Friday, March 21, 2008

Am I worried?

Yes.   

Duke did not play well last night and to say they could have lost doesn't give Belmont enough credit.  If you changed literally 5 plays in the last minute then Belmont would have won.  Now, the Blue Devils have to play a West Virginia team that has beat Marquette, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, and most recently Arizona.  I am curious to see if Duke can find the answer to West Virginia's 6'8" stud forward Joe Alexander.  Overall, the best thing about the game last night was that it significantly lowered my expectations for this year's team.  If Duke wins I will be happy, but I no longer will be surprised if they lose any of the remaining games.

Now, on the flip side should UNC be a little worried?  I have written before about their terrible schedule and how it might not prepare them well for the tournament.   Lets see how UNC's top 10 wins look right now after the first day:
  • Davidson: plays today against Gonzaga
  • BYU: Lost to Texas A&M
  • Ohio St.: Playing in the NIT
  • Kentucky: Lost to Marquette
  • Nevada: Lost in the NIT of the NIT (College Basketball Invitational).
  • Kent St: Lost to UNLV.  (Also, only scored 10 points in the 1st half)
  • Clemson (3 times): plays today against Villanova.
  • Miami (FL): plays today against St. Mary's.
  • Virginia Tech (2 times): Playing in the NIT.
  • Duke: nearly lost to Belmont last night.
Should UNC fans be worried?  They haven't played one team that has had any real success during the first day of the tournament.  Also, I am wondering  how Davidson, Clemson, and Miami (FL) do today.   If they all lose today then it might mean be another indicator of how terrible UNC's schedule was this year.   

UNC has the advantage of playing in Raleigh and Charlotte, but lets see how they do against good teams like Indiana, Arkansas, Washington St, or Notre Dame.

1 comment:

BC said...

Should UNC fans be worried?

They won the conference regular season championship (at Cameron, on Senior Night.)

They won the conference tournament championship.

They are the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

They now have their starting PG back after playing the second half of the conference schedule without him and only losing once.

In their first NCAA tournament game they came within 10 points of tying the school's all-time NCAA tournament record for points scored.

Yeah, I think you can pretty much answer your rhetorical question with a resounding NO.

Happy Easter, by the way. And enjoy the freedom of not having to watch any more tournament games featuring the Head Rodent and his band of pasty midgets.

Hey, maybe we should worry, since Arkansas beat VCU by 10 in the regular season.