Louisville vs Kentucky 2012 Final Four Picks

As the Kentucky Wildcats look to get past Louisville and play for a National Title, their best player got some great incentive to go out and dominate tonight’s Final Four game.

On Friday night, Kentucky freshman, Anthony Davis was named The Associated Press’ 2012 Player of the Year, becoming the first Wildcat to do it and only the second freshman ever. With his team listed almost as a double-digit point-spread favorite over Louisville, Davis’ 14.3 points, 10 rebound and 4.6 blocked averaged were enough to tip the scales in his favor.

“There were a lot of awards yesterday and today,” he said. “It’s a great feeling, especially as a freshman. I’ve been working hard and now it’s rewarding. This is great to be here and hopefully we can win the national championship and accomplish our goal,” he said. “Even if we come up short we still had a great season.”

Davis will have to turn around and focus on the task at hand. With his knee doing great, the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year looks to make his presence felt on both ends of the floor against the Cardinals tonight. That’s really the kind of effort that’s going to take to eliminate a team as resilient and mentally tough as Louisville.

Coached by the controversial Rick Pitino, the Cardinals momentum should be enough to give Kentucky all it can handle tonight and then some. Many people, including the oddsmakers, believe that Louisville will lose by 9 points or more tonight. For those of you looking to make an intelligent bet, don’t buy into all that hype.

Although it’s clear that there was no better team than Kentucky this season, there’s just no way I see Louisville getting blown out. Sportributor’s 2012 Final Four Picks for this game would be to either take Louisville with a 9-point cushion, because even though I do see Kentucky advancing to the finals, it will not be by more than 5 points.

“There’s no other state, none, that’s as connected to their basketball program as this one,” said UK head coach John Calipari. “Because those other states have other programs.”

“We sleep with the enemy in Louisville,” Pitino added. “We have many Louisville men and women that marry into Kentucky families. It’s very difficult to swallow, to see that happen.”