By Tony George

Well, it is official, and do NOT lie gents, your bracket is all shot to hell and back after last week’s results. What a March Madness and Sweet 16 to now. Kansas craps down their leg, Duke looks like a JUCO team, Arizona comes up short with seconds left as U Conn’s unreal run continues, and VCU has flat out shocked the world. Kentucky has won 2 brutal games in which they more or less dominated North Carolina and held off overall number seed Ohio State to get here, giving them the most impressive resume. Well, maybe!!

Let’s talk VCU and this improbable journey. They have dominated every team they have played, starting with the play-in game with USC. They have out shot, out hustled and coached teams from the biggest power conferences in the land, and they made Kansas look like an average team at best. I will hand it to VCU and their coaching staff, that man has out coached every team he has played and some big time coaches in the process, they buried Kansas and made Bill Self and the Morris twins look like amateurs.

VCU has some interesting stats I found in a blog post today. They have been an underdog all 5 games in the tourney, we all know that. Their opponents were favored by a combined 34 points against them. In those 5 games as a dog, they won those games by a combined total of 94 points over the spread. THEY ARE NOW A 2 POINT UNDERDOG AGAIN TO BUTLER! Well, if I was a gambling man, I would take those points barring something popping up between now and Saturday.

Butler just grinds it out, no other way to put it. In every game I have watched them, their opponent let them hang around and it bit them in the butt, and then made huge coaching blunders in the late stages of the game, and Billy the kid Donovan just made 2 horrible offensive calls that cost Florida a trip here. Great matchup with VCU but plodding around in that game will be doom, and Butlers coach smart enough to know it.

Many say the real national title game is in the semi’s between Kentucky and U Conn. I agree from a brand name standpoint anyway. This will be one for the record books and Calipari maybe doing one of the better coaching jobs of his storied career to be honest. Have to wonder if U Conn keeps the streak alive here and their lack of depth showed greatly in that Arizona game. Interesting matchup and U Conn is the dog here by 2 points. Expect a high scoring game, read between the lines with that tip.

So we have Butler back to the final four and experience counts they say, against a team with no fear and sharp shooters all over the place. We have 2 giants in the other game, both evenly matched. It boils down to last minute coaching and the experience factor, again with KU and U Conn it is anyone’s game, whoever is hotter from the floor, in the other game Butler we know will scrap around and make it ugly and VCU will push it like crazy. All great games, all have advantages slightly against the spread. Tread lightly my friends, ANYTHING is possible.
 

Click here to view all of Tony George's premium picks.