Ken Davis

There was a time when college basketball was gloriously unpredictable. Just can’t remember when that was.

Look, the sport is great. There are better teams and better players than at any time. The regular season was a spectacular ride when no one could hold on to No. 1 and all the jostling about in the Top 25 was a blast. Now we’ve gone through the first two weeks of the NCAA tournament, we are choking on chalk, and the Final Four at Ford Field is set.

Michigan State, a No. 2 seed, decided to spoil things Sunday for Louisville, the No. 1 seed overall. Now we can all look forward to one big Sparty Party. The biggest crowds in tournament history are about to be treated to some fine April weather in Detroit. In addition to daily showers we are now assured that the Final Four will be green friendly — Michigan State green.

But Tom Izzo taking another Michigan State team to the Final Four doesn’t fit my definition of an upset.

Villanova, a No. 3 seed, is coming along too. The Wildcats knocked off Pittsburgh, another No. 1 seed, in a Big East battle staged in Boston. For a couple of nights, Beantown was a Big East Town again. And nobody from the ACC seemed to mind.

But Cinderella’s slipper doesn’t fit a No. 3 seed. And the Wildcats aren’t exactly the underdogs they were when Rollie Massimino led his troops into Lexington way back in 1985.

That leaves us with the other two contestants, North Carolina and Connecticut. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The Tar Heels were ranked at the top of virtually every preseason poll. Most of those predictions followed up with UConn at No. 2. (That’s how I had it in my preseason Top 25.)

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That was back in October. Now, with just a week to go before the biggest Monday night of all, it appears those will be the two teams meeting to decide the national championship. Villanova and Michigan State have played great basketball to reach this point, but anyone observing the first four rounds would agree that the Tar Heels and Huskies are at another level and have scored the most impressive tournament victories.

Much like last season, when four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four for the first time, it appears we will get the two best teams in the championship game. And there’s nothing wrong with that. When the 2008 Final Four ended, we had a memorable shot by Mario Chalmers, a title game that went to overtime, a debate over the use of timeouts and fouls, and one of the most exciting games in recent years. Some even said Kansas won in classic style.

UConn and North Carolina are great teams, capable of authoring another riveting final chapter. The only element missing from the preseason predictions is that aura of invincibility that was supposed to follow the Tar Heels all the way to Detroit.

The Tar Heels are 32-4, a fine season by any standard. But somehow we’ve all let North Carolina fall under the radar again. It’s a different type of radar. Since the Tar Heels fell short of perfection, it doesn’t seem we want to give them their due for being a great team any more. But if you weren’t impressed by their performances against Gonzaga and Oklahoma, something is wrong with your basketball sensibility.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who led the Tar Heels to the national title in 2005, took a look at this Final Four field and congratulated the men’s basketball committee.

“They evidently got it pretty close to being right,” Williams said. “There’s so many really good teams in college basketball. That’s the reason all the talk in the preseason about [being the] best team ever and going undefeated . . . it was all just nonsense is what it was.”

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North Carolina began the season at No. 1, and UConn took a couple of turns at the top. At different points in the season the argument could have been made for either team that they were the best in the land. That’s even more amazing considering the injuries that Williams and UConn coach Jim Calhoun had to deal with.

Carolina freshman Tyler Zeller was hurt early in the season. Point guard Ty Lawson had the most famous toe in the NCAA tournament. And, of course, Marcus Ginyard was essentially lost for the season. Williams has so much depth, he compensated for all. But the Tar Heels still miss Ginyard, who was their best lock down defender.