Tell Me How You Feel

This time of year, everyone gets to read what I think about my KU's chances, but never any of my friends, even though they're all as diehard as I am, and we spend 85% of our waking hours between Selection Sunday and tomorrow morning discussing it amongst ourselves. Plus this year worked well, with everyone's team having such good years. Except, of course, for the defending champion North Carolina Tar Heels.....but we'll get to them. So here's their opportunity to give their thoughts and feelings on their teams' chances this year.


We'll start it off with Dunph, representing Duke

This year I don't know how to feel about Duke. I am very excited about the bracket they have been put in, and feel it is the easiest bracket a number one team has to make the final four this year. Looking back at this year, everyone has been second guessing how good Duke is, including myself at times. I think they are better than they are given credit for. They lost 5 times this year, AT ranked Georgetown, AT ranked Maryland, AT ranked Georgia Tech, AT ranked Wisconsin, and AT NC State...there are no road games in the tourney and Duke has a strong national followng which makes me feel good about them in the tourney. Also, they have 3 bigtime scorers on their team which besides maybe Kansas no other team in the tourney can say. Nolan Smith, Scheyer, and Singler all average around 18 a game which is ridiculous. A lot of people question their depth, but really how deep do you go in the tourney. The tourney nowadays is won by one or two superstars, it doesn't matter how deep you are. 3 bigtime scorers and a 7 footer. Their bracket is fairly weak as well. I think Purdue is downright awful now as a 4 seed without Hummel, and Baylor is a pretty weak 3 seed, that lacks tourney experience. Duke also has the most experienced and winningest coach in Coach K in tournament history. All that being said I think they will have to shoot the lights out for 6 games straight to win it, which no one ever does. They will be only as good as they shoot. They also will struggle to match up against teams like Villanova because they lack some of the athleticism teams like Nova have. I mean let's be honest it looks like a blizzard on the court when Duke is playing, and the bench looks like a snow drift. I have them making the final four, but could also see them taking a large, steaming, shit and shooting 20 percent against Louisville and being out in round 2. Either way don't be surprised if they do better than most people think they will. They are pretty damn good!

-JonJon, representing Northern Iowa

This is my nightmare.

UNI is better than and deserves better than a 9 seed. I have a hard time understanding the logic behind Notre Dame being a 6 (what I think UNI should have been.)

Let's look at the facts; UNI: 28-4, RPI of 17, 10-1 v. Teams with RPI of 100 or better. ND: 23-11, RPI of 48, (don't know off the top of my head their record against the top 100.) Also, even giving them a 7 seed, which is closer to what I was expecting.....here's how the 7 seeds match up against UNI in top 100 RPI games. UNI: 10-1, Richmond 10-7, Clemson 10-9, BYU 8-5, OSU 5-9. Why am I focused on the teams records v. Top 100 RPI teams? Because in the post selection sunday interview, that's what the committee supposedly focused on.

"How did you seed the teams?"
Committee member: "We looked at their record against Top 100 RPI teams"

Now obviously there are many other factors, but it just felt like the committee was pissing in my hand and trying to tell me its raining. Enough with the seed complaints. It is what it is.

Now on to my nightmare. UNLV is athletic, long, plays high pressure defense. I don't want to play a team that is defensive minded. Because UNI's offense can disappear faster than Jacob Wetterling on its own, they don't need 5 athletic guys forcing their offense into the trunk, telling them "I will f*cking kill you if you make a noise." Also UNLV is deep. Plays 10-11 guys consistently. I don't like that either. Means more prep time for UNI's defense. UNI is great at making teams go to their weakness, and making that weakness beat them. I don't know enough about UNLV to determine their weakness yet. But early reports are is that they are streaky shooters, who thrive on pressure defense. That's good, but that's the standard recipe for UNI's tournament games. Give the athletic team 3's because they are supposed to make them. Then they do. And UNI loses by 5. So in sum, UNLV is defensive minded, which means they should be ready for the 120 or so set plays UNI will run at them (negative.) They are athletic, long, and deep (negative, negative, negative.) But they're streaky (positive) and UNI is more balanced and more experienced (positive, positive.)

Also, it could set up a dream round 2 match-up with KU. The best two big men in the country going head to head. Go Panthers! Thanks selection committee for placing UNI in OKC. Spring break in Oklahoma is exactly what I wanted, and I got it. But no thanks for the 9 seed and with the chance to play the overall number 1 second round.

-Noles, representing Duke

I went to espn.com the other day to see the bracket again and I saw the best headline “UNC, Connecticut highlight NIT fields”. Stuff like that can really carry a guy through a Monday. Have fun in the NIT. Duke will have a tough matchup in the second round with a good Louisville team that has beat Syracuse twice this year. If they can get past L’ville I think Duke has a good chance of making it to the elite eight or final four. I think Duke was deserving of the #3 seed considering Syracuse lost their last two games; however, I think it could have went either way with the 3rd or 4th #1 seeds. KU got a tough draw in their region with very good teams and some All-Americans that could carry their teams far. Duke has the best region for any #1 seed to make it to the final four. I just hope they play well and can make a run.

