(5) Michigan State vs. (1) North Carolina

Michigan State vs. North Carolina



PROBABLE STARTERS:

Michigan State - F Anderson (13.7 ppg, 5.6 rpg), F Ager (13.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg), C Davis (12.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg), G Brown (10.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg), G Neitzel (3.5 ppg, 2.9 apg).

North Carolina - F Jackie Manuel (5.8 ppg, 2.8 rpg), F Jawad Williams (13.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg), C May (17.1 ppg, 10.9 rpg), G Felton (12.7 ppg, 6.9 apg, 4.2 rpg), F McCants (16.0 ppg, 2.9 rpg).

HOW THEY GOT TO THE FINAL FOUR:

Michigan State - At-large berth, Big Ten; beat No. 12 Old Dominion 89-81, first round; beat No. 13 Vermont 72-61, second round; beat No. 1 Duke 78-68, Austin regional semifinal; beat No. 2 Kentucky 94-88, 2OT, regional final.

North Carolina - At-large bid, ACC; beat No. 16 Oakland 96-68, first round; beat No. 9 Iowa State 92-65, second round; beat No. 5 Villanova 67-66, Syracuse regional semifinal; beat No. 6 Wisconsin 88-82, regional final.

Game Preview

 

My pick is.....Michigan State.

I love their depth and their athleticism. Paul Davis and Shannon Brown have really impressed me thus far this NCAA tournament. One thing that can be very key is the freethrow shooting. The one thing I would be worried about is Sean May who has been playing as good as anyone in the tournament so far. But I'm going with the depth and athleticism with Michigan State. The senior leadership also gives them an edge in my mind. It seems that what's in question with the Tarheels is their defense, so they better play good defense against the Spartans tonight.

I'm looking for a Louisville vs. MSU championship, with Louisville taking out VC's Spartans (even though, I have Illinois beating UNC in my bracket)

 

No one is really giving Michigan State a chance to win this, but I definitely am giving them a chance. They beat best of their region in Duke and Kentucky and beat two underated mid-major teams in Old Dominion and Vermont. UNC really hasn't looked like a #1 seed at all! They got lucky agianst Villanova in which I think they should've lost, but that crap travel call let them move on, and they didn't play that good against Wisconsin in which they couldn't pull away and kept letting them get back into the game. But I think UNC will definitely come to play today and will pull it out against Mich St. It's going to be a nice fast paced game with a lot of bench play which will favor UNC, but Mich State's is solid as well.

If Felton can stay out of foul trouble and stay on the floor for at least 35 minutes, then I think UNC will be in very good shape to win it. But if not, Mich St should keep it close most of the game.

 

If Davis could keep May off the offensive boards and outrebound him, Izzo has a big chance chance at pulling the victory.

 

I'm also going with Michigan State in this one. Our depth and free-throw shooting will be too much for North Carolina to handle.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm also going with Michigan State in this one. Our depth and free-throw shooting will be too much for North Carolina to handle. </div>
You better be right man. UNC cannot win when Felton is off the court for a certain amount of time, so Brown better take it to him early!

 

michigan state by 9,<u> I have been behind this team since the beginning of the season</u>

 

I'd like to see Michigan State win, but I just don't think its going to happen. UNC wins a close one.

 

Well I think if anyone can match up with UNC it's Mich. St. They can match them in athleticism so if it turns into a track meet then it will be very close. The thing UNC has is the point guard play and big man play (though I think Davis is closer to May than people are giving him credit for). Those are some pretty big advantages. I think if they slow down either Felton or May though then Mich. St. can win.

I picked them to win against Duke and UK so I'm picking them to win against UNC.

 

For Mich. St. to win they need Davis to have an incredible game. He needs to take May out of the game, If Davis and Brown don't have a great game, Unc is going to take a close one.

 

It's going to be a very close game, with Michigan State's depth trying to wear down the Tarheels. But it will all depend on the boards, if Michigan State can get second chances and keep Carolina off the offensive glass then they might have this game won. Both teams are going to try and run their style of ball, which is to run the ball up and down the floor, which I think Carolina has the advantage in that category. Carolina has to have big bench play in order to keep their starters fresh and also they need to keep Mr. May out of foul trouble.

I don't know about this one from a Carolina standpoint, but it is still hard for me to pick against my team.

Prediction
Carolina - 84 // Michigan State - 80

I hope I am right...

 

My reply here was kind of short and choppy, but that's for a good reason. I just wrote about what I feel Michigan State will do in the Final Four Preview along with CUSA Fan, Fast Luck, and S.Livingston14. Please stop by and give us your thoughts on the preview.

Anyway, I just want to say that no matter who wins, it was an amazing accomplishment by all of the teams to get this far, and it's nothing to be ashamed of to lose in the Final Four.

 

I haven't seen Michigan State play, but before the Illinois-Louisville game, someone (Seth Green maybe? Can't remember) said they've got lots of heart. Still, go UNC!

 

I think Michigan State can win if they can get Felton into foul trouble, but I don't see them accomplishing this. May will come out ahead of Davis and that will be the key. I say 75-66 UNC

 

This is a great game so far. I can't believe what I'm seeing under the basket, though. That stuff that UNC is doing under there. That's not "boxing out". Hopefully the refs will catch on to it and put a stop to it.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting 44Thrilla:</div><div class="quote_post">This is a great game so far. I can't believe what I'm seeing under the basket, though. That stuff that UNC is doing under there. That's not "boxing out". Hopefully the refs will catch on to it and put a stop to it.</div>I think the refs are doing an okay job with it, but yeah, to UNC "boxing out" often seems to mean "two-handed shove," like the foul called after Davis made a shot, where the wrong guy took the free throw, or the play where MSU got the rebound but (didn't) have a foot out of bounds because of a shove. Michigan State is still killing them on the boards though.

Another fun game for people that don't like UNC is counting how many times they mention Sean May's "hands." I didn't start until 5 minutes into the game but I counted three.

I have to say, I really doubted MSU all season because I thought they were soft. But as a Big Ten fan I am very pleased with how they're playing in the NCAA tournament.

I agree with Clark in the halftime show, MSU should keep running. They have to stay smart, but they should keep running because UNC is the team getting worn out, as evidenced by May walking down the court on offense and defense.

 

Michigan State is shutting Sean May down. They keep it up in the second half and you'll see them come Monday, but I see UNC waking up and feeding it to May until something finally happens. Davis is doing a great job on both offense and defense and is on his way for another double-double.

This second half is going to be great!

 

The second half hasn't gone what I would consider "great," what with UNC going on a monster run to post a 12 point lead. A big time three cut it to single digits but Michigan State can't afford to be down by this much for long.

 

UNC is killing right now and ibelieve they can win this game with little trouble down the way, but michigan has showed that YOU NEVER KNOW