College basketball

[Vrede too]

No ut-oh....

Barely.

#5 North Carolina 81
@Clemson 79

[O Really]

A "W" is a "W", but it is more fun to watch the team you're rooting for just totally kick ass. Especially if the other team is named "Clemson" or "NC State" or "Duke."

[Vrede too]

A "W" is a "W", but it is more fun to watch the team you're rooting for just totally kick ass. Especially if the other team is named "Clemson" or "NC State" or "Duke."

UNC - Duke, conf. champ. or MM, head-to-head or just extent of progress, is looking epic this year, as it has been many times before. Last regular season game, too, 3/9 at North Carolina.

[O Really]

A "W" is a "W", but it is more fun to watch the team you're rooting for just totally kick ass. Especially if the other team is named "Clemson" or "NC State" or "Duke."

UNC - Duke, conf. champ. or MM, head-to-head or just extent of progress, is looking epic this year, as it has been many times before. Last regular season game, too, 3/9 at North Carolina.

Yeah, I doubt the 'Heels can put Duke away twice in a row. But playing in the Dean Dome can be almost as tough on visitors as playing in front of the Cameron Crazies. Either way, they'll both be going to the big dance, as usual.

[Vrede too]

Yeah, I doubt the 'Heels can put Duke away twice in a row. But playing in the Dean Dome can be almost as tough on visitors as playing in front of the Cameron Crazies. Either way, they'll both be going to the big dance, as usual.

AP Rankings

Perhaps unlikely since they play 3/9 and someone has to lose in the ACC Champ., but they could both get #1 MM seeds and could then play again in the Final 4 or the champ. game.

1 Gonzaga 29-2
2 Virginia 26-2, 1st in the ACC
3 North Carolina 24-5, congrats, 2nd in the ACC
4 Duke 25-4, could have been worse after the VT loss, 3rd in the ACC
5 Tennessee 26-3, they're baaack
6 Kentucky 24-5
7 Michigan 26-4
8 Texas Tech 24-5
9 Michigan State 23-6, falling - good
10 LSU 24-5, now 2nd in the SEC after Tennessee

22 Wofford 26-4, I like saying 'Go Terriers!'

24 Maryland 21-9, dropped from #17 after losing to Penn State and #7 Michigan
25 UCF 22-6
(26) Auburn 20-9, gotta sting being behind UCF

(31) Washington 23-6, ugly year for the Pac-12 when its leader by 3.5 games is only #(31), thank goodness for automatic bids

[billy.pilgrim]

I know nothing of ucf and basketball. Do they also have the easiest schedule in all of college basketball or is that only their whiner football program.


We beat Alabama tonight - at Tuscaloosa.

[Vrede too]

I know nothing of ucf and basketball. Do they also have the easiest schedule in all of college basketball or is that only their whiner football program.

We beat Alabama tonight - at Tuscaloosa.

[O Really]

I know nothing of ucf and basketball. Do they also have the easiest schedule in all of college basketball or is that only their whiner football program.


We beat Alabama tonight - at Tuscaloosa.

Man, something about UCF sure ate the ears off your Easter rabbit, didn't it? Wouldn't have been, oh, 34-27 would it?

[Vrede too]

Very weak Wake Forest 70
@#4 Duke 71
Whew, still no Zion with at #3 North Carolina coming up Saturday, that Nike shoe really screwed him.

#15 Virginia Tech 64
@#14 Florida St. 73
Interesting, crap.

#3 North Carolina 79
@ weak Boston College 66

With the ACC's #2 VA there has never been 3 teams from one conference in the top 4 until now. They could all get #1 seeds, which I'm sure is also unprecedented. Take that, SEC, and the ACC has Clemson football, too.

[billy.pilgrim]

I know nothing of ucf and basketball. Do they also have the easiest schedule in all of college basketball or is that only their whiner football program.


We beat Alabama tonight - at Tuscaloosa.

Man, something about UCF sure ate the ears off your Easter rabbit, didn't it? Wouldn't have been, oh, 34-27 would it?

That was only one game. Sure, they ended up with more points against a beat up team, but that has nothing to do with my objections to any team that plays the easiest schedule in the country claiming anything like a national title.
I felt exactly the same about the blue field team when they pulled the same crap.


Vrede, wasn't that you I saw complaining about Duke's strength of schedule when compared to lesser conferences?

[Vrede too]

... Vrede, wasn't that you I saw complaining about Duke's strength of schedule when compared to lesser conferences?

Depends on what you mean by that. I was in effect complaining that both Duke and Auburn were playing mostly weak nonconference opponents and zero or nearly zero true away games all through Oct. - Dec., pp. 8-10. The ACC sched. is clearly tough this year, but idk how Duke's nonconference sched. compared to other teams. Seeing what Duke and Auburn did my suspicion then was that most or all top tier teams do the same thing, but I never checked up on it nor on the nonconference strengths of schedule for teams in lesser conferences.

