Perhaps I'm just bitter about being on the 'under' in Monday's championship game, a pick that looked foolish pretty early, but why did Michigan State think they could run with the Tar Heels? For a team that dominated the Big Ten and was very adept at playing a slower pace game it seemed logical to try to slow down North Carolina and make the Heels play defense deep into the shot clock. Instead the Spartans threw up many bad shots with 20+ seconds remaining on the shot clock and created many easy transition opportunities for the Tar Heels.
North Carolina took advantage and cruised to a blowout win and a National Championship. Even when it was clear that Michigan State was out of control and playing with panic, Izzo failed to use his timeouts to gather his team and stop the bleeding. North Carolina's defense has shown at several points in the season that they can be scored upon and Michigan State had a good enough defense to make the Tar Heels work for points but a combination of turnovers and poor early shot selection created the exact opportunities that North Carolina hopes for.
Congratulations to the Tar Heels, they clearly were the most talented team in the field and they will likely will be remembered as one of the more dominant championship teams in history. North Carolina certainly could have been had with the right match-up and game plan. North Carolina never had to face a fellow #1 seed but it was a great finish for an immensely talented team and great respect should be shown for Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, and Tyler Hansbrough, players that could have gone pro but knew they had unfinished business in the tournament.
How incredible is what happened in Arizona yesterday for opening day of the baseball season. Both Felipe Lopez and Tony Clark homered in the same game from both sides of the plate. Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams actually did this in 2000 but this has to be one of the rarest things to happen in the storied history of baseball. Big name pitchers proved to be big busts on Monday with C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander, Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt, and Francisco Liriano all being hit hard. Don't be afraid to go-against big-name, big-price, pitchers early in the year, like anyone else they take time to find their form and the value can be exceptional.
