JBL | The Quadaily 25, 2028 Season (Day 151): How We Picked The Final Four
We got the FInal Four right.
Nothing says credibility like that.
(Of course, that's not true. We aren't an authority because we got lucky in our picks. Sure, we feel informed and researched, but there's still a lot of luck that goes into what amounts to 67 coin-flips.)
The question to ask when lightning likes this strikes is...why did we get them right?
Why these four teams? Why were these four choices THE choices for us?
Well, let's break that down.
Maryland & IMissouri - The Hot Teams. Missouri has won 12 in a row heading into their national semifinal rematch against Illinois (a 70-62 Illinois win, which, ironically, came right after Mizzou beat Kansas. Hmmm....), while Maryland has won seven in a row. For the Terps, that doesn't sound like a major win streak...except that they've beaten Michigan as they got red hot, Illinois, Stanford, Virginia and Colorado. That's a heck of a run.
We felt like Maryland was the team gaining momentum coming out of winning the Big Ten tournament, which...had we looked more closely at their end-of-season results, maybe we would have shied away. They had lost three of five, including a home loss to Ohio State. Good teams don't lose at home in-conference. They just don't. Yet, Maryland did. But we felt like the way they responded to a heartbreaking loss to Indiana at the end of the regular season, and then how they handed Michigan and Illinois.
Quick fun fact about Illinois: They are 19-2 in their last 21 games. Their two losses are both to Maryland..
Missouri: The best player. Brandon Dampier has had a historic freshman season. There's no mistaking that. He led the nation in scoring AND rebounding. He averaged 1.5 blocks and 1.26 steals a game. His 39.9 PER wanks nine points higher than the next-best qualifying candidate (sorry Yuta Barrett, but someone who started all year and played a majority of minutes qualifies). The gap between Dampier's and Long Beach State's Samir Barnard, first to second, is as wide as the gap between Barnard and Stefan Frierson (IPFW), Marius Snyder (Wash State) and Cullen Graves (Illinois-Chicago), each of whom posted 20.9 PER, each of whom tied for 158th.
That's absolutely insane.
Dampier put up 24 points and 11 rebounds in the 72-67 win against Kansas. He did most of his work in the first 36 minutes, where Missouri built up a 64-53 lead. Yes, he committed a bad foulw ith 1:07 left, but the Tigers were up eleven. He's a smart player who maximizes his talent to the fullest extent.
He also maximizes the Tigers' talent.
Interestingly enough, and you can read into this two different ways...Dampier was -1 aginst Kansas. Brandon Ball was a +15, and the bench were net positives. On one end, he did have to face the most potent lineup in the nation (and played them to a basic stalemate while seeing double and triple-teams consistently). And this was about MIssouri beting a better overall team, as they have been all year.
On the other end...you expect the best player in the nation to have a net positive in the biggest game in school history. That's probably just nipicking though...right?
Right?
The Big Ten: The Conference. Is it a coincidence that the Big Ten got three teams into the Final Four this year?
Come on. Absolutely not.
Granted, this may just be us puffing out our chests...but for as good as the Pac-12 was this year, for as balanced as the ACC was this season, as talented (at the top) that the BIg East, Pac-12 and SEC were this year...
...no conference was as varied or as dynamic as the Big Ten.
The conference has four offenses in the top 23 (PPG), five in the top 49 in offensive efficiency), three elite defenses. It has more than its share of stars, including the #1 overall JBL prospect in the naiton in Indiana's Derrick Bynum (no matter how much you want to believe that, he's been the consensus #1 by draft services all year. We do know that, had he come out last year, he would have gone in the top ten.)
The Big Ten proved, over and over, that it was the deepest, most balaned, most talented conferences all season. So its top three teams being in the Final Four is of no surprise to us. Its should not be to anyone else, either.
And, finally...
Indiana; The Best Team. We've been on Indiana all season. Sure, we felt like we were sticking our necks out when we said we felt like Indiana was a national title contender. We remember hearing it on the (much longer than) 40ish Minutes of Hell podcast, and agreeing with the assessment. We didn't figure on The Daniel Matic show taking full flight and giving this team another gear they didn't have, but that just added to their aswesomeness.
It's rather amazing what this group of talent has accomplished, given that this group of seniors had just one CJBL Tournament game to their credit, that as a surprise 11-seed in 2026 (when they finished 17-16). Last year, they were 19-13 and were firmly out of the field. There were 8-10 in the conference last year, and hadn't finished any better than 11-9 in the conference in ten years.
Yet, the seeds were sewn. It was built with a defensive foundation, and a lot of failure.
This is, truly, a team for the ages. We feel fortunate to have recognized it as it was coming. (And lucky.)
We hope to be as lucky next season as we were this one.
And there you have it. That's how we arrived at this spot.
That's how they arrived here, too.
We are fortunate that the games tonight are simply a rematch against both teams, and that of the possible outcomes, we'll either get a first meeting of each team (Indiana-Missouri, Maryland-Missouri), or a rubber match of two teams who split against one another (IU/Illinois, Illinois-Maryland).
Enjoy it, basketball fans. The matchups are as good as it gets. We're going to stay with the picks we've had since the start:
Missouri 86, Illinois 84
Indiana 74, Maryland 73
No matter what happens, college basketball, and anyone who enjoys it, has won.