CHALK IT UP: TAR HEELS SHOULD DOMINATE

[Men’s NCAA Basketball Championship] April 6, 2009 @ Ford Field. Detroit, MI.  Year-to-date: Cumulative 13-3. +9.5 units

That’s why they play the game.

That is the answer to the age-old question of why one should look forward to watch a championship game. At any level of competition, the emotions stirred and pressures unveiled when glory is at stake is as good a reason as any to enjoy being alive. Team or individual endeavor it matters not.

As best put by a fan sign I saw during the MSU-UConn semi-final game last Saturday: Heroes die; legends live forever.

In our nation’s sports culture the underdog is embraced like nowhere else, and when the Michigan State Spartans face the North Carolina Tar Heels tonight, sentimentality will extremely favor the de facto representatives of Detroit, the most economically brutalized metropolitan area in these historically bad economic times. Not surprisingly, MSU has been tagged as a team of destiny having already upset two other regional #1 seeds to arrive at this evening’s championship.

However, Ford Field provided little in the way of home-field advantage four months ago when North Carolina schooled MSU by 35 points. The extenuating circumstances pointed out in this article are legitimate so expecting more of the same for a team that has played so well recently is naïve, but the underlying point, as I’ve said before the tourney began, is that at their best North Carolina can make any team in the nation look amateurish.

NORTH CAROLINA (-7.5) vs  Michigan State. 1 unit.   The real problem for the Spartans tonight is that the Tar Heels are NOT defending champions. The four NBA draft-ready starters from Chapel Hill have been biding their time since last year’s embarrassing semi-final loss to Kansas for this precise moment. There is no entitlement-risk by taking the favorites tonight. Since we’re dealing with college-aged “student-athletes,” and not hardened professional, this is a factor that can’t be overlooked.

The great equalizer on any given night is great point guard play and sublime 3-point shooting, but it’s impossible not to give the distinct edge to the likes of PG Ty Lawson, SG Wayne Ellington, and G/F Danny Green who are frequently take wide-open shots because teams have to respect the interior play of host of post players, not the least of which is four-time All-America Tyler Hansbrough; does it really matter if he doesn’t project to be a NBA stud?

While most will be watching looking for an upset and some sort of karmic signal that our economy is on the path to recovery, I’m going to enjoy watching a college team that I’ve actually been able to see develop as a team the last three years assert their dominance and earn their deserved coronation as 2009 champions.  Prediction: 84-72.  Actual final: 89-72, pretty damn close!