UConn Beats Butler for the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship
Swen Nater

President, Barak Obama, made his Final Four prediction. The Democrat decided to go conservative and chose four number 1 seeds: Kansas, Ohio State, Pittsburg, and Duke. As we all know, none of those teams are in it.

OK. I agree. President Obama is not an expert. So let’s turn to a real authority, Dick Vitale. He would know, right? After all, he’s in the Hall of Fame. (Why is Vitale in the Hall of Fame? Somebody tell me what he’s in there for?) Here’s what ESPN says about this amazing basketball mind.

His thorough knowledge of the game is brought forth in an enthusiastic, passionate style.

First of all, nobody knows if Vitale has thorough knowledge of basketball at all. As an analyst, he spends the majority of time doing everything but analyzing the game. Once every five trips down the floor, he remembers why he’s being paid and says something like, “It’s about help defense, baby! I’ve been at Duke practice and I can tell you, Coach K is all about the weak side helping the strong side, baby!” Instead of giving us novices insight on how a player made an incredible move, he says, “He’s going to the next level, Baby.” He doesn’t even know when one team switches to a zone defense or that they’ve changed their game plan at half time by going inside more. Vitale chose Ohio State to win it all. So much for the “thorough knowledge.”

I work in an office where a lot of people have been talking about the March Madness brackets and predicting who will win each game. It’s a lot of fun. Every Monday, they compare who was right and who was wrong. A common thing I hear is, “All but one of my picks are still in it.” There are 68 teams in the tournament. If history repeats, about 1 out of 68 people will successfully choose the champion. But this season, it’s even less than that.

ESPN just released a sobering statistic. This year, two out of six million people accurately picked the Final Four (Butler, Connecticut, Kentucky, VCU). Who are those two people? I bet it’s a married couple, where one is a graduate of VCU the other of Butler, they both love their Hartford Insurance, and are car racing fanatics. 

Guessing who will win it all is a shot in the dark, but I’m going to give it a shot by saying the team with the best point guard will win because—as much as I hate to say it—the point guard position is the most important on the team. That player has the opportunity to contribute more than anyone else. Point guards are the first line of defense, run the plays, penetrate the ball, lead the fast break, pass to open players, and settle the team down when it needs to regroup. The good ones are like assistant coaches on the floor and they make other players successful. I played with Magic Johnson and he was all of the above. The best college point guard I have ever seen is Mike Warren of UCLA.

I don’t remember when a Final Four was so loaded with good floor leaders. Kemba Walker (UConn), Brandon Knight (Kentucky), Joey Rodriguez (VCU), and Shelvin Mack (Butler) could be the four best point guards in the country. (At least right now, they are.)

Like I said at the beginning of this posting, determining what team will win is only speculation. But perhaps we can make an educated guess based on the quality of the point guards. My ranking of the four is, from best to least best: Walker, Mack, Knight, and then Rodriquez. Therefore, I’ve got Butler and UConn in the finals with UConn winning it all. But it’s only a guess. For an expert opinion, ask Dick Vitale. He’s awesome, Baby!!