Michigan will slow ’Cats, but fall short

SAN ANTONIO — Make sure the casket is closed. Remember me how I once was.

Michigan (+7) over Villanova: At the conclusion of what has been by far the worst of my eight seasons occupying this space, I might as well go down swinging, and go against the grain once more.

Surely, this will only increase the action on the Wildcats — already receiving around 70 percent of bets on the title game — who have already been handed the national championship after their recordsetting shooting performance in the semifinals.

This game is strange, though. When shots are falling, teams look like juggernauts. When shots are missing, the same team doing 98 percent of the same things as effectively suddenly looks like trash.

Villanova is so wellrounded and so balanced that it can win when its shooters are cold, and it will have to find another way again.

Against the best defense they faced before the national championship game (Texas Tech), the Wildcats made just 4-of-24 3-pointers. Michigan, the third-most efficient defense in the nation, will create similar problems with its length on the perimeter and turn the most watched game of the season into an ugly grind.

Villanova is the best team in the country. It ultimately will come out on top, and win its second title in the past three years. But it won’t be easy getting there. It never has been. This season: 25-33-2 2011-17 record: 199-155-8