ATLANTA — No, we don’t have any Cinderellas this time.

But you couldn’t possibly have a better or more talented Final Four than this year’s quartet of Florida, UCLA, Georgetown, and Ohio State. Unlike last year, when we had to witness Florida’s disemboweling of overmatched George Mason, we should get two outstanding semifinals on Saturday.

Today, I want to focus on the first half of the doubleheader — Georgetown and Ohio State, who tip off at 6:07 p.m. What’s so compelling about this matchup is that it pits the nation’s two best pure centers, matching Buckeyes freshman sensation Greg Oden against Hoyas junior giant Roy Hibbert.

“It’s not too often you have two low post centers going against each other,” noted Georgetown coach John Thompson III in yesterday’s conference call, and he’s right. On many college teams, “center” is a euphemism for “the guy who’s a little bigger than the guards.” Most teams have a 6-foot-8-inch or 6-foot-9-inch type manning the middle, and often a skinny one at that. But Oden and Hibbert are the real deal — they’re big centers even by NBA standards. In fact, after dwarfing opponents most of the year the 7-foot Oden will be giving up inches to the 7-foot-2 Hibbert.

Additionally, each player was his team’s top scorer on a per-minute basis, so their importance to the offensive attack of each club is obvious. Oden, the odds-on favorite to be the top pick in June’s NBA draft, led the Buckeyes with 15.4 points per game and shot 61.6% from the field. Even Thompson, while trying to insist that his opponent had no discernible weaknesses, allowed that, “Obviously Oden is the focal point.”

His presence opens the perimeter for the other Buckeyes, who boast a quartet of solid 3-point shooters in senior Ron Lewis (35.8%, including a season-saving triple against Xavier in the second round), freshman Daequan Cook (42.2%), junior Jamar Butler (38.4%), and senior Ivan Harris (39.6%).

Hibbert, meanwhile, averaged 12.7 per game in just 26.4 minutes a night, which looks even better once you consider Georgetown’s methodical pace. While not on par with Oden athletically, Buckeyes coach Thad Matta noted he has “a great touch around the basket, and a great understanding of how to play the game.” The numbers back up both points — he shot 67.0% from the floor. At his size he should be able to cash in short hooks over Oden any time he gets deep post position.

Of course, any discussion of collegiate big men also revolves around two other factors: fouls and guards. Let’s deal with fouls first. Both Oden and Hibbert have had foul problems in their tournament games, as they’re the last line of defense and college refs are less forgiving about incidental contact when players go up for a shot.

Foul trouble might only be magnified because they’re guarding each other. Neither player has defended an opponent with this combination of size and skill; Hibbert in particular may have his hands full dealing with Oden’s superior athleticism. (But get used to it fellas — you’ll be guarding each other in the pros for the next decade or so.)

However, the latter point only became an issue if the guards throw the ball into the post. This is one of the maddening wild cards in the college game, where the backcourt players have far less experience (not to mention patience) and the lack of an illegal defense rule means more effort is required to work it down low. Just ask North Carolina, for instance, who gave up a second-half lead against the Hoyas in the Elite Eight by launching one indiscriminate jumper after another while ignoring their post threats.

Both Ohio State and Georgetown have been guilty of this in previous games, too, which is one reason each barely staved off elimination twice in their four tournament contests. Ohio State was dead to rights against Xavier before Lewis’s 3-pointer — helped by the brain cramp that preceded it when the Musketeers didn’t foul.

Amazingly, in their next game the Buckeyes went right back to the Everyone Ignore Oden offense while falling behind by 20 against Tennessee. Fortunately, they got the big guy more involved after halftime and came back to win, and appeared to learn their lesson by sticking with that approach in a 92–6 dismantling of Memphis in the regional final.

As for Hibbert, he only got seven shots off — and only one in the first half — in a near-upset by an outclassed Vanderbilt team in the Sweet 16. The Hoyas were saved only by a miraculous last-second shot by Jeff Green (and no, he didn’t travel). They didn’t do much better against UNC, getting Hibbert 10 shots in an overtime game, but were saved by the Tar Heels’ offensive implosion down the stretch. Georgetown has won every game in which Hibbert had double-figure shot attempts, so clearly getting him the rock is critical.

Beyond Hibbert vs. Oden, Ohio State faces some other defensive challenges. As our Jonah Keri pointed out on Monday, the Hoyas are the nation’s second-most efficient offense. With the help of Pete Carill, whom he played for at Princeton, Thompson has instituted a lot of the Princeton-style backdoor plays that the Sacramento Kings used so effectively under Rick Adelman. It’s a notable contrast from his father’s teams: The old Hoyas won with suffocating defensive pressure; this team wins with patient offensive execution.

“Too much is made of [the Princeton offense],” Thompson insists. “We’re just playing basketball here.” But don’t believe it. All that back-door action gives the Hoyas’ secondary player scoring opportunities and takes some of the attention off Hibbert and Green — a dynamic force whom Ohio State will struggle to match up against. That’s why Carill’s system has been so successful everywhere it’s been used.

But ultimately it comes down to the centers, and in this case it’s advantage Buckeyes. I don’t think Oden will have to worry about Hibbert for long, because I don’t think Hibbert can guard him without fouling. And switching to a zone, which Georgetown used so effectively against Carolina, isn’t much of an option here — the Buckeyes are too good from downtown.

Additionally, Oden keeps getting better every game. As Matta pointed out, Oden’s right wrist was immobilized for months after he broke it last spring, and even when the cast came off he had limited mobility with it. Perhaps because he was afraid to test the wrist, we didn’t really see him play fearlessly until that spectacular block at the end of the Tennessee game. I have a sneaking suspicion there’s more where that came from.

Thus, I expect the opposite result from these teams’ meeting a year ago, when Oden was still in high school and Hibbert dominated the Buckeyes in a second-round tournament win by the Hoyas. This time, the Buckeyes are the ones with the superior big man, and he’ll take them into the title game on Monday.

Ohio State 68, Georgetown 65

jhollinger@nysun.com