No, Really... What's the Final Four?

Butler, Michigan State, West Virginia, Duke...

 Look who's back to waste our time again.

Well, it's certainly not expected...  If you picked WVU, the only Final Four team I got right, nice pick. If you nailed Duke, good work. Sure Duke is a one seed, but Duke has underperformed its seed the past five seasons, usually by more than one round. So well done. If you penciled in Butler?!?! You either went there, got absurdly lucky, are racist or generally believed that Butler was the best team in a region that contained the likes of Syracuse, Kansas State, Pitt and Xavier. Whichever reason it was, I'm not feeling you. You got very lucky. If you picked Michigan State, you probably like the color green. You most likely don't actually watch college basketball and simply fill out a bracket to "be a part of something." Look in the mirror. Do you like what you see? If I was in the bathroom with you, crouching out of site behind the shower curtain, looking at your reflection in the mirror, I would not.

It's not flashy... It simply lacks star factor. How many Final Four players are projected NBA draft picks? Two, both on West Virginia (17. Devin Ebanks and 20. Da'Sean Butler) We knew Michigan State wasn't going to contribute any, shouldn't expect much from Butler, but none from Duke? How the mighty have fallen. Last year's Final Four saw seven players drafted: #3. Hasheem Thabeet - UConn, #13. Tyler Hansbrough - UNC, #18. Ty Lawson - UNC, #28. Wayne Ellington - UNC, #33. Dante Cunningham - Nova, #46. Danny Green - UNC and #52. AJ Price - UConn. Notice anything? See Michigan State anywhere? No, I think not. This year Kentucky alone has four potential top twelve picks: #1. John Wall, #5. DeMarcus Cousins, #8. Patrick Patterson, #12. Eric Bledsoe. To bad they...weren't good enough?

It seems like what we have here is a case of good, old-fashioned, team basketball, and  what better state to host it than Indiana?

 Indiana is team basketball.

Take a closer look at the four teams still remaining. Butler, Duke, WVU and (cough) Michigan State, between them two freshman get any kind of meaningful minutes. Both from Duke; Andre Dawkins and Mason Plumlee average 14 and 12 minutes per game respectively and score 8 points combined -- They aren't exactly Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley. At the other end of the spectrum, sixteen upperclassman play significant minutes and each team has an upperclassman rock as their leader, Matt Howard - Butler, Da'Sean Butler - WVU, Raymar Morgan - Michigan State, Jon Scheyer - Duke. Shockingly, the only team that doesn't start at least three upperclassman...Butler. They start two, but their top seven scorers in 2010? Their very same top seven scorers in 2009, so they know each other pretty well. 

 Are Freshman Led Champions a Thing of the Past?

When the NBA passed a rule stating that all players must turn 19 during the calendar year of their draft, basketball fans got excited. I got excited. No more of this straight to the NBA bull. At least one year of college ball...and college education for all. What if Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Kwame Brown... What if Kobe Bryant and Lebron James had gone to college? Would they have lead whatever school they attended to the Championship? I'm not sure about Kobe, he wasn't quite as mature as Lebron as a senior in High School, he had a pretty tame rookie season with the Lakers averaging 7.6 points, 1.9 boards and 1.3 assists, but Lebron? I don't know. I kind of think he would have. He would have been a force, that's for sure. He got the nickname “The King” in high school, that’s almost messed up! Lebron’s rookie season in the NBA he averaged 20.9, 5.5 and 5.9. That's like a foal popping out of its mother, hoping right to it's feet and finishing third in the Kentucky Derby! It doesn’t happen! Not right out of high school.

With the best high school talent now attending college, it appeared to be the era of the freshman one-and-done, not only one year and off to the NBA, one championship and off to the NBA, but that's far from what we’ve seen. In 2009 UNC was all upperclassman, in 2008 Kansas was upperclassman strong, and in 2006 and 2007 Florida won with sophomores (a heady bunch) and then juniors. Look at the freshman phenoms we've been fortunate enough to watch play college ball. In 2007, a freshman laden Ohio State team lead by Greg Oden, Michael Connelly and Daequan Cook lost in the finals to an awesome Florida squad. Impressive as it was, they would have lost in the second round if Xavier could make a freaking foul shot. How did other highly touted freshman fair? Kevin Durant - Lost in second round, Michael Beasely - Lost in second round, OJ Mayo - Lost in first round, Tyree Evans - Lost in Sweet Sixteen, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins - Lost in Elite Eight, Derrick Rose - Lost in Finals. Derrick Rose would have won a championship if Mario Chalmers hadn't hit one of the greatest shots of all time, but then again, that Memphis team had Chris Douglas-Roberts, Joey Dorsey, Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier, all upperclassmen. Rose was arguably the best player of the bunch, but he far from carried the entire load. We all remember when Carmelo Anthony and Gerry MacNamara led Syracuse to the 2003 national championship as freshman, but looking back, that seems to be the exception, not the rule.

 Yeah, he did that Derek Rose. Maybe it was all the physics classes.

If you think this year’s Final Four is devoid of top tier talent, lacking of rivalry, missing that wow factor... You're right. Maybe it is. But maybe top tier talent should stay around for a few years if they want to win a title. Maybe other kids want to win titles too. Maybe you want it more every year you try and fail. Maybe playing as a team is what college basketball is about and maybe, just maybe, if Michigan State wasn't involved this would be as good as Final Fours get. Maybe you should watch and see for yourself.