-Paul, representing Syracuse


I think Syracuse is the most talented team in the tournament. They have an excellent frontcourt transition. If Syracuse comes to play I think they can beat any team right now. The very concerning thing to me is the injury to Onuaku. Hopefully Syracuse will be able to come together without Onuaku. Another thing is Syracuse's 2-3 zone defense. They have always been using this defense, but this year they are really shutting out the offenses of other teams. I think by utilizing the 2-3 zone, and with their transition offense, they will have a good chance of winning the tournament.

(Back story on Paul: he never followed college basketball until he moved in with me freshman year, when he realized it was gonna be a looooong six months of watching college basketball unless he had a horse in the race. So since he already owned a couple Syracuse shirts from relatives from that area, he chose The Cuse as his team. One year later, he was rewarded for all his dedication with a championship (beating KU in the title game, no less.) I think he was excited for a solid 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, I skipped my classes for three days so I didn't have to interact with any human beings. Shortly thereafter, Paul stopped following basketball again. Then when we met in Colorado last month, with Syracuse ranked #3, all of a sudden this kid is busting out his Syracuse t-shirts, and texting me the morning of big games. Hilarious. I may still be a little bitter about the events of 2003. Just a little bit.)


-DH, representing Kentucky

Don't you just love it when the whole world hates your coach? I've listened to everybody in Kansas hate on my team for the past 10 months now, but it will all be worth it when John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, and the Big Blue are cutting down the nets in a few short weeks. Everyone says they can't handle the pressure of a close game in March. Hmmm, did anyone watch the SEC Championship? I'd say they handled that nail-biter pretty well. Everyone says Calipari can't win a championship with his dribble-drive offense. Well, Coach Cal has never had a point guard as good as John Wall. Yes, he's better than Derrick Rose. This team can run, rebound, and play defense as well as anyone in the country. And the 3-point shooting will be there when we need it. Everyone in Lawrence talks about how they want a rematch with Calipari in the championship game. Well guess what? The Big Blue Nation wants that rematch too. Jum, after listening to all your hating on Calipari, I'm never gonna let you forget about it when the Wildcats are clipping the nets and your boy Brady is crying in the locker room. Pussy.

And now for a special section from some North Carolina fans.

First off, Horp:

For a team that wins it all and then falls off the face of basketball, it was like the Japs bombing Pearl Harbor. A complete suprise. I was sleeping on an early Sunday morning looking forward to a little R&R and all of a sudden Kamikazes are hitting my snooze button. They are not a good team. Too young, too weak, too everything that makes a team rebuild. It was hard to watch a game. Even at the beginning of the season when people thought they were good, you could just see Roy would not be crying at the end of the year because of a suprise loss. I will maybe pay attention to the NIT, but unlike JonJon, that is not the tourney I'm use to being in (zing.)

I am really looking forward to the tourney though. Like every year, it's my favorite time of year (since the parents went skimpy on the presents at X-mas a few years running.) I was thinking of taking a few days off from work to watch games..... but I probably won't. Just a few movie days for the kids instead.


-Bergman:

eff you.


-Fundy:

2009-2010 University of North Carolina Tar Heels Season in Recap:

5 Reasons that they sucked:

#1- No Leadership- I hope I don't ever have to see Deon Thompson in another UNC jersey. The entire season it looked like he was just going through the motions and didn't give a shit about leading a young team.

#2- No Heart- When you're getting out rebounded by Brian Zoubek (who shouldn't even receive a scholarship to UND) and get destroyed in a rivalry game that is usually close no matter how shitty the other team is, you have no heart to even put on a UNC jersey.

#3- No Big Time Shot Maker-As I said at the beginning of the season, what is going to hurt them is they have no guy who can make a big shot when they needed it.

#4- No Point guard to run with- Larry Drew II just wasn't that great of a ball handler to run with a young team. Roy should've slowed it down this year a little and worked more on the half court sets and worked it into the big guys.

#5-INJURIES- its hard to be a good team when you have three guys hurt every game. This lead to no chemistry within the team and a bad season.

This season was a hard and long one for me to watch. A lot of things went wrong but watch out for John Henson next year! Wait till this off season when he puts on 20 lbs of muscle and becomes a force inside. Roy finally gave him minutes mid-way through the season and showed what he can do. His only weakness was his strength. Tar Heels will be back in the 2010 as one of the top teams in the nation. Slam Jam Bam!

********************

As for me, for only the third time in my life, I'm picking KU to go all the way.....even though there's like six different teams in just the Midwest region alone who are more than capable of knocking them off. Screw it, they've been eeking their way through games against good teams all year, no need to change now. Final Four of KU, Syracuse, West Virginia, Baylor. Elite 8 of those four, plus Georgetown, Kansas State, Temple, and Duke.

Tomorrow is the greatest day of the year. Enjoy it.