(RNN) - The Cinderella story of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament did not get a happy ending.
Michigan's strong second-half surge upended Loyola-Chicago’s championship hopes in the Final Four Saturday. The Wolverines topped the Ramblers 69-57.
Shortly after, Villanova hammered Kansas 95-79 to reach the title game.
Michigan and Villanova will meet Monday in San Antonio, TX, in the championship game. Tip-off is at 9:20 p.m. ET on TBS.
Knocking off the Cinderella team would be enough to label anyone a villain. But oddsmakers in Las Vegas have given the Wolverines a different label: underdog.
Vegas favors Villanova in Monday’s championship game by 6 ½ points. It’s easy to see why.
The Wildcats won the Big East Conference Championship and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
They skated through Radford, Alabama, West Virginia and Texas Tech en route to their Final Four matchup with Kansas.
The Wildcats sank 18 3-pointers to beat the Jayhawks in the Final Four. The performance set a Final Four record for 3-pointers made and was their ninth straight win by double digits.
Villanova (33-7) is vying for its third national championship. They last won the big one in 2016.
Even so, Michigan is no pushover. The Wolverines took the Big Ten Tournament title and earned a No. 3 seed.
When the NCAA tourney rolled around, they pulled off tight wins against Houston and Florida State and soundly defeated Montana and Texas A&M.
The Wolverines (35-4) are hoping to take just their second title, the first since 1989.
In the title game, Michigan will have to stop the Villanova leading scorers Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges.
Brunson, a 6-3 guard, averages a team-high 19.2 points per game and was named the national player of the year by the Associated Press. Bridges, a 6-6 guard, is right behind him with 17.6 points per game.
Eric Paschall, a 6-9 forward, shouldn't be overlooked. He nailed four 3-pointers and led in Nova in scoring with 24 points in their last game against Kansas.
The Wolverines would struggle to match Nova beyond the arch, but they boast a matchup nightmare in the paint. Mortiz Wagner, a 6-11 forward from Berlin, Germany, leads the Wolverines with 14.6 points per game.
Charles Matthews, a 6-6 guard, averages 13.1 and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, a 6-4 guard, averages 12.6 per game.
Copyright 2018 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
