Choosing Your Champion
It's probably Duke, stupid
If you’d like some well-reasoned Basketball Analysis of this Final Four, I can do that. Here: Duke should win. This is not a knock on Florida, Houston or Auburn, but here, let’s see what Vegas thinks of the odds as of roughly 11:30 p.m. CT the night before the Final Four:
Duke -115
Florida +310
Houston +450
Auburn +550
Odds are not everything, but there’s a reason they’ve built all those casinos out in the desert and it’s not because people keep outsmarting Las Vegas. The odds are not as long for Florida, Houston and Auburn as they were for Alabama and North Carolina State this time last year, but Florida, Houston and Auburn are one seeds, whereas Bama was a four and NC State an 11 last year. This gap shouldn’t be a gap, except Duke is that far clear of everyone else this year. Don’t blame me, blame1 the numbers geeks, the fact that Duke has that much high-level talent, that Jon Scheyer might actually be not only the best recruiter in the Final Four but the best X’s and O’s guy as well, that Florida and Auburn spent all year in the SEC meat grinder whereas Duke got the occasional Miami or Georgia Tech for a de facto night off, that Houston seems unable or unwilling to recruit anyone over 6-8. It really doesn’t matter. Duke should win.
I want to hate this. Really, I do. Duke has been unlikable in basketball for most of 20 years, with the occasional bright spots of Zion and Paolo2 blighted by so much Shelden Williams and JJ Redick3 over the years. Cooper Flagg alone elevates this Blue Devil team into the Zion/Paolo stratosphere, and that’s before you get to Kon Kneuppel auditioning for Jeff Hornacek Ultra status, Khaman Maluach learning to basically be a better version of Clint Capela in real time and Scheyer maximizing everything Tyrese Proctor brings to the table. This particular Duke team is fun, and that both rules and absolutely sucks.
But do you come here for reasoned analysis? Or penny-ante nonsense?
[a voice from somewhere in the back] Why are you like this?