Forbes Picks UNC

As has been the case most of this NCAA Tournament, the experts seem to be rallying around whatever team is playing against MSU, and picking them for the win. Going against a preseason favorite and team who already beat MSU in Ford Field by 35 points this year is not helping MSU's case.

Even Forbes has gotten in on the UNC love. Before the tournament, Forbes released their rankings of the 20 most valuable college basketball teams and rankings of America's best college basketball coaches. MSU came in as the #14 most valuable team in the country, behind several other Big Ten schools including Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State and Wisconsin. All of the Big Ten schools were helped by their share of the Big Ten Network revenue. But UNC? They were #1 overall, relying on over $3 million in merchandise sales.

On the best coaches list, we fared about the same. Tom Izzo ranked a respectable #6, with consideration being given to his 4 (at the time) Final Fours. Roy Williams? Again, #1 overall.

That said, Kansas and Louisville were both ranked above MSU on the Forbes list, as was Bill Self. And that worked out just fine.

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A couple notes:

The LSJ Bleeding Green blog has a warning about fake tickets that were sold for the Final Four games on Saturday night. The tickets are supposedly very realistic, with most fans only realizing the deception when the bar code would not scan upon entry to the stadium. Watch out for this and leave the fake ticket buying to the UNC fans!

For those of you going to the game, MSU has asked for the game to be a White Out. So, wear your white tomorrow!