The 2012 National Championship will be handed out on Monday night, and here at Cappers Info, we are making our last Final Four picks of the year when we watch the Kentucky Wildcats take on the Kansas Jayhawks in New Orleans.

Final Four Matchup: #1 Kentucky Wildcats vs. #2 Kansas Jayhawks
Date: Monday, March 2nd, 9:20 ET
Location: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA
Final Four Odds: Kentucky -6.5
NCAA Tournament TV Schedule: CBS

The road to the Final Four ends here for both Kentucky and Kansas, who are vying for yet another banner to be able to hang in either Rupp Arena or Phog Allen Fieldhouse. The Wildcats have had a very tough road to reach this point, having to dispose of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, Iowa State Cyclones, Indiana Hoosiers, Baylor Bears, and Louisville Cardinals to reach this point. Those who got in the way of the Jayhawks include the Detroit Titans, Purdue Boilermakers, NC State Wolfpack, North Carolina Tar Heels, and Ohio State Buckeyes.

The big difference between the two roads to make it to New Orleans has had to do with the ease in which both teams have gotten here. Kentucky really hasn’t been challenged the whole way. There are times in which the Cats have looked beatable, but in the end, there hasn’t been a team in the land that has been able to stick within better than eight points of them here in the dance. If they are able to cover this game with ease, this will surely go down as one of the most dominating performances in the history of the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, against a significantly easier road in terms of the seedings of the teams tit had to face, Kansas struggled a heck of a lot more. Generally speaking, you’ve got to figure out how to win the close games in this tourney, and the Jayhawks have done just that, especially in the gritty wins over Ohio State in the Final Four and Purdue way back in the second round. In both games, KU was down and down quite a bit, and in both cases, it was able to fight back and get the job done at the death with the savvy of its veteran stars.

And that is the other theme in this game. The Wildcats are going to have to win this game with their talent. Anthony Davis is going to almost surely be in the NCAA Tournament MVP if the Cats win this one, and he might be on his way to being the top pick in the NBA Draft this year as well. He and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist make up one of the most dominating frontcourts in the country. Kansas has its talent, but unlike Kentucky, which has at least four or five NBA players, it has probably just two or so. Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor are the two that are going to have to lead this team into the title game, but as we have seen in this tournament, if they aren’t able to get the job done, the rest of the veterans on this team, including Jeff Withey, Elijah Johnson, and Travis Releford, have been able to get the job done.

When these two teams met earlier in the year, it wasn’t really all that much of a contest. This time around though, we think that the Jayhawks are a heck of a lot better suited for the game of their lives. Kentucky is great, but there is something about the fact that Head Coach John Calipari has never won a National Championship that really rubs us the wrong way. Head Coach Bill Self, as far as we are concerned, has done the best job in this tournament, and when push comes to shove, we think that he is going to be able to lead his troops to get the job done on Monday night to give the Jayhawks yet another National Championship.

Final Four Free Pick: Kansas Jayhawks +6.5

Wisconsin vs. Syracuse Projected Final Score: Kansas 69 – Kentucky 63

We’re down to just eight teams that are left standing on the road to the Final Four, and on Sunday afternoon, we are set to make our Final Four picks in the clash between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Louisville Cardinals.

Final Four Matchup: #4 Louisville Cardinals vs. #1 Kentucky Wildcats
Date: Sunday, March 31st, 6:00 ET
Final Four Location: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA
Final Four Odds: Kentucky -9
NCAA Tournament TV Schedule: CBS

In the great history of the NCAA Tournament, we may have never seen a game quite like this one. The Cardinals and the Wildcats absolutely hate each other, and we are going to inevitably see that bad blood on display on Saturday night in the Bayou. Kentucky was able to score the victory when these two teams engaged in their annual clash on New Year’s Eve, though the seven point margin of victory wasn’t nearly as impressive as the game really was for the most part. The Wildcats were ranked No. 3 in the nation at the time, which wasn’t all that surprising, though you might be a bit shocked to know that Louisville, a No. 4 seed in this tournament, was ranked No. 4 in the land at the time as well.

It is clear that Kentucky has the more talented of these two teams. Men like Terrence Jones, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Anthony Davis all have the ability to dominate in the post on both sides of the court, and none of the three future lottery picks have disappointed. That being said, the real onus in this one is going to fall on the guards. Doron Lamb has had a great season, and he has almost quietly posted nothing but games with at least 14 points here in the dance. Marquis Teague is doing a great job holding onto the basketball as well, and he is going to be the one that has to withstand the most pressure for the Wildcats to survive.

