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		Michelle Touson on the Final Four By Michelle Touson March 30, 2009

	Sportstalk: The Stanford Cardinal beat Iowa State big on Monday night 74-53 at Haas Pavilion and Stanford University is headed back to the Women's final four. The Cardinal who defeated Ohio State on Saturday stopped Iowa's offense and ran away with the game on Monday night. Michelle: Ohio State and Iowa State was not any competition for the Lady Cardinal. The Cardinal are a very well rounded team and I was somewhat surprised at the absence of Candice Wiggins who was pretty much the pulse and the heart of the Cardinal all last season into their Final Four and now the fact that the Cardinal are back in the Final Four is really wonderful. Which goes to show you that Tara VanDerveer is a heck of a coach. It also goes to show you that these Women have such heart that people like myself were counting them out for the Final Four. They were there and ready to play and have proved it. Stanford is not a one player team. Stanford was suppose to beat Ohio State and Iowa. In both games it was not an even match Stanford had a much better defense and much better offense and much better ball movement with play making ability the full gamut. Sportstalk: On the other hand Cal who was eliminated by U-Conn on Sunday the Bears played a great season but it was just too much Huskies for the Bears as U-Conn stays undefeated at 35-0 who play the Arizona St. Sun Devils on Tuesday night. Michelle: I said weeks before this was going to be the moment that Cal tells everybody that were back. That Cal Women's basketball is going to be a force to be reckon with. I told you this months ago and they actually lived up to that being a force to be reckon with. They didn't win it and I didn't expect the Lady Bears to beat U-Conn. U-Conn just had way too many weapons with Maya Moore and it was 77-53 Cal took a beating and Cal shot for 17-56 and U-Conn was 28-63 shooting. Cal made 9-16 free throws while U-Conn hit 12-15 free throws. So U-Conn was just ready to play and that was indicative of a Geno Auriemma team. They came to play and yeah Cal was up by 8 points and that was the feel good moment of the day. U-Conn realized that they were the number one team of the land and pretty much number one for the whole season so they better act like it. Sportstalk: The Men's Final Four is upon us and it now comes down to Villanova and U-Conn and the other match Michigan State and North Carolina. Michelle: My brackets just like anyone else's brackets are completely blown up I had Pittsburgh winning it all but I did have Michigan State. My Final Four bracket started out with Pitt-Michigan State and Louisville and North Carolina. I guessed half of that and half of that is in there. We can look for U-Conn to play hard and I still don't think they'll win. I honestly don't think they'll win. The University of North Carolina has showed me something we were all worried about Ty Lawson's big toe. The way he played against Oklahoma yesterday his big toe was not a factor and neither was Sooner forward Blake Griffin. The Tar Heels took care of them in fashion and you can call that game a blow out 72-60. Villanova, wow it's been 23-25 years since Villanova has been to a Final Four and that was the Final Four to remember when they upset Georgetown and Patrick Ewing who led Georgetown. Maybe Georgetown has one of those shocking surprises up their sleeve. Michigan State hasn't won a National Championship since 2000. I believe that's when they had the Flintstones playing on the team. They are really playing flawlessly. This is going to be an interesting Final Four and I don't even want to make a prediction on the April 4th ball games. I'm going to say in the Championship Final Michigan State and North Carolina. Were going to give North Carolina for the push on that one. Final Sports thoughts: It's been reported today that former Denver quarterback Jay Cutler has forfeited over $100,000 bonuses for not going to off season Pro practices. Cutler is upset and Denver as a team has not done enough to let him feel secure in his job. Yes I think he's been acting a bit like a baby but when a coach comes in there and when a new coach comes in there right off the bat they try to trade you. They don't have anything better. Yeah the Broncos signed Chris Sims, Sims hasn't played in probably in a year and half to two years. So who do you have better than Cutler? Cutler has done well with the team that he's had around him and the players he's had. But honestly and truly, quit talking to the coach and you need to talk to the man who signs the checks. The coach doesn't sign the checks. So Cutler needs to be sat down and talk to by the ownership to make him feel secure. Second final thought: Houston Texan running back Ryan Moats was pulled over by Dallas Cop Officer Robert Powell who has since sincerely apologized for running a red light. He was trying to get to the bedside of his dying Mother in Law. Powell did do his job because Moats did run a red light. However in the first two minutes of being detained Moats told Powell about his Mother in Law dying. Powell still held Moats for 13 minutes. In that 13 minutes his Mother in Law expired. He told him "my Mother in Law is dying. The Hospital sent out nurses and Hospital Police to say she is dying and Moats and his family needs to get up there. Powell could have confiscated his drivers license or he could have taken the keys to the car. There were many things that Powell could have done to allow him to go up there and Moats could have been allowed to say his final good byes to his Mother in Law. This is a shame and the Police Chief of the Dallas Police Department made this formal apology and a written statement was released by the Dallas Police from Powell who apologized. The reason the Police Chief made the call because he found out that Ryan Moats was an NFL player. I'm sure that probably somebody from the NFL made a call from the NFL office saying "that's one of our boys" and you got to realize football is very big here in Texas. You have Jerry Jones whose building this mega new Stadium in Arlington and there are Dallas Cowboy fans who fly in from all around the country to see a game and you can't have that kind of bad publicity surrounding the Police Department and coming in there when your trying to launch a big venture. It's a shame that this happened but my advice is "tighten it up Dallas Police Department this is not good, this is not good at all." Michelle Touson is covering the Final Four for Sportstalk Radio