NCAA Tournament opens without State or Carolina (Updated 11:45am)
March Madness starts today…and, for the first time since 1973 the Tournament will be played without either NC State or North Carolina being represented. Wow.
We’ve already promoted our coverage platform and message forums in this link, so no more of that. Despite NC State’s omission from the tournament, the show does in fact go on. We just posted a new poll in the right panel of the front page of the blog and would love your participation in the question. For the record, I voted for Vanderbilt, Notre Dame and Butler.Similarly, there is still a little time to join the annual friendly SFN Bracket Challenge group.
If you have thoughts on games during the day, please don’t hesitate to post them here. If you’re at work (like most of the posters on here during the day) and want to watch the games, go here. The next two days are some of the most exciting of the year, when even office assistants in their mid-50s actually care about San Diego State.
Only one ACC team, Wake Forest, takes the court today. The No. 9 seed Deacons, in the East Region, will take on No. 8 seed Texas at 9:35 p.m. in New Orleans in a battle of two of our favorite teams in the country not named NC State. Wake Forest limps into Tournament play losing five of its last six games. Four of the five losses came against teams not in the field of 64 (NCSU, Va Tech, UNC and Miami). For a preview of the game, check out this article from the Winston-Salem Journal.
The ACC has started strong in the postseason by going 3-0 in the NIT, so hopefully the conference can keep it up in the early stages of the NCAA Tournament. We’ve got a lot of tough seeds, so getting as many teams through the first round will be key to respectability. Getting more than two teams into the Sweet 16 would be major for the ACC to establish some bragging rights.
While Wake Forest is on the mind, this link will take you to some good stuff related to the late Skip Prosser’s son leading Wofford against Wisconsin today.
If you are looking for some interesting basketball knowledge on some teams that didn’t ultimately make today’s dance during some the games then you should really check out the information in this article. It may have been easy to miss with all of the activity that we have had here recently.
Even though we have a policy to never link to trolls like this jackass, I thought his post selection hangover article would fit nicely in this entry. ACC fans will find the following quote interesting on a few levels:
The school I cover went 10-6 in the ACC, Mr. Committee Chairman. Do you not understand what that MEANS?
That would have been me then. It’s just about me now. If it’s me in five years, smack me. Because I’ve been doing it for almost a decade, and it’s getting tiresome. The whole charade is a cliché disguised as something fresh and new.
It’s like attending a Duke basketball game. Go one time, and the chants and cheers from the students will blow you away. The band plays great music. The Blue Devil mascot struts around with funny signs taped to his head, and then he surfs over a human wave of student volunteers. It’s incredible, the first time you go. The second and third time, too. But then you go the next year, and the next. And the next. And after a while it dawns on you: It’s the same damn thing, every year. The students come and go, the players come and go — the guy inside the mascot comes and goes — but it’s the same damn movie. And that is one tiresome revelation.
Let ‘em fly.
20 Responses to “NCAA Tournament opens without State or Carolina (Updated 11:45am)”
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I love the fact that I can quote SFN when I write:
Four of the five losses came against teams not in the field of 64… [including] UNC…
almost as much as it pains me to acknowledge that the Pack is not in the tournament.
One other fact to take note of is that this is the first time since 1973 that neither NC State nor UNC are in the NCAA tournament.
We are going to add your nugget into the post. Wanted to give you credit for it here.
What do flip-flops and this year’s NCAA tournament have in common?
No heels!
I still to this day think that piece on Greg Doyel is one of the funniest (and most likely accurate) articles that I have ever read here.
Thanks for clicking through!! I agree.
If I may brag for a moment…I had ODU beating Notre Dame in my brackets!
and BYU
Enjoyed seeing Florida lose to BYU. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if BYU’s half court shot at the buzzer had gone in before overtime.
TITLE “NCAA Tournament opens without State or Carolina”. Are we really to believe that our program is on par with Carolina? I hate the heels as much as anyone, but this title leads one to believe that we have been regular participants in the tournament. Maybe in the 80′s we were, but times have changed. Until we can consistently make the tournament, let’s not pretend we are something we are not.
SF, did you pick Murray State! If you did, then I’m really impressed. I didn’t. Murray State’s only other NCAA Tournament win was over…you guessed it, NCSU.
Glad those tools from ‘Vandy’ went down.
And Ogilve, you looked like a real d-bag with that haircut and mustache.
Goodbye.
i remember that game all too well. Fire and Ice along with Shack and Del Negro and of course Chucky. Backing them up was Weems, Avie Lester and Brian Howard. It was a disaster.
http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?replayId=413
NCSU84, not inferring our program is on par with Carolina’s in any way.
I’m perfect right now – BYU, ODU, Murray State, Baylor & Nova. BUT, Richmond is threatening to take me down!
Every year when there are upsets, Vitale & Co. start shouting about how it somehow proves that the mid-majors can compete with the big boys. But all it really proves is that the mid-majors champs can compete with the middle-of-the-pack majors.
But on the whole the mid-majors aren’t consistently advancing past the first weekend. Of course there will be some good teams from the OVC and WAC, and obviously there will be upsets. But that doesn’t mean Morehead State vs. Tennessee-Martin would be make for great basketball.
Re: Murray State’s two tournament wins. As Jimmy V used to say, “You have to watch out for those States that aren’t a state.”
Yep . . . my two year old daughter has a perfect bracket so far . . . me . . . not so good.
Wow!!! Ohio just put the smackdown on Georgetown!
GO VOLS!!!
I filled out 7 brackets. I’m doing terrible in all of them. Georgetown screwed me up big time. So did ODU. My 5 and 4 year old are only 10 points behind me. Not sure why I try. I guess it gives me more reason to watch.
I don’t partake in brackets because I hate to feel obliged to pull for teams I hate (G-town, Kentucky, MD, Clemson, Florida, etc…). But if you don’t have an emotional feeling (mostly hate maybe I need therapy) for any teams I could see how it adds value.
I always had a problem filling out a bracket when State was in it. Do you really want to have them losing before the Sweet 16, which could very well make you lose your office pool.
packalum44 – I’m kind of like you in that I don’t LIKE and pull for any other team besides State, but there are plenty that I hate.