Saturday, March 21

The ACC & the NCAA Tournament

As I sit here writing, Florida State has just lost to Wisconsin, Wake Forest face planted against Cleveland State, and Boston College fell to Southern California. Clemson was flummoxed by Michigan last night.

This leaves Maryland, North Carolina and Duke as the only ACC teams to win their first round games. Sad as it sounds, is anyone really surprised that things turned out this way? Wake had the greatest variance of any team, as some people had them as a dark horse Final Four team, yet others felt they wouldn't get to the second round.

I realize that UNC and Duke were touted as the only serious Final Four prospects, but come on. I want the rest of the teams to at least win a game or two. "Conference strength" is a fickle concept, but the ACC sure doesn't look too hot right now. Granted, if UNC and Duke make the Final Four (thereby creating civil unrest in North Carolina) and Maryland finishes in the Sweet 16, you will forget about the early losses by the other schools.

It's impossible to judge all the teams right now, but it is fine to express disappointment with the rest of the conference's performance. In the meantime, let's not forget to cheer on Virginia Tech in the NIT (and Davidson, too). I'm hoping Malcolm Delaney and AD Vassallo can finish their season on a high note.

1 comment:

ryan said...

there is a BP Unfiltered post of this topic where John Gasaway points out that there is a major flaw in CBS posting each conference's record. The Big East is slated for 16 or so wins because of all of its higher seeds, and the fact that literally none of its teams are below #6 (Marquette). So, in reality the ACC is 3-4 when it should be 6-1. Wow, that look worse than I thought it would (thanks Wake). Anyways, If the UNC and Duke can pull their weight to the Elite Eight, I think the ACC will have been mildly successful.