Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Countdown to the Madness: The Tarheels are coming, the Tarheels are coming!!!


Nothing is more rewarding in all of regular season sports than a UNC victory over the super annoying Blue Devils from Durham. UNC beat Duke on Saturday, thus clinching its 26th ACC regular season crown (Duke is second with 18) and securing the #1 seed in this week's ACC tournament. With Lawson healthy, the Tarheels will be the prohibitive favorite heading into both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. The tournament commences one week from today in the pointless play-in (or opening round) game in Dayton. The winner of that game will be the sacrificial lamb for either UNC or UCLA. Conference tournaments are all the buzz this week, as Sienna is in, Drake is poised to potentially play spoiler, George Mason returns with a target on its back, and San Diego's win over Gonzaga has fans in Syracuse and Gainesville somewhat uneasy about their position on the bubble. These conference tournaments will play a big role in seeding those teams not in the Top 5 and getting bubble teams in and out of the tournament. The Big East provides the best example of this, as the loser of tomorrow's Syracuse-Villanova game is undoubtedly out, West Virginia is probably in but would benefit from beating Providence, and Pittsburgh could use another win. This tournament is wide open with any of the conference's top six teams possessing the capacity to win in MSG. This week's Top 5 is:
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1. UNC
2. UCLA
3. Kansas
4. Memphis
5. Tennessee

My current projection-UNC over UCLA

1 comment:

Bill said...

Completely shocking that you would rank UNC #1. I am happy they beat the "Dukies" though.