an acrobatic reverse layup by Curry late in the game), put on another dazzling shooting display, hitting 6-of-11 three-pointers, but his most important stat may have been this one: Four steals."

And Davidson isn't the only team that advanced to the Elite 8 by blowing out thier opponent. All of Friday's Sweet Sixteen games were blowouts.

Texas blew out Stanford 82-62 in Houston, Kansas ripped Villanova 72-57 in Detroit, and Memphis humiliated Michigan State 92-74 in Houston.

A Hard Sell: Who Needs Two?

By Mark Buckets

It’s been a difficult week - and month - for ticket brokers in and around the Detroit metropolitan area.

As Joanne C. Gerstner of The Detroit News says, it’s certainly been a buyer’s market for fans looking to attend the Midwest Regional at Ford Field Friday and Sunday.

At first glance, these brokers were licking their chops at an opportunity to gobble up hundreds upon hundred of tickets to this week’s Midwest Regional at Ford Field.

The reason?

Michigan State (Michigan’s only true college basketball program at the moment) was expected to earn a seed high enough to play their way into the Midwest Regional.

After a year in which the Spartans were as up and down as an amusement park roller coaster, Michigan State ended up peaking at - depending upon whom you ask - the right time.

For those with Midwest Regional tickets expecting to see the Spartans, it was too little, too late.

The Spartans ended up with a five seed, and were shipped to the South Region.

To those pesky ticket brokers, this was a nightmare scenario that became a stark reality.

The four teams participating in the Ford Field Regional? None of them include Michigan State, and two of the teams - Villanova and Davidson - are mum on sales of their allotment of 1,250 tickets.

Drive & Dish is in negotiations with Enterprise Rent-a-Car to provide a rental car for Trashtalk Superstar and Mark Buckets, enabling the duo to cover the games on Friday and Sunday.

As of Wednesday Afternoon, representatives of the rental car giant have yet to deliver a response.

We'll keep you posted.



Trashtalk Superstar adds:

Wow. I didn't know that Mark Buckets was thinking about renting a car to go to Detroit. Apparently, he's in deep negotiations with Enterprise.

That's fine. But Trashtalk Superstar only travels by Gulfstream, son. Mark Buckets can rent a Festiva if he wants to; but if I can get away for those games, you best believe that I'll be big pimpin' in the G4.

Tom Izzo, Michigan State Survive Scare at Bradley: Drive and Dish Shows Izzo Some Love Just for Scheduling Game

This past Tuesday, #9 Michigan State traveled to Peoria, IL to play the Bradley Braves, an unranked, but scrappy team from the underrated Missouri Valley conference. A crowd of 11,500 braved a winter storm in order to set a Peoria Civic Center/Carver Arena record for attendance (the arena has a capacity of roughly 11,000). Tuesday's game marked the first time in over twenty years that Bradley played host to a team ranked in the AP top ten. After being behind for most of the game, Michigan State rallied to escape with a hard fought 66-61 win. A major factor in Michigan State's shaky performance was the hostility of the Bradley crowd. Bradley students, alumni and fans packed the normally sterile Carver Arena to create what Michigan State coach Tom Izzo termed an "electric environment."

Tom Izzo should be commended for scheduling a "two and one" series with Bradley. It's difficult for Missouri Valley teams to find non conference opponents from BCS conferences like the Big Ten. The MVC is widely considered to be one of the best conferences in college basketball. And Valley teams have a reputation for playing a tough, scrappy, defensive-minded brand of basketball. But the Missouri Valley is still technically a "mid major" conference. Thus, teams from major conferences stand to gain little by playing Missouri Valley teams: the Valley teams are almost certain to challenge the "major" conference teams (and maybe even beat them) but the "major" conference teams aren't likely to be rewarded for close wins over "mid majors" in the RPI rankings or by the NCAA Tournament selection committee. So they usually won't play the good Valley teams.

Give Izzo credit. He knew that Michigan State didn't stand to gain much by playing that game (in either the RPI rankings or in the eyes of the selection committee) -- and he knew that if they were to lose, or even struggle with Bradley, they could pay for it all season long (and that it could, ultimately, affect their Tournament seeding).

But Izzo took his Spartans to battle an unheralded opponent in a hostile environment. And after surviving Tuesday night's scare, he's relieved to get out with a win and thinks his team will be tougher in the long run for having played the game.

That's why Drive and Dish is showing Tom Izzo some love (actually, Tom Izzo is probably my favorite coach in college basketball -- I've respected and admired him for many years -- so it's hardly a surprise that D&D is showing Izzo love). We believe that you've got to give credit where credit's due.