NCAA and NIT Bracket Picks
It's been less than 24 hours since the NCAA tournament seedings came out and I've already heard from several fans that UNC has once again earned the toughest bracket in the history of basketball. Not to make light of Tarheel concerns, but this belief has come to form a foundation of UNC fandom and ranks right up there with other myths to which the Carolina faithful often swear (i.e. that every shot Tyler Hansbrough misses is an obvious foul, etc.).
Well, I'm going on the record… I like our bracket. I would much rather play Wazzu or Georgetown than Texas A&M, Wisconsin, or UCLA. I have also heard concerns about our no. 4 seed, Texas. Certainly Kevin Durant is the best player in the game right now (if you listen to all the experts), but what has Texas done to earn such fear and respect as a team? They have lost four games to unranked opponents and of only three wins against ranked teams, two of those were against teams that didn't even make the tournament (OKST and LSU)!!!! LSU didn't even make the NIT!!!! Texas's only quality win was against Texas A&M, who they only beat by 2 in double overtime… at home. When they played the Aggies in College Station, they lost by almost 20 points. I don't think Texas will make it past USC.
If anyone is interested, here are my NCAA picks as well as blank brackets for both the NCAA and NIT.
My 2007 NCAA Picks
Blank 2007 NCAA Bracket (Note that the bracket comes with Florida A&M already entered as the winner of the play-in game. I don't know why the folks over at Yahoo! did that, since I think the game is tomorrow. Maybe they know something I don't, but I'm picking Niagra to face Kansas in the first round.)
Blank 2007 NIT Bracket
If anyone else wants to publish their picks, feel free to post them in the comments, or email them to me and I will stick them up here.
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While it's true that Tar Heel fans (as do other fans) often complain about our bracket, certainly this year the difficulty is pretty much a general consensus -- from ESPN to Fox Sports to SI, etc. Not just Tar Heel fans are saying it. From a national column (on why Carolina won't reach the Final Four):
"UNC has the toughest road to the Final Four. Texas is peaking at the right time. In the past two weeks, the Longhorns defeated Texas A&M and twice gave Kansas all it could handle. Georgetown runs the nation's most efficient offense, controls the tempo and has lost only once in its past 16 games. Washington State is similarly methodical, grinding games to a near-halt by using most if not all of the 35-second shot clock on offensive possessions."
I think people are really high on Texas because A. Durant is such a nasty player, and B. they are playing very well LATELY. The big loss to A&M was earlier in the season and the more amazing, competitive game came recently. I'm not saying Texas is great; I haven't seen them play enough (just the A&M thriller and that was a beautiful basketball game. The Aggies'Acie Law IV can play on my team any day!). I'm just saying that I think people are putting more stock in what they've done lately than their whole season. I hope you're right about Texas. Go home, Rick Barnes. :)
The slow teams like Washington State and Wisconsin (yes, the Badgers are not in our bracket) are the scariest ones to me. When we aren't playing fast, we are playing badly. For this group, I'd rather play an excellent uptempo team than a mediocre methodical team.
But I'm just observing the difficulty of the bracket, not complaining. It's ok with me if we have a hard bracket. We have to beat good teams regardless. If we play our best, we'll win a lot. If we play uninspired and defensively slack, we'll lose and we'll deserve to lose. Plus, a lot of times, a bracket looks really hard and then the teams that were scary lose in upsets before we ever face them. Whatever. I just hope the Tar Heels do their best.
Hey guys, I agree with you both (Miles & Elizabeth). The bracket is the hardest, but we'll be okay.
Here's a brief bit of trivia for you. Only four times in the history of the NCAA championship has the final game featured two #1 seeds (according to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ncaa_final_four, so don't take as 100% accurate)
Guess who won three of those four #1 vs. #1 games? Oh yes, UNC. Heels vs. Georgetown (1982), vs. Michigan (1993), and vs. Illinois (2005). The other #1 vs #1? Duke's loss to UConn (1999).
Playing tough games seems to be something UNC has to do to find success.
Enjoy the tournaments :) -brad
I have UNC making it to the Final Four. I concur w/ Brad in saying that UNC seems to do well in tough games. It's teams like oh, Weber State that give us trouble. :)
My Final Four picks are: UNC, Tennessee, Wisconsin, & Pittsburgh. (I almost chose Kansas over Pittsburgh but am counting on the upset.) Of course, I have not closely followed NCAA b-ball outside the ACC/Big Ten, so I really can't say I feel 100% about all my picks.
But this is why they call in March Madness....
...why they call IT March Madness. Typo.
Cool trivia, Brad!
I dreamed last night that Duke lost in the first round and we were in the Final Four. I know it's just a dream, but...
Miles, good call on Niagra.
So far 13 of my 16 picks made it through the first round...the ones I missed were VCU (prophetic dream, Elizabeth), Butler, & Louisville. I don't think I've ever done that well. On principle, I will not pick Ohio St. to beat Xavier. Behind UNC, I am also a Michigan fan, who is Ohio St.'s archrival. I grew up saying, "Oh how I hate Ohio State" before we ever moved to NC.