NCAA 2012 Final Four Preview

#2 Ohio St. v.s. #2 Kansas

This will be the closer of the two Final Four match-ups this upcoming weekend. On the stat sheets, both Ohio St. and Kansas are even in anyway possible. Both teams can score and more importantly they can both play amazing defense. In my mind, this will be a defensive game the whole way. First, let’s start off with the Ohio St. defense. In this season, the Ohio St. Buckeyes are holding their opponents to an average of 59.7 points per game. Ohio St. can also hold their opponents to low shooting percentages with a 40.7% on the season. If Ohio St. wants to win this game, they need to hold Kansas to a poor shooting day. If Kansas comes out like they did against North Carolina and have all five starters in double-digits then Ohio St. can kiss the National Championship good-bye. The most important thing will be making sure that Kansas does not get too many second chance points.

On the other hand, Kansas has a very good defense as well. Their defense is anchored by their star center Jeff Withey. Withey has been on a roll defensively with twenty blocks in just four NCAA Tournament games. Withey had ten blocks in the Sweet 16 against North Carolina St., but only three blocks against North Carolina in the Elite Eight. The key to keeping Withey’s block numbers down is to get him in foul trouble. Even though they failed to win in the Elite Eight, North Carolina got Withey into foul trouble with four fouls and this affected his block numbers. Kansas does not give up many points to their opponents. Only one team has scored more than sixty points on the Kansas Jayhawks and that was the North Carolina Tarheels.

In the end, the key players in the game will be Jared Sullinger and Deshuan Thomas. These two need to be on their game if the Ohio St. St. Buckeyes want to beat Kansas. Thomas has played amazing basketball in the NCAA Tournament and has been getting a lot of attention from NBA Draft scouts. A wild card though needs to be Ohio St.’s Arron Craft. If Ohio St. wins this game, it will have to be because of the scrappy play of Arron Craft by assisting the ball and stealing the ball away from Kansas like he did in the Gonzaga and Cincinnati games. Even though this will be a very close and intense game, I have the Ohio St. Buckeyes winning this game and meeting Kentucky for the National Title.

#2 Ohio St. 65, #2 Kansas 63

Ricky’s Projected National Championship: #1 Kentucky v.s. #2 Ohio St.

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