Head Coach Rick Pitino knows exactly what he has here with his team. The Cards didn’t have the most talented team in the West Region this year, and the truth of the matter is that they were possibly outmanned in three of the four games that they have played so far in the tourney, and they were certainly not the more talented side against either the Michigan State Spartans or the Florida Gators. What we saw against both teams last weekend though, was tremendous levels of passion. The defense just swarmed all over the court against an MSU team that was full of great leaders and veterans, while over the weekend against the Gators, a big time run at the end of the game showed the will that this team had to get the job done, even against the highest level of adversity. Don’t kid yourself about the talent on this team, though. It definitely does exist. Gorgui Dieng, if he stays out of foul trouble, is one of the best defensive stoppers in the middle of any defense in the land, while Peyton Siva can both knock down the big time shot and make the crucial pass when he has to in order to find the open man. Russ Smith is a great sharpshooter, and he is one of the many that can kill the will of the opponent when given the opportunity.

Think of this as a traditional rivalry game in college football. It is awfully hard to win these games by a ton of points. What we are going to see is a heck of a lot of punishment on both sides of the ball, and the more physical this Louisville team can make this game, the better the chance that it can win this game. We don’t think that the Cardinals are going to ultimately get the job done in the end, but we do think that they are at least going to cover this point spread, the largest that we have seen in the Final Four in a decade.

Final Four Free Pick: Louisville +9

Wisconsin vs. Syracuse Projected Final Score: Kentucky 66 – Louisville 59

There is only a place for one more team in the NCAA Tournament Final, and on Saturday night, either the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Kansas Jayhawks are going to claim their prize as one of the last two teams standing. Check out our Final Four predictions!

Final Four Matchup: #2 Ohio State Buckeyes vs. #2 Kansas Jayhawks
Date: Saturday, March 31st, 8:45 ET
Location: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA
Final Four Odds: Ohio State -2.5
NCAA Tournament TV Schedule: CBS

Though there is a heck of a lot of hype that is taking place for the first game here in the Big East between the hated rivals, Louisville Cardinals and Kentucky Wildcats, there might be even more talent on the court for this one. There is a reason that both the Buckeyes and the Jayhawks were favored in their respective Elite Eight games in spite of the fact that they were both running into the No. 1 seeds in their respective brackets.

The crucial matchups in this one are going to be the combo of Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas against the duo of Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey. Thomas has been unstoppable at times in this tourney. He scored 26 against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the big time Sweet 16 showdown, and he has had at least 14 points and at least nine boards in all of his tourney games. Thomas averaged over 16 points per game during the season, and he has only sat out a total of two minutes in the entire dance. Sullinger battled foul trouble against the Syracuse Orange in the Elite Eight, but he still got his 19 points and seven boards. This is a double-double machine, but it is also a man that hasn’t really run into a man that is bigger than he is. Withey, standing at 7’0″ fits the mold. With 129 blocked shots, including 10 against the NC State Wolfpack in the Sweet 16, Kansas knows that it has a man that can be a real difference maker on the defensive side of the court. The North Carolina Tar Heels have some of the best big men in the game, and Withey had 15 points, eight boards, and three blocks, not to mention the fact that he really played lockdown ‘D’ against any of the bigs that he ran up against defensively. Thomas Robinson is a stud and is capable of a double-double every single time he steps onto the court.

For Kansas, Tyshawn Taylor is going to be key. We know that Aaron Craft and William Buford are going to get their shots, and they are both going to get their points in the end in all likelihood. Taylor was a bit MIA in the first three games of the tourney, but against North Carolina (granted, without Kendall Marshall), he was huge with 22 points, six boards, five assists, and five steals. He clearly needs another game like this one to do away with the Buckeyes.

We will start by saying that we think that the winner of this one is probably winning the whole enchilada. The Jayhawks are a side that looks like is coming together right in front of our eyes, and though we do love this Ohio State team as well, we definitely want the points on our side. KU is winning the close games – the types of games that you have to win in March to be able to cut down the nets at the Final Four, and we just don’t know how the Buckeyes are going to react to a very different situation to anything that they have seen thus far in this tournament. We’ll have the 2.5 points for safety on our side, but we don’t think that we are going to need them.

Final Four Free Pick: Kansas Jayhawks +2.5

Wisconsin vs. Syracuse Projected Final Score: Kansas 70 – Ohio State 63