While Saturday's first National Semifinal game features two would be Cinderellas, the evening's second contest is a showcase between two squads that already qualify as college basketball royalty. The Kentucky Wildcats and Connecticut Huskies, which have nine National Championships between them, will square off at Reliant Stadium at 8:49pm ET on April 1st; the game will be broadcast live on CBS. Early College Basketball Lines have Kentucky listed as a -2 Final Four Picks favorite and the Over/Under set at 140.
Kentucky and Connecticut both come into this game red hot as they used late season runs to capture their respective 
conference tournaments. The Wildcats, now 29-8 overall, beat Florida, Vanderbilt, and Tennessee to close out the regular season; they followed up that strong finish by thumping Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida to win the SEC Tournament.
The Huskies appeared to have zero momentum going into their conference tournament after losing four of their final five regular season games, but history will show that they were, perhaps, just waiting for post-season play. UConn reeled off five wins in five days to secure the Big East Tournament title, which included wins over Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Louisville.
Many speculated that the Huskies grueling conference tourney schedule would spell doom for their NCAA Tournament chances, but they have more than put those prognostications to rest with wins over Bucknell, Cincinnati, San Diego State, and Arizona.
Kemba Walker, the catalyst behind the team's late season surge, looks as fresh as ever heading into this weekend's game. Walker, arguably the tournament's best player, has posted an average of 26.3 points per game in UConn's four wins. If he turns in the same kind of performance he did when these two teams met back in November at the Maui Invitational, the Wildcats better prepare for the worst. The junior guard tallied 29 points (10-of-17 shooting) and six assists in leading his team to an 84-67 victory.
Kentucky looks like a different team, though, than the one that showed up that day, and its run to the Final Four is proof of such. The Wildcats have taken out a who's who list of college basketball juggernauts to reach Houston, earning wins over Princeton, West Virginia, Ohio State, and North Carolina.
Kentucky is loaded with scoring options and it does not figure to shoot as poorly as it did against Connecticut in Maui (36.7 FG, 36.4 Three Point). Still, the Huskies seem destined for a National Championship appearance and Walker is just the man to help them get it.
Kentucky vs Connecticut 2011 Final Four Picks:
Kentucky Wildcats -2 (-110), Over 140 (-110), -140 (Moneyline)
Connecticut Huskies +2 (-110), Under 140 (-110), +125 (Moneyline)
