WATCH: Bill Walton previews college basketball national championship game
NBA legend Bill Walton spoke on the Rich Eisen Show about Monday night’s NCAA Men’s Championship Game, and previewed how it will play out. According to Walton, the problems facing North Carolina stem from the emotional victory they won against Duke in the Final Four — opening the door for Kansas to take the advantage.
Bill Walton previews NCAA Championship Game
Walton’s Hall of Fame career gives him a unique insight into the sport, but his love of college basketball is evident every time he speaks about it. Walton’s poetic love of the game showed itself as he predicted how Monday’s game will play out, mentioning Kansas is poised to play just as well as they did on Saturday when they beat Villanova.
“You have to learn to embrace and love pressure, and risk and doubt and uncertainty,” said Walton. “Because you never know how these things are gonna play out. These guys, it’s gonna be tough as can be for North Carolina to come back from that. Because generally what happens in these games is that — the team that plays the best on Saturday night, which was Kansas — Kansas is on fire.
“Agbaji is just lighting it up out there, David McCormack has never played better in his life — the only guy that didn’t play well for Kansas on Saturday night is Remy Martin which is a good sign for Kansas because he can come back now. Generally who plays best on Saturday night does not play best on Monday night.”
As high as Walton was on Kansas’ playing, he was equally concerned about North Carolina’s stamina coming into another “championship-level” game so soon after Saturday. Walton highlighted that North Carolina’s lack of depth will likely be their downfall against the powerful Kansas offense.
“But the problem for North Carolina is that, they put so much into that game,” continued Walton. “They were celebrating at the end of that game as if it was a championship. And you cannot get back up for a championship until you come down. And hopefully they’ve been able to come down. Bacot’s injury is significant here. If I’m Bill Self, if I’m Kansas, I just say — ‘Look, the storyline is North Carolina because they just beat Coach K and they just beat Duke. We cannot look back, we cannot hold back. They’re going to be emotionally tired.’
“So if you’re Kansas, your mindset is ‘we are gonna run.’ We are gonna run, and we are gonna run and we are gonna run, and we are not gonna stop. And at some point, they’re gonna wear down. North Carolina does not have the depth. But the stars for Kansas, they have to bring it. You don’t get a championship by hanging around and hope that the other team is gonna not get it done.”