Screw The Books Pick of the Day

I'll be honest, I'm not looking to mortgage the house on tonight's game but being that it's a National Championship game, I feel obligated to put a little bit of coin on this game. Plus I found some sucker to take Kentucky -2 on Saturday so I'm playing with the house's money. With that being said, I am going to lean towards Connecticut at -3. For those keeping track, the spread originally opened as high as -4.5 and has been on a steady climb down, meaning most of the money is being put on the Butler. You know Jimmy The Greek likes to fade the public. Being that it's a title game, lets take this to the next level and take an in-depth look at the matchups...

Coaching: I read some where that Butler has a distinct advantage in this category. I found that interesting because although Brad Stevens is a great in-game coach and has been to back to back title games, he is going against a two time National Champion in Jim Calhoun. Something to think about, if Calhoun wins tonight he will join the ranks of Wooden, Rupp, Kzryzewski, and Knight as the only coaches to win 3 or more National Titles. Not a bad party to be invited too. I'd be willing to concede that this matchup is a wash but refuse to put Stevens ahead of Calhoun until he wins a ring.

Superstars: It's no surprise that Kemba Walker will be the best player on the court tonight but I think Shelvin Mack is a close second. Kemba does have the advantage when it comes to creating his own shot and getting to the basket and I think that is were he separates himself from Mack. As far as Matt Howard goes, I'm not sure anyone in the country can match the intensity and hustle that he brings to a game and tonight won't be any different. With that in mind, UConn does have the bodies to throw at him and after watching the UConn bigs contain Josh Harrelson Saturday night (6 points and 4 rebounds), I'm confident they will be able to limit the impact that Howard has on tonight's game. That leaves UConn's Jeremy Lamb who I think will be the X factor tonight. At 6'8 with a 7'4 wingspan, he is going to be a matchup nightmare for the Bulldogs. If they try to guard him with a bigger player, Lamb will have a distinct advantage when it comes to getting to the basket. If they put a smaller, quicker guard on him, he will have no problem shooting over the top. You may see Steven's play a lot of zone to try to negate this advantage but that will leave Kemba with plenty of open shots and if he gets hot early, look out.