April 2, 2022. Madison, Mississippi. The Final Four.

The best part of the March Madness basketball tournament is in the first round, where there are lots of games to watch and the low seeds can knock off the top seeds. It is the same for any playoffs, whether baseball or hockey. When I get down to the final four, I tend to lose interest. Tonight the semi final games were played in San Antonio. The first game was between Providence and Kansas. I had watched a few minutes of a Kansas game and decided that they were in a class by themselves. So I felt they would end up playing for the championship. And they will on Monday night. Kansas was never behind in the game. The other semi-final was a horse of a different color. Duke was playing North Carolina, which was the first time they have ever played each other in a final four. And there were several interesting story lines. The Duke coach, Coach K. was coaching his last game. He was retiring. The North Carolina coach was coaching his first season with North Carolina. Duke was higher ranked and during the season, they split the wins. Both teams had scores to settle and of course, the Duke team wanted their coach to retire during the championship game. The game was close with 20 game leader changes. But North Carolina prevailed. So the championship game on Monday will between Kansas and North Carolina. I predict Kansas to win. Truth be told, I spent so many years cheering for the U.of Maryland against Duke and North Carolina that I have trouble cheering for either team. I kept switching from hockey to basketball just to find out the score but my heart was not in that game. The game was so close throughout the game and the players played well. No bonehead plays where one player could hang their head. "Great game," said the commentators. Now onto the final.