*Now* It's Over, Billy

(If you don't get the reference in the title, go here.)

Kansas 84, North Carolina 66

Wow.

The difference in this game was defense, especially on the interior. Both of these teams have all kinds of weapons on offense, we knew that coming in. UNC's offense is probably a little better, but it's close.

Defensively, KU is in another league. I don't think there's a group of guards in the country that are better on D than Chalmers, Rush, and Robinson. Ty Lawson was a complete non-factor- 2/8 from the field, 2 assists, 2 turnovers from a guy who shoots 52% with a 2.4-1 assist to turnover ratio. Ellington didn't get nearly as many open looks as he normally does in that offense, shooting 1/9 from 3.

The main reason Kansas won the game because UNC couldn't stop them down low, and they shot 59% (29/49) from 2. When Kansas was getting the ball inside- both Rush driving to the rim, and the guards dumping it down to the bigs- they were essentially scoring at will. Why did they decide to start shooting threes early in the shot clock in the second half? I have no idea. After UNC cut the lead to 5, they went back to what allowed them to build a big lead, and pulled away.

Also- and this didn't get any play in the pregame hype- Kansas made life very difficult for Hansbrough down low. Similar to Memphis against Love in the early game, every time he got the ball there were at least two bodies on him. Even so, he didn't have a terrible game on offense. He makes shots that nobody has any business making, and hitting a few of those allowed him to shoot a respectable 6/13. But he only got to the line 6 times, and on a night where the guards weren't taking on their share of the scoring load, they needed more than 17 points out of TH.

North Carolina is probably the best rebounding team in the country, but they were outrebounded by 7 tonight. The big surprise contributor for KU was Cole Aldrich. He averages 8 minutes per game, but played twice that many tonight because of foul trouble, and had 8 points, 7 boards, and 4 blocks. He was a McDonalds All-American, and has plenty of potential, but I don't think anyone expected those numbers out of him in this one.

Memphis 78, UCLA 63

How did Chris Douglas-Roberts not average 30 ppg in C-USA? UCLA had nobody with the combination of length and quickness necessary to guard CDR, and he went off for 28. Derrick Rose had over 20 for the third straight game- those two against the Kansas guards is going to be a great matchup on Monday night. Seems to me that Rush is a lot better suited to guard CDR than anyone on UCLA's roster.

The two guys that got the Bruins this far, Love and Collison, both struggled mightily. Dorsey, Dozier, and Taggart were all over Love inside, and he never got much going, finishing with 12 points on 4/11 from the field. Collison had his worst game since their loss to Washington- 1/9 from the field, 4 assists, 5 turnovers, and he even fouled out with a few minutes to go. The 53% 3-point shooter only attempted one shot from beyond the arc- it was an impressive defensive showing by the two aforementioned Memphis guards, as well as Antonio Anderson.

Mbah a Moute shouldn't take jump shots in that offense. He is a very useful player, grabbing rebounds, getting putbacks, and playing defense, but he's just not a very good shooter.

The line for Monday night's title game opened at KU -1.5, but moved to Memphis -1 pretty quickly. This really surprised me- the opening line was consistent with what I expected, but apparently somebody with a lot of money really likes the Tigers.

Photo: Getty Images, via Yahoo!