:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/4739455/132974271.jpg)
Let's forget that the Boston Celtics have won five straight including last night's pickpocketing of the Miami Heat by 19. Today is National Championship day and the only people invited were teams with U's and K's in their name, as Kansas nuzzles up next to Kentucky this evening. Kennesaw State was so close.
From a talent perspective, the game isn't close. Kentucky has been the most talented team in college basketball since UConn beat Butler and Kansas gets by on Bill Self's pushing more than anything else. Louisville put up a nice fight against UK but at the end of the day, it was Anthony Davis, Marquis Teague and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist that rolled away with it. Nobody took double-digit shots and they shot 57% from the field. BUT. The 'Ville attempted a whopping 20 more shots than the Cats and scrapped their way to a ton of O-boards. Some vulnerability there, but not much.
Kansas, meanwhile, is a much less-talented team than the one in their previous iteration which bested a John Calipari team in the National Championship game. Thomas Robinson is a stud but he looked a bit timid against Ohio State, and Tyshawn Taylor has a knack for being both awesome and terrible at the exact same time. Jeff Withey is the wildcard here for me. If he can stay out of foul trouble and keep Davis and Terrence Jones away from the rim, Kentucky could be in some trouble. Doron Lamb and occasionally Darius Miller are killer from distance, but KU has the wing defenders to keep up with them. It's inside that would make the biggest difference, and that starts with Withey.
Even though Kentucky is a much better team, it's just one game. Kansas doesn't have to be the better team, they just have to hang in there long enough to give them a shot to win it in the final moments. It's just one game, right Rick Moranis? It could happen, right Joseph Gordon-Levitt? It's all in the hips, right Carl Weathers?
Thread it here all day so we can talk about all these guys the Sixers won't have a chance at come June.