Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Read This Blog - More Tourney Questions
Who the hell did Sylvia Hatchell piss off for UNC to get this kind of tournament selection? For a team that was pretty unanimously regarded as the best in the country (remember? only loss in OT to the No. 4 team in the country, which we avenged in the ACC tournament?), we've gotten jobbed. Robbed. Stabbed in the back. Taken one in the scuppers. Without being kissed first.
Why the fuck is Dook playing in nearby Norfolk, when we're playing in Nashville where we're likely to face Number 8 Vanderbilt on their home floor? What fucking kind of drugs was the selection committee taking to create the likelihood that the number 8 fucking seed gets to play the overall number 1 on the lower seed's home court?
Why the fuck is Tennessee in the same region as UNC? That's what not only Sylvia Hatchell but Pat Summit too wants to know. She was fuming on ESPN earlier this week - and wearing a Carolina Blue warmup jacket to make the point. UT - the no. 2 RPI, probably deserving of a number 1 seed and they end up in the same regional as the overall number 1? WTF?
The men didn't fare a lot better - they're definitely in what I thought was the toughest regional, although our path to the regional final has been considerably lightened by the upsets by George Mason and Wichita State. Interesting that as has been the case in previous years, despite the early upsets by double digit seeds, the lowest seed that has advanced to the Sweet Sixteen so far is the 7th seeded Wichita State team. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Apologies
With my new work assignment, I've had zero time in the last week to either do anything much with this blog or read anyone else's - sorry about that! I haven't even seen any news to speak of other than what's going on in the NCAA tournament(s), so if we've invaded Iran or something, somebody please call me, okay?
And Now for Something Completely Different - Tourney Questions
How did the UNC women's team end up in the same region with Tennessee, the second highest RPI in the tournament? And in the regional that Mechelle Voepel at ESPN.com calls possibly the toughest regional... ever? Giving UT a 2 seed has just pissed them off royally and pointed them straight at UNC. Sucks.Why did the UNC men get sent to frickin' Dayton Ohio instead of Greensboro? To play Murray State, which can't be more than an hour or two from Dayton? Who got the home-court advantage there? Remember that Murray State beat NC State as a 14th seed in 1988. Okay, they've lost every other NCAA tournament game they've ever played (going back to 1964, but still...).Can Boston College go to the Final Four without more 3-point shooting? (I'll answer that one - yes).Can anyone argue against Nantz and Packer's complaints about too many mid-majors in at the expense of Florida State, Cincinnati, Maryland etc.? The Missouri Valley conference has as many tourney-worthy teams as the ACC and the Big 12? Bullshit. Who has won all the championships this century? The ACC and the Big East. When's the last time a team from a non-power conference won it all? Before my time.Side note: the Chicago Tribs' horse-racing handicapper Liam Durbin ran his program that picked Illinois over UNC in last year's tournament (not a bad call!) against this year's bracket and came out with Duke over UNC by a point. Interesting.
