Saturday marks the beginning of the NCAA final four in theMen's Basketball Tournament.... and then there were four.... The Loyola-Chicago Ramblings are serving asthis decade's Cinderella, the 11th seed which made it to this level, with thehelp of a nun. The Michigan Wolverinesare the football power, the number three seed who marched through theirbracket. The Villanova Wildcats are theseeming small-school power, make that private, Catholic, university. They are a power from time to time, and havereturned with full force this year, along with their just featured priestchaplain. The Kansas Jayhawks are thehistoric "blue blood" involved at this level, this year. Michigan could also be said to fill thatbill, a Big 10 powerhouse, but both public universities in Kansas appear doomedto be considered only basketball powers. The Final Four is set, the 2018NCAA Tournament's end in sight. It has never looked so compelling. In the day's second game, the Villanova offense is the best in the nationin many aspects, averaging 86.6 pointsper game and producing 436 three-pointers. Meanwhile, Kansas averages 81.4points and has made 40.3% of its three pointers. The Jayhawks also feature aninterior advantage with 7-foot center Udoka Azubuike, whose Villanovacounterpart, forward Omari Spellman, is only 6-9. Kansas has thrived on the bigstage this season, going 4-0 against teams ranked in the top 10. Villanova isseeking its second national championship in three years and will rely heavilyon junior guard Jalen Brunson, the Associated Press national player of the yearwho also started on the team that won the 2016 title. Kansas' do-everythingequivalent is senior guard Devonte Graham, the only player in Division Iaveraging at least 17 points, seven assists, 1.6 steals and fewer than 3.0turnovers per game. At the end of the evening, we will be said to haveexperienced a great several hours of basketball. In Spanish La Liga Soccer, Barcelona’s attempt to become thefirst Spanish team to stay unbeaten for an entire Primera Liga season will faceits toughest test on Saturday with a visit to Sevilla – the team they will alsomeet in the Copa de Rey final on April 21. Barca, who are 11 points clear of Atletico Madrid with only nine gamesto play, also have to face Real Madrid at home in May, but Sevilla away haslong been one of their trickier away games, one where Barca failed to win intheir 2014-15 treble season and where they lost the following year. Barcelona, who have won their last four gamesagainst Sevilla, will be encouraged that both Atletico Madrid and Real Madridhave bested them recently. Sixth in the standings and inconsistent, theAndalusians pushed Barca hard in a 2-1 defeat at Camp Nou in November. Sevilla, however, has other priorities. Their players are on a high after knockingManchester United out of the UEFA Champions League with a win at Old Traffordand they will face Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals with the first game athome on Tuesday. There is a belief thatthey can win a first ever Champions League, a view not shared by the widerfootball community. Fourteen pointsbehind Valencia in fourth, Sevilla will not finish in the top four to qualifyfor next season’s Champions League. Barca, are unbeaten in Europe and host Roma next week in theChampions League last 16, have all their players back – although not all in onepiece - from international duty. Barca will be hoping that by May he will bebasking in the glow of more trophies – and an unbeaten league season. After a three-week break for some, and two for others, the Premier League is back for the final stretch of eight games that will complete the 2017-18 season. Chelsea will look to Eden Hazardto inspire them against Tottenham Hotspur. Liverpool will look formore goals from Mohamed Salah at Crystal Palace this weekend. Leicester City's Jamie Vardy will be theirmain goal threat at Brighton. Brighton have done superbly to be in a positionwhere they are six points clear of the relegation zone with eight games to go.Chris Hughton's men are tough to break down but this could well end up ashonours even with Jamie Vardy in good form for Leicester. Manchester United, takes on Swansea City, ina game most critics think will go their way. United are not firing at fullcylinders but despite Swansea being rejuvenated the pace of Marcus Rashford andthe strength of Romelu Lukaku should mean that Jose Mourinho's men maintaintheir grip on second place in the Premier League. Stoke City takes on the Gunners, and desperately needs points to avoidrelegation. Arsenal are Arsenal, even if they have disappointed fans thelast few years. Arsenal have built up some confidence withtheir Europa League success over AC Milan and Mesut Ozil will fancy his chancesof doing some damage to the Stoke backline. Chelsea realistically must win overthe Tottenham Hotspur, to stay in the hunt for a top-four finish in the Premier. They beat them in August and should be ableto do it again. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 3/31/2018 12:26:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
