That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Few people ever thought that Memphis and Kansas would be playing in the final game, so we didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about what would happen if they did. THe public seems to have a pretty good feeling about Memphis. More than two-thirds of bets placed have been on Memphis, and the line has moved significantly from where it opened with Kansas as 1.5 point favorites to the current level of Memphis -2.  So, how is this game going to turn out?

If you go by form of the last couple of weeks then one team is going to blow out the other, and it will only be interesting for the first half hour or so. That seems unlikely in this game, but then it has seemed unlikely in a lot of games that have followed that form, too.

Some experts are saying that it is going to be a defensive battle. There is reason to believe that that could be true. Both teams have played outstanding defense recently, and both did a very good job of shutting down players who had been punishing other teams all tournament. Both teams have the ability to shut down the other team, and both have shown at times this year that they can be frustrated by the right defense. So, a defensive battle could happen.

Unfortunately, so could an offensive battle. Both teams are coming off games that they mostly scored at will, they both have dynamic, explosive offensive weapons, and both can be deadly if they get hot. Kansas has several dangerous offensive weapons, and Memphis has a deadly set of guards of their own. Both teams are stunningly athletic and tough to control. This one could light the board up.

So, what’s going to happen? Well, based on my thought process so far, either Kansas or Memphis is going to win a game that will either be a low scoring defensive battle, a high scoring thrill-fest, or some combination of the two. Helpful, isn’t it? All I can say for sure is that my gut says Memphis, it has been saying that since before the tournament started, that’s worked pretty well for me so far, so I am going to go with it again. I’ll check in throughout the game to see how it is working and share what I am seeing.