NIT Champs
Posted: Friday, April 03, 2009 by Travis Cody in
Congratulations to Penn State, National Invitation Tournament Champions for 2009. The Nittany Lions defeated Baylor 69-63 last night in Madison Square Garden to take the title.
Best wishes to PSU senior Danny Morrissey, who dove after a loose ball late in the game and banged his face right into the floor. He split his lip and knocked himself woozy. That's giving yourself up for the team and the title.
And props to the kids from Baylor. In the horrifying year of 2003, one player murdered a teammate, the head coach admitted to recruiting violations, and a host of other issues came to light. The Baylor program was in complete disarray. But the school weathered the trouble and the basketball program has rebuilt itself back up to respectability.
So that's one post season championship in the books.
The NCAA Tournament resumes tomorrow with two games in the Final Four.
First up is #2 seed Michigan State vs #1 seed Connecticut. MSU must control tempo and take energy from what will surely be a home crowd in Detroit. UConn must play with poise and use it's size and quickness on the interior. I'm not going to pick the upset here, although I am tempted and would not be surprised if the Spartans win.
My pick is UConn.
The night cap pits #3 seed Villanova vs #1 seed North Carolina. UNC junior guard Ty Lawson has overcome a painful turf toe to lead the Tarheels. He'll be hard pressed to deal with the quickness of the Wildcats' perimeter players. UNC is deeper that 'Nova at every position, but this is a good match up between each team's starting 5 plus the first 2 off the bench.
My pick is Villanova in the upset.
Yup. I've picked an all Big East final. Although I won't be surprised by any combination of teams advancing to the championship game on Monday.
The women's Final Four tips off from St Louis on Sunday. I usually watch a lot of women's games, but with the new job I haven't been getting home early enough. I have seen a bit of the tournament and I've enjoyed what I've seen.
The first game is #3 seed Lousiville vs #1 seed Oklahoma. Now I do know about the Parris twins, Courtney and Ashley, daughters of former SF 49er lineman Bubba Parris. These seniors are talented and motivated, and Courtney earned some notoriety a couple of weeks ago by saying she'd give back her scholarship if the Sooners didn't win the championship. I don't know anything about Louisville.
Analysts suggest that this is going to be a close game. The expert pick appears to be Louisville. But I like those twins and the joy they bring to the floor when they play.
The second game is #2 seed Stanford vs #1 seed Connecticut. Yes, the Huskies have both the men's and women's programs riding high. Unbeaten UConn is favored to win the tournament. The Huskies are led by sophomore Maya Moore, who is possibly the best female player in the country. I don't know if Stanford can hang with UConn or not, but I do know that Cardinal junior Jayne Appel dropped 46 points in the regional final and Stanford has their own 20 game winning streak.
The no-brainer pick is UConn. But Stanford was the last team to beat the Huskies, a year ago during the Final Four. And I gotta root for the west coast gals.
May you have bright sunshine and glorious warmth on this first weekend in April. We're supposed to get rain.
It was lovely here this week.
Next week it calls for snow.