ATLANTA >> Sunday is a basketball off day during the Final Four. It’s a day to recover from a very late night (the second game didn’t end until after 11:30 p.m. Eastern time). But there is always plenty to do.
Many of us went to see the Atlanta Braves play the Chicago Cubs at a packed Turner Field. The Braves won 5-1, making the locals happy. All those Cubs fans from the Midwest less so.
Tens of thousands of fans went to Centennial Olympic Park for a free all-day concert featuring Sting and the Dave Matthews Band, among others.
And for basketball fans, for the first time in history, the Division II and III championship games were played in the same city as the Final Four. Drury edged Metropolitan State 74-73 for the D-II championship, and Amherst beat Mary Hardin-Baylor 87-70 for the D-III title.
Tonight, history could be made if Rick Pitino guides the Cardinals to victory. He would be the first coach to win national championships at two different schools, having won at Kentucky in 1996.
It’s been quite a week for Pitino, whose son got the head coaching job for Minnesota’s men’s basketball team and whose horse, Goldencents, won the Santa Anita Derby and is now one of the favorites to win the Kentucky Derby.
Michigan will try for its first national championship since beating Seton Hall 80-79 in overtime in 1989 in Seattle. I was at that game, one of the most exciting I have ever seen.
I said two days ago I thought the winner of the Syracuse-Michigan game will be the national champ. Not too many agree, as Louisville has won 15 straight, but I still think Michigan’s guards can handle the Louisville press and that the Wolverines are the better 3-point-shooting team.
Today, I head to Madison, Ga., for the day. It’s a town filled with plantation homes and Civil War history. Then the big game. Go Orange (oh, my bad).
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Jeff Portnoy’s blog, Hoops Talk, can be read at staradvertiser.com.