One thing I like is that there's an automatic bid for winning a conference, lesser or not. It doesn't take up a ridiculous proportion of the slots and there's reward for doing well against a team's peers. A few times my 2nd or 3rd tier alma mater, men's and women's, has gotten to MM and I even was able to watch the women win a 1st round game at home. We shook the rafters for that one. They lost the next game away.

[Vrede too]

Duke’s Zion Williamson officially ruled out against North Carolina

... While Williamson is being held out on Saturday, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski sounded cautiously optimistic that his star freshman could return for the ACC tournament. The hope is that Williamson can play a few games in Charlotte and get into better game shape before the NCAA tournament.

“I want to give him a chance to get in game shape. I would be surprised if he wasn’t ready by the ACC Tournament, Krzyzewski said Friday. “Hopefully we’ll play some games there, not just one, and get ready for the NCAA Tournament.” ...

1800 ET, ESPN.

LSU announces indefinite suspension of Will Wade

One day after it was reported by Yahoo Sports that LSU head coach Will Wade was overheard on federal wiretaps discussing a recruiting “offer” with FBI defendant Christian Dawkins, LSU athletic director Joe Alleva announced that the coach has been suspended indefinitely....

The saga continues.

@Auburn is hanging in there with #5 TN. Good luck.

@Wake Forest is beating #14 Florida St. early in the 2nd half.

Homeboys @#22 Wofford are kicking VMI ass in the 2nd half.

[Vrede too]

#5 Tennessee 80
@Auburn 84
Wow. 1st time Auburn has beaten a top 5 team since Arkansas . . . in 1995!!! None of its current players were even born yet. Excellent regular season finale, will probably even pass UCF in the rankings. Is great for all of the ACC teams.

VMI 72
@#22 Wofford 99
Sweet. Go Terriers!

#14 Florida St. 65
@Wake Forest 57
Oh well.

[billy.pilgrim]

#5 Tennessee 80
@Auburn 84
Wow. 1st time Auburn has beaten a top 5 team since Arkansas . . . in 1995!!! None of its current players were even born yet. Excellent regular season finale, will probably even pass UCF in the rankings. Is great for all of the ACC teams.

VMI 72
@#22 Wofford 99
Sweet. Go Terriers!

#14 Florida St. 65
@Wake Forest 57
Oh well.

Basketball pretty much takes care of easy schedules with its playoffs. Even teams with losses in tough conferences get a chance to come back. Auburn has never been much in basketball and has rarely gotten past the 2 or 3 basketball schools in the sec.
But thanks for motivating me to look at the wannabee's schedule. It looks like they are taking a page out of their football playbook - don't play anyone and when you lose to #5, whine and cry that your loss proves you should have been in the playoffs.

I really do have a hard time understanding why, in a sport that only plays 10 or 12 games, can allow a team that doesn't play anyone to get support as any sort of contender for anything.
Oh, and it has nothing to do with when we played them, as I argued just the same when the blue field bozites tried it a few years back.

All that said, the sec in basketball may be taking a page out of the acc's football playbook. Although I don't know if the acc. went dirty in their football programs (fsu) it does appear that we have a couple of really bad actors (I really hope Auburn is clean) in the sec. LSU just got caught, Ala. keeps getting caught but ignored and there's no way that a 1 and done star Kentucky recruit switches to uga without something going on.

[Vrede too]

FL is hanging in there with @#6 KY. Could end up being a great day for the ACC thanks to unranked SEC teams.

[billy.pilgrim]

FL is hanging in there with @#6 KY. Could end up being a great day for the ACC thanks to unranked SEC teams.

I'm a gator fan for today only. Is Shows a ref. Kentucky usually brings him.

[Vrede too]

Nope.

[Vrede too]

#25 UCF 62
@Temple 67
Congrats

Louisville 68
@#2 Virginia 73
Darn, almost.

Duke just lost big man very early again. Again, not UNC's fault, and not Nike's fault this time.

[Vrede too]

Okay then. Next up the ACC with #2 VA and/or each other again.

[Vrede too]

AP Rankings

1 Gonzaga 29-2
2 Virginia 28-2
3 North Carolina 26-5, congrats
4 Kentucky 26-5
5 Duke 26-5, could have been worse

Virginia lost twice to Duke.
@North Carolina lost once to Virginia, their only game.
Duke lost twice to North Carolina.
Weird.

6 Michigan State 25-6, ugh
7 Texas Tech 26-5
8 Tennessee 27-4
9 LSU 26-5, SEC #1
10 Michigan 26-5
11 Houston 29-2
12 Florida State 25-6, ugh, should get killed in the ACC tourney

20 Wofford 28-4 Go Terriers!
21 Maryland 22-9 Go Terps!
22 Auburn 22-9, congrats, that was a long time out of the rankings, 4th in the SEC, congrats again, good luck in the tourney

(26) UCF 23-7

The Pac 12 winner by 3(!) games, WA (15-3, 24-7), did not even get a single vote after losing at home to Oregon 47-55. This puts WA beneath:
(35) Clemson 19-12
(36) Liberty 28-6
How humiliating.