Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Dr. K. to the newsmaker line to weigh in on the Final Four players, surprises, and predictions.
Leahy: Well, Dr. K., the Final Four are set. What’s your take on this? Who are the players? What were the surprises and what is likely to happen?
Dr. K.: Good morning, Michael. There’s a lot to talk about, quite honestly. The Final Four certainly is probably at the top of the list. But I was impressed to see that Tiger Woods actually played a practice round in the Masters with his son Charlie.
So there’s that hope that he would actually try to take on the Masters again. And then, of course, as you and I talked yesterday, Bruce Arians decides to retire as head coach.
He doesn’t leave the program with the Bucks, but they’ve turned the head coaching job over to Todd Bowles, which I think is worthy of some discussion.
But certainly we can talk about Duke, number two against number eight, North Carolina. Duke is a four-point favorite. And when you kind of look back at what’s going on with Duke this year, they beat Kentucky 79 to 71 in Gonzaga back on November 26th, 84 to 81.
On February 5th, they beat North Carolina 87 to 67. And then they lost to North Carolina 94 to 81 back on March 5th. They also beat Miami, and they also beat Arkansas. But this is a basketball team that I think, quite honestly may be a team of destiny.
And the best thing that possibly happened to Duke was losing to North Carolina late in the season this last regular season game, and he stepped forward with his wife on his arm and he promised all the fans there that he would hang another banner.
Leahy: You’re talking about Coach K, Mike Krzyzewski, Coach K. thank you, Coach K. This is his last year, I guess, is the winningest college basketball coach ever. He’s up there.
Dr. K.: He’s certainly is up there. And I’ve enjoyed watching Duke march through the March Madness. It’s been interesting to see how they’ve gotten there. But in this particular situation, I think that this is truly a team of destiny.
Over and under is 133, which indicates that the score will be low. And I think, quite honestly, it’s likely to be that way. When you match up what North Carolina did, North Carolina lost to Tennessee as we remember, 89 to 72.
They beat Michigan 72 to 51, and lost to Kentucky 98 to 69. Same in Miami 80 to 50 in December. I mean, their records are similar in terms of wins and losses, but I do think that Duke is the better team.
I think you’ve got the revenge factor here. And so I’m going to take Duke minus the four points against North Carolina. I do think that Duke is the better of the two teams.
I think it’s going to boil down to Duke actually coming down to take Kansas. But for purposes of this part of the dialogue, I think Duke is a better team. I think they’ll come back and win the game.
Leahy: The Final Four is being played at the Caesar Superdome in New Orleans. In the second game, number two seated Villanova versus number one, Kansas. What’s your take there?
Dr. K.: Kansas is a four and a half point favorite, Which I think is a bit much against the number two Villanova team. It’s what you would normally expect, Michael, in this type of setting.
You’d like to see a number one playing a number one. You’d like to see at least a number one playing a number two. You don’t expect a two versus an eight. But North Carolina got there and there’s nothing you can talk about.
In this particular setting, I think Kansas is the better of the two teams. They beat Miami 76 to 50. They went 14 and four against the Big 12 teams. Villanova is a part of the Big East. Both teams nine and one in their last 10 games.
And I think this is a big difference here is Kansas is averaging 74, Almost 75 points a game. Villanova only 63. I think it’s going to be more of the same here.
And I’m taking Kansas minus the four and a half, and I think it’s going to be a wonderful weekend for basketball. I think we’re going to enjoy two great games on Saturday. And then, of course, the National Championship comes on Monday.
Listen to the interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
