Holy cow, you guys. Has it set in yet that the Syracuse Orange will be taking on the Michigan Wolverines in the Final Four this weekend? If not, you'll find out all about it below...
Date: Saturday, April 6, 2013
Time: 8:45 P.M. EST
Location: Georgia Dome, Atlanta, GA
TV: CBS
Announcers: Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg, Steve Kerr
Records: Syracuse (30-9), Michigan (30-7)
Seeds: Syracuse (4), Michigan (4)
Odds: Michigan -2.5
Michigan's Last Game: Michigan didn't just beat Florida in the Elite Eight, they'd won convincingly, by 20 points and with very little second half drama. They looked very, very good.
Series: 8-5, Syracuse
Last Meeting: Syracuse won a hard-fought battle against Tim Hardaway Jr. and the Wolverines in Atlantic City to advance to the championship game of the Legends Classic.
Michigan This Year: The team started the season 19-1, tied for the best start in school history, eventually reaching the No. 1 spot in the rankings for the first time since the Fab Five. The team finished the regular season 26-7. They cruised through the first weekend of the tournament before outlasting Kansas in an overtime battle in the Sweet Sixteen and then trouncing Florida in the Elite Eight.
Michigan Coach: John Beilein (6th year) - As we've discussed, Beilein and SU have some history and while he's one of the winningest coaches around, he's never beaten the Orange in nine tries. That's either very good or very bad. Either way, he's turned UM from a 10-win program into a Final Four one in six seasons.
"Fear Me, I've Killed Hundreds Of Timelords": Trey Burke. 2013 national player of the year. Big Ten Player of the Year. 2013 All-American. He averages 18.8 PPG and has more assists than any UM player in one season. Of course, there's also Hardaway, Jr. (14.6 PPG) and Nik Stauskas (11.5 PPG) and Glenn Robinson III (11.0 PPG).
Best Tourney Finish: Glen Rice led the Wolverines to their lone National Title in 1989 over the Seton Hall Pirates. They returned to the title game in 1992 & 1993 with the Fab Five but lost both times (and would have had those titles taken away anyway).
Fun Fact: Syracuse and Michigan first met in 1926. SU won 36-32 and were led by Vic Hanson.
Michigan Blog: Maize n Brew
Tweeterers Worth Following: @MaizenBrew, @mikerothstein