Yes, every year there are great teams that don’t quite make it to the Final Four.  However, this article isn’t about those teams. This is all about prognostication. Which four teams are actually going to cut the nets down in their regions? Let’s look at who I think will do just that.

The first team on the list is possibly the most obvious. If I left them off of this list you’d probably have to haul me off to the insane asylum because they are clear favorites to win it all. I’m of course talking about the North Carolina Tarheels.  While they are usually always picked to be one of the top teams, this year they are even more overwhelming favorites than usual. Why is this? Well, basically because they brought back their entire team from last year that was full of potential NBA talent.

The biggest news in the offseason for them was that All-World big man Tyler Hansbrough decided to come back.  It seems as if he’s been on campus for about 9 years now, but apparently the NCAA eligibility committee decided to grant him another year. This is great news for North Carolina and terrible news for Duke fans. How many times does the consensus National Player of the Year award winner opt to not go to the NBA? Not very often. This is why it was so huge for them to get Hansbrough back.

Besides Hansbrough, the Tarheels also bring back Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington. Each of them withdrew their names from the draft and decided to come back for one more year with Tyler. Another player, Danny Green, thought about the NBA as well, but decided it was “National Title or bust” this year.
 
Besides North Carolina another team in the ACC also has a legitimate chance to win the title. In fact, their campus is located about ten miles from UNC. You might have heard of them before….Duke University. Yes, Coach K is ready for yet another run at the Final Four. Does this guy know what rebuilding means? It seems like they just get another set of blue chip recruits every year and reload. This year they return pretty much everyone back from an already good team. They are poised to make a run to the final four. In fact, Vegas gives them 10/1 odds to win it all. Not bad at all.

Another favorite to make it to the Final Four is the perennial powerhouse UCLA. Ever since Ben Howland arrived on campus they seem to get better every year.

While losing Kevin Love to the NBA was a killer, it was to be expected. He was obviously a “one and done” type player from the beginning.  While they did lose some players to the NBA, they reloaded much like Duke tends to do. In fact they come in with five blue-chip caliber freshman. While I wouldn’t call them the next Fab Five, they are definitely no slouches either. Expect them to be a force in the Pac-10 and in the tournament. I’m calling them as the third team in the Final Four.

My last team will probably come as shock to some. In fact, it will probably come as a shock to everyone, as they have 100-1 odds to win it all according to the geniuses in Vegas. The team I’m referring to is none other than the Missouri Tigers. Yes go ahead and laugh now. Take a moment.

Now that you’ve got that out of your system lets look at why I believe this. This is Mike Anderson’s third year with the program. He runs a run-and-gun type of system with the Tigers. Now that it’s the third year, he’s had time to do a little recruiting and instill his “90 feet of hell” mentality that Nolan Richardson made famous.

He returns some talented big men in Leo Lyons and Demarre Carroll. In addition to that he’s got some great recruits coming in and a talented transfer that sat out last year.

While Mizzou’s talent may not be the best in the land, they make up for it with tenacious defense and hustle.  Anderson’s teams at UAB didn’t have anyone you had ever heard of before, but that didn’t stop them from making noise in the NCAA tournament. In fact they knocked off a number one seed in Kentucky a few years ago in route to the Elite Eight.
These are the four teams that will gather at the Final Four in 2009. If you don’t believe me, you’re probably not alone. Just remember  that anything can and will happen when it comes to March Madness.   

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