Nessler And Thompson Talk Wolverines And Fab 5
ATLANTA (97.1 THE TICKET) - The Ticket's Dan Leach caught up with Brad Nessler --who calls college basketball and football for ESPN -- and former Georgetown University Hoyas basketball coach John Thompson at the NCAA championship game Monday night.
Echoing the thoughts of Steve Kerr, he said it was a "great match-up" between the Cardinals and Michigan, going so far as to say it was "the best match-up we could ask for."
"The other night I don't think that either team played that well the first half- second half they did and it was close and competitive, and that made it fun," Nessler said. "I think these back courts are going to play way better than they did the other night and with that I think we are going to have higher scoring game - it just looks statistically ... each team is going to put about 75 up ... I don't care which way it is."
Talking about the contribution of Mitch McGary throughout the season, he said:
"He was unbelievable the other night ... when he lead the break one time on the dribble - a no look pass with his tongue hanging out and at that time I said to Dick (Vitale) he's just matched his career high in assists and he got four more after that," Nessler said. "So, he's a great passer and in the high post he's the reason they were able to deal with that 2-3 zone -tonight he might be even more dangerous."
Pre-game there was talk that the Fab Five would show up in support of this title seeking U of M team - is that a distraction or more encouragement?
"I think it would be a good thing ... I kind of forgot about all the problems they had - they erased that from the record books," recalled Nessler. "I still think of those guys as the team that got there and just didn't quite win."
You may also recognize Nessler's voice from EA Sports' NCAA March Madness video games.
Legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson added his thoughts on the two teams pre-game - "I think it's really unpredictable," said Thompson. "And that's the way you'd want a championship game. In the past, there is usually a dominant team ... and everyone will hop on it - they tend to do that with Louisville, because of Louisville's pressure, but I'm not certain that the pressure will bother Michigan as much as it did in the later stages of the game against Syracuse."
