Saturday is upon us and with it two of the final three games of the
season. LSU takes on UCLA, and Florida takes on Mason, a school which has
quickly dropped its first name in the mind of the amazed general public.
Amazed we may be, but there they are, this year's Cinderella.
Cinderella on steroids.
Mason shocked everyone when they beat Michigan State, then UNC, then Wichita
State, and finally UConn, but in each case (save Wichita State), a very
well prepared team with a high level of desire beat a more highly regarded
team but ones which for various reasons weren't playing at their highest
level. That won't be the case against Florida.
The Gators have rounded into a superb unit, and they will give Mason a much
tougher game than they've gotten so far. True, UConn took it to the wire,
but as we argued all along, UConn was a team which doesn't have the heart of a
champion. It was a question of when, not if.
Like UConn, Michigan State's intensity was up and down. And while UNC's
was pretty high most of the season, at the end, they played like the young team
they are.
Mason can beat Florida, but we'll be surprised if they do. We're taking
Florida.
And in the second game, while UCLA's defense gets the attention, it's not
like LSU's is that bad. And UCLA can probably forget about scoring inside.
If LSU stays out of foul trouble, and if they control the boards, we don't
see how UCLA does it. They'll have trouble stopping LSU on the blocks, and
if LSU grabs the rebounds, they'll really be in trouble.
So we'll go for an all-SEC final.