IT'S CHAMPIONSHIP monDAY!! NCAA Men's Basketball...I'm Picking The Winner!

Well, it's time. Tonight the Michigan State Spartans (31-6) will play the North Carolina Tarheels (33-4) in the NCAA Championship Game, tipoff at 9:21pm EST on CBS. As promised, I will make my pick, which I feel very secure in, by the end of this posting.

Over the past couple of days I have recapped the Semi-Finals, and shown how both teams got here. Now, it's pick time, and it's game time! Living in the Eastern Standard Time Zone, I am wishing the game didn't start so late tonight, but I'll live with it!

At the end of this game, which will be very hard fought by both teams, there will be ONE National Champion. And that champion will be the North Carolina Tarheels. Sorry Sparty's. I'm not doing this just because my work bracket has MSU playing UNC in the Final Game and Carolina winning. I'm not doing this because North Carolina was the unanimous preseason No.1 team in the country.

I'm not doing this because UNC absolutely DRILLED MSU back in December. I'm doing this because of now. As bad as I can't stand it, as much as I don't like the Tarheels, they have the better team and they are ready for this. THIS STAGE is exactly why some of the Carolina players chose to come back to school last year after losing in the Semi-Finals.

North Carolina 79, MSU 64. And then, the Tarheels better cut the nets down in a hurry and run behind their tight security right to Detroit Metro in an effort to get out of Detroit alive. This will be one of the worst places for a North Carolina win. I would say that Tarheels are only behind Buckeyes, Fighting Illini, Hoosiers, and maybe Duke Blue Devils on the "Don't Like This Team" list in Michigan.

But no matter how you slice it, no matter how you dice this one, tonight's game looks very unlikely to leave any Michigander feeling good. So I guess that means I better go call Vegas right? Because I'm taking North Carolina and the 7 and 1/2 points, and the Under on 152 and 1/2.

Parting Shot: Ok, this post doesn't even make me feel good. This is the kind of pick that will make friends not like friends, and family mad at each other for awhile. SPARTANS! PLEASE prove me wrong. IZZO! Does your gameplan consist of knocking out Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson? PLEASE say it does? I'm sorry friends of mine out in East Lansing and the surrounding areas, there's not a single stat that MSU can compare to UNC with. But I will say this, if David beat Goliath, this could happen, and I hope it does! Bring on all the haters now...