{"id":74113,"date":"2018-03-30T13:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T20:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=74113"},"modified":"2018-03-30T11:48:57","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T18:48:57","slug":"final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Four Matchups Feature Top Seeds and Surprise Contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Villanova comes into the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament as the favorite to cut down the nets in San Antonio. But three other teams still stand in their way, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/favorites-cinderellas-clash-ncaa-tournament-sweet-16\">one of the most unlikely championship contenders in recent memory.<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_74115\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74115\" data-style=\"width: 3039px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-74115\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Villanova-Basketball.jpg\" alt=\"Final Four NCAA Tournament\" width=\"3039\" height=\"1693\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-74115\"class=\"text-description\">The Villanova Wildcats are seeking their second national title in three years, but will have to first contend with Kansas, Michigan, and Loyola-Chicago in the Final Four. (Image: Maddie Meyer\/Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Villanova (34-4) has been on the radar of college basketball fans all season long. The 2016 national champions were picked by many to go all the way even before the tournament began, and now they are just two games away from winning the schools third ever national title in men\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>No. 1 Seeds Battle for Spot in Final<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Standing in their way in the Final Four is fellow No. 1 seed Kansas (31-7). The Jayhawks have felt somewhat overlooked by pundits, as few picked them to survive a loaded Midwest region and reach the Final Four. But Kansas isn\u2019t satisfied simply with making it to the final weekend of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a ton of work [to do],\u201d said Kansas coach Bill Self. \u201cEven though you say you\u2019re so close, we\u2019re still light years away from doing what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Villanova has comfortably won their first four games in the tournament, but they don\u2019t expect things to be so easy the rest of the way. Wildcats coach Jay Wright noted that based on what he\u2019s heard from other coaches, his team might be looking in the mirror when they go up against Kansas.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>\u201cI heard Bob Huggins say that we remind them of Kansas. I heard Chris Beard say we remind them of Kansas,\u201d Wright said. \u201cI always took that as a compliment, and now we\u2019ve got to play against them, so now I\u2019m not so excited about it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>At bwin, Villanova has been posted as a 5.5-point favorite in their semifinal matchup. That\u2019s the same line found in the other game, where Michigan is giving 5.5 points to the upstart Loyola-Chicago Ramblers.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ramblers Looking to Complete Miracle Run<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Loyola-Chicago (32-5) has captured the attention of the country by coming from out of nowhere as a No. 11 seed to reach the Final Four. The Ramblers won their first three games by a combined four points, but it would be wrong to call them lucky: while they were unknown heading into the tournament, they have gotten this far based on strong guard play and tough defense.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve also captured America\u2019s hearts, with more than a little help from Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 98-year-old nun who has become the face of the Ramblers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the most fun I\u2019ve had in my life,\u201d Sister Jean said at her own March Madness press conference. \u201cAnd I almost didn\u2019t get here, but I fought hard enough to do that because I wanted to be with the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even Michigan coach John Beilein acknowledged that the Loyola-Chicago story is hard to root against.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I wasn\u2019t coaching Michigan, I\u2019d probably be rooting for them too,\u201d Beilein said.<\/p>\n<p>While Michigan is the favorite to knock off the Ramblers, they would likely be an underdog against either opponent they would then meet in the national championship game.<\/p>\n<p>At Ladbrokes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-odds-favor-villanova-as-two-no-1-seeds-wolverines-and-sister-jean-battle-for-national-title\">Villanova is an even money favorite to win the national title<\/a>, followed by Michigan (5\/2), Kansas (3\/1) and Loyola-Chicago (12\/1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Villanova comes into the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament as the favorite to cut down the nets in San Antonio. But three other teams still stand in their way, including one of the most unlikely championship contenders in recent memory. Villanova (34-4) has been on the radar of college basketball fans all season long. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":74115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Final Four Matchups Feature Top Seeds and Surprise Contenders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the juggernaut Villanova Wildcats to the Cinderella story that is the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers, the Final Four has no shortage of storylines to follow.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Final Four Matchups Feature Top Seeds and Surprise Contenders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the juggernaut Villanova Wildcats to the Cinderella story that is the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers, the Final Four has no shortage of storylines to follow.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-30T20:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-30T18:48:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Villanova-Basketball-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1426\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/\",\"name\":\"Final Four Matchups Feature Top Seeds and Surprise Contenders\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Villanova-Basketball-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-30T20:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-30T18:48:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"From the juggernaut Villanova Wildcats to the Cinderella story that is the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers, the Final Four has no shortage of storylines to follow.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/final-four-matchups-feature-top-seeds-and-surprise-contenders\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Villanova-Basketball-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Villanova-Basketball-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1426,\"caption\":\"The Villanova Wildcats are seeking their second national title in three years, but will have to first content with Kansas, Michigan, and Loyola-Chicago in the Final Four. 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