Final Four Preview

Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas will be the home of this weekends final four featuring Kentucky, Connecticut, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth, but the NBA has been the home to the players from these schools once they leave. 11 players from these schools have been drafted to the NBA in the last two seasons. Would you have guessed that VCU has has a player drafted in the top 20 in each of the last two years? (Eric Maynor and Larry Sanders) Syracuse, North Carolina and Wake Forest are the only other schools that can claim that. Shaka Smart has done a great job after replacing Anthony Grant who moved on to bigger and better things @ Alabama. VCU has had some great recruiting classes the past 5 years, especially for a "Mid-Major" school from the Colonial Athletic Association. Whether Shaka stays or goes this has been a year that VCU has been building for years and can continue to improve on for years to come. Kentucky and UConn have been in the press and on TV all season long and for years before this and you certainly don't need to hear yet another opinion on them.

Now for Butler, my pick to win the National Title. Brad Stevens is in his 4th season as the coach there. He has led the Bulldogs to the tournament in all 4 years and boasts a 62-10 conference record in that time. He could've gone to any open school of his choice last year but opted to stay at Butler for the quality of people there and the tradition they have built. In this weekends final four, they have everything you look for in a #WINNING team: A scorer (future NBA player Shelvin Mack), A shooter (Shawn Vanzant- 42% from three), A big time defender (Ronald Nored- Horizon league co-def player of the year last season), An experienced big man (academic all- american Matt Howard) and Superior Coaching (Brad Stevens). Look for the Bulldogs to take down John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats in the National Championship.

San Diego High School Basketball Roundup

This weekend features some big SD county HS games.

Tonight features the SDS DII Championship between Hoover HS (26-6) and Lincoln HS (28-1). Lincoln's lone loss on the season was by 1 point against the top team in California: Long Beach Poly. They're led by UCLA bound Norman Powell and versatile wing Resean Simpson. Sophomores Tyree and Tyrell Robinson are Top 50 players in the country for their class. Hoover has managed a good season despite losing their point guard to graduation and senior forward Dame N'Diaye decided to drop basketball and pick up football and has since committed to Arizona. Hoover's star Angelo Chol (23 ppg, 15 rpg and 8 bpg) also committed to Arizona a couple of weeks ago.

Tomorrow's big matchup is the SDS DI Championship between Torrey Pines HS (25-5) and La Costa Canyon HS (26-4). Torrey Pines has won 9 straight and finished the Palomar league undefeated. Only one of their losses came to a San Diego section team, that was a 51-50 loss to La Costa Canyon on January 7th. Max Heller (10 ppg, 5 apg) runs the offense while Joe Rahon (16 ppg, 6 rpg) and Nick Kerr (15 ppg) are the scorers. Guard Jesse Neugarten adds 10 ppg while CJ Vafiadis averages 7 ppg and 5 rpg. La Costa Canyon has won 7 straight, led by junior wing Matt Shrigley and lone senior Drew Kitchens, each average 19 ppg and 7 rpg. Sophomore Jeff Van Dyke (42%) is a deadly 3-point shooter.