The Madness of Final Four picks | Agganis Lives

Saturday night is going to be such a blast, I hate to spoil it by making predictions. Given that Friday night was a snoozer, and the regional finals produced two blowouts and only one thriller, basketball karma will smile on us.

Yeah, that's a prediction, too. But let's make it brief and pithy (two skills the lady of Agganis Manor often finds I lack):

UCLA 76, MEMPHIS 71: Yes, the Tigers had the most impressive Sweet 16 weekend, and y'all are probably tired of hearing me bag on their foul shooting. But UCLA will get up and down the floor with them and be in their faces defensively all night. This may come down to who gets in foul trouble first, and methinks all the attempts to bang Kevin Love and chase him out to three-point land will land Memphis' big guys in foul trouble. As awesome as Derrick Rose last weekend, can a freshman point guard get the job done against the defensive intensity of Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook. Don't think so.

NORTH CAROLINA 94, KANSAS 84: All 94 feet of the court will be worn out by the pace of this game. The Jayhawks will be able to keep up with Tyler Hansbrough for, say, 30 minutes or so, but the Tar Heels have too many weapons. The key to this game is the Kansas backcourt - if it plays like it did against Villanova, it goes to the wire. If it fails to produce, as was the case against Davidson, this could be a blowout (and even another Sasha Kaun 6-for-6 from the field won't help).

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April 4, 2008 07:57 AM ET

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Unfortunately, this weekend I will be busy and will most likely miss one or both of the Final Four games. Good blog though. I agree with you on both your picks and the scores are just about right. I wouldn't be surprised to see the UNC-KU game get into triple-digits though.