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UConn dominates women's field

After two weeks of madness and chalk, the NCAA Final Four is set for both men's and women's tournaments. On the men's side there isn't a clear cut favorite among Oklahoma, Villanova, North Carolina and Syracuse. While on the women's side there's Oregon State, Syracuse, Washington and UConn. UConn is a 1-10 favorite, meaning if you were looking to win a 100 jellybeans you'd have to put down 1,000 jellybeans to do so.

Taking a look at each Final Four, starting with the women's Final Four.

UConn vs. the field

The Lady Huskies are undefeated at 36-0 and have rolled through their competition all season. Led by three-time All-American Breanna Stewart they're looking to pull a first in NCAA women's basketball history, and unheard of during this era of basketball, by winning their fourth consecutive title. Something only done once on the men's side by the John Wooden coached UCLA Bruins who won seven straight from '67-'73

The UConn women's basketball program has a long list of greats from Rebecca Lowe, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Mya Moore. If Stewart and her team can lock up the fourth championship she may very well go down as the greatest player in UConn women's history.

The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy kicked off a bit of a storm by asking if UConn's dominance is hurting the women's basketball game. This led to UConn coach Geno Auriemma having choice words for the Boston Globe writer which led the A block on many ESPN talking head shows.

While the final scores of many UConn games look like that out of a video game, it doesn't hurt the overall product of women's college basketball. Having a dominate team is better for any sport. A juggernaut forces the teams around them to get better and quickly. Sports are a meritocracy, there is no such thing as fairness, there's always a better team or better player. It doesn't mean you give up, it means you push yourself harder.

On the men's side UCLA during the Wooden era won 10 championships in a 12-year period. Since then there have only been two teams who have repeated Duke '91-'92 and Florida '06-'07. Because of the UCLA machine, teams picked up their level of play and the same thing will happen for the women's game as well.

You never know maybe Oregon State, Washington, or Syracuse has already figured out how to slay the Goliath that is UConn, come Sunday or Tuesday we shall find out.

With that said, expect UConn to roll; they're historically great and it's difficult to go against this team.

Experience leads the way

Typically, this time of year we're having the one-and-done discussion in men's basketball. Is it good for the sport, is it bad for the sport yada, yada, yada. Thankfully this year we were spared from the discussion because the four teams left - Villanova, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Syracuse - are led by their upperclassmen.

The first game Saturday night is Oklahoma vs. Villanova. This should be the championship game, because both squads are true teams. 'Nova doesn't have a superstar or a star for that fact but they play as a unit. Each player knows their role and does what's needed for the better of the team. This Oklahoma team isn't the usual superstar led team, where they go as the superstar goes. OU has the best player in college basketball in Buddy Hield but that doesn't mean the rest of the players are a bunch of bums. When Hield gets hot they work to keep feeding him the ball but when he doesn't have it going they pick up the slack. Jordan Woodard, Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler can carry the team in stretches.

The one thing that may prevent this game from being a great one is the setting, NRG stadium. OU and 'Nova are jump shooting teams and this football stadium has given teams troubles in the past. If you remember the last time a men's Final Four was hosted here it was in 2011 and the championship game was Butler vs. UConn. UConn won 53-41, the Huskies shot 34.5 percent from the field while Butler was 18.8 percent from the field. Yes, 18.8 percent, I'm sure there's still enough brick laying around for Trump to build his wall.

Why the NCAA is insistent on diminishing their product to squeeze in a few more people on the top levels who wouldn't know what's going if not for the Jumbo Tron, is a question better left for another time. Let's just hope these two teams can find a way to adjust.

The second game of the night between Syracuse and North Carolina should be entertaining and not just for basketball reasons. If either team of these two goes on to win the title. The school should have two ceremonies, one ceremony for cutting down the nets and the other for when they cut down their championship banners after the NCAA has vacated their wins from this season.

Joking aside this game does pose some intriguing style conflicts. UNC does most of their damage inside the paint because they're not a particularly good 3-pt shooting team. Syracuse uses the 2-3 zone for defense and there's a lot of length on that back line to bother UNC. The Tarheels do have a good point guard in Marcus Paige and he will be the X-factor in winning or losing. Zones are disrupted the most by shooting and guard penetration, with shooting out of the question, it falls on Paige.

Predictions for the games OU over 'Nova, UNC over Syracuse and OU beating UNC Monday night for the title.