College Basketball Kings

We have had a day to absorb the National championship won by Duke. I think both teams played well but the third team in the game the refs, where did they find these NFL referees?

It is hard to find beauty during a tackling drill. Somewhere over the years physical play under the basket has come to mean tackle, push, shove and throw out of the way to get to the basket. Even the very last play of the game in order to get Butler’s man free for the mid court shot Kyle Singler was blocked by a pulling left guard on the Butler football team. .

This game would have been better off letting the player’s call fouls themselves like on the play ground. I just don’t enjoy watching a shooter drive to the basket like he’s running off left tackle at the goal line. That’s just not basketball. The end result was Duke was the best football team on the court.

Just think, the NCAA wants to expand and make this a 96 team tournament. I am not in favor of any expansion where any team gets a bye. If they follow through with this new format being tossed around then the top 32 teams will not play the first day. If that happens you are going to see a #1 seed lose to a 16 seed or even lower than that for the first time. The top teams will have a half to get use to the tournament atmosphere while everyone else is already use to it.

Does any body think that Carolina was worthy of playing for the national title. They finished 16-16 in the regular season and yet in a 96 team tournament they would be in. Whether it’s football or basketball if your next loss gives you a losing season you don’t deserve to be in a bowl game or a baseball or basketball playoff.

Everyone wrote off the ACC this year as a bad year and yet they are the national championship conference and sent Carolina to the final game of the NIT. The league went 10-5 in this years tournament which is 667 winning percentage. The ACC is the winningest in tournament history at 64% so this year they were as good as any year.

The ACC has won five out of the last ten tournaments and lost the final game in two others, and won eight of the last nineteen. Since 1981 the ACC has sent Virginia, Georgia Tech, Maryland, N C State, Carolina and Duke to the final four. Twenty three times in the past thirty years there has been an ACC team in the final four. Four different ACC teams have played for the title in the past tens years.

Duke has gotten this National title celebration down pat. I have not heard of any unruly celebrations or people being injured trying to prove they were superman jumping over any fire. No cars turned over in celebration. No arrest that I have heard of. The Duke students and fans acted like they had a good time celebrating instead of finding a reason to cause damage.

Duke is the seventy first NCAA national champion. Eleven times now the Nationals title flags have flown in the Research Triangle. North Carolina has been in the final four eighteen times. Duke has made fifteen trips and N C State three times danced until midnight. There is no doubt where the center of the college basketball universe is.

Tobacco Road Rules!!!!!