Selection Sunday
Terrific day for sports fans who have working cable (sorry, Huntersdad), with Miami and UNC playing in the ACC title game and the Cup series competing in Bristol this afternoon. Other highlights include the SEC title game (Ole Miss-Florida) at 1 p.m., the A-10 championship (VCU-Saint Louis) at 1 and the Big Ten championship (Wisconsin-Ohio State) at 3:30.
Of course, it all culminates with the NCAA tournament selection show at 6 p.m. on WDBJ. Always a little taste of Christmas in March.
March 17, 2013 - 9:37 AM
Hey Aaron. You did good with that Duke article that caused the mail bag response claiming unprofessionalism. I know you “can’t please them all”.
I am watching the ACC championship and the announcer bias toward Carolina is so obvious. It just reminded me that your article really just served as a counter point to most media “pro-Duke & “pro-UNC” basketball.
Thanks.
From a UNC fan to Miami fans, congratulation! It was one of the most entertaining tournament I have witnessed, and an excellent championship game. I tip my hat to all of you.
UNC’s defense, which has been their Achilles’ heel all season long, finally caught up with them. I don’t understand why Roy didn’t go to zone more often. McAdoo is a terrible defender and an average post player. My advice to McAdoo is to work on adding muscles to his frame and work on his low post game which is laughable right now.
Miami, as David Teel noted, can make a deep run to the Final Four. And Miami has a coach who have been there before.
Any Hokies fans gritting their teeth and wishing Weaver had not been so cheap and missed out on hiring Miami’s coach?
Sorry about the hurricane that went through North Crylina . I understand it blew away their basketball team.
everyone seems to give weaver a hard time about the basketball team but i wonder how many hookie football fans actually cheer and support vt basketball. seems like most are tarheel or blue devil basketball fans. maybe they only cheer for teams that normally win.
Don…10 points loss to Miami is a blow out? 10…points? I’m laughing at you.
Memo to Al Golden:
The basketball team won an ACC title before your football team could win one in the short time it has been an ACC member. Think about that, coach. The football team was expected to start competing for the ACC crown on a regular basis with Florida State. Instead, it is the basketball team winning its first ever ACC title in school history. What does your football program have to do to win its ACC title? The ante have been upped for you, coach.
Time to pony up and put on the big boys pant.
No Trevor you are crying!!!
#4 sportnut While you may have a point, folks like I, who went to VT, usually follow as many Hokie sports as we can, supporting them as we are able. I know a bunch of folks who support Tech b’ball who did and didn’t go to Tech, but I also was around to watch VT football haul in fans from all over. Many of those football fans had no other tie to the University and continued previous allegiance to previous preferences in other sports. Mr. Weaver has quite simply made untenable decisions in regards to the VT b’ball programs and supporters and mere observers are calling him out on it. Simple as that.
Aaron – Duke article – With 5 sports writers and one for VT Football (I have never seen him write anything about VT baseball, soccer, lacrosse) It appeared to me you was looking for a space filler. It is hard to argue against success.
Actually, sportnut, I cheer for the team playing the hoos !!!!!!!!!!! You have a 100 million dollar arena and a big time singing coach ( I left my heart in San Francisco ) but an average basketball team.
UVA, Tenn, and Maryland get left out while St. Mary’s and Middle Tenn get in. St Mary’s beat nobody.
Thanks for the sympathy AMac, but through the wonders of modern technology (I guess) the cable company was able to restore full signal to our neighborhood. I did manage to take in the ACC final today without aggravating three minute blackouts.
Speaking of the ACC game…Trevor, your Tarheels came up short today, but I wouldn’t want to have to face them in the big dance. They may not be what they have been in the past, but they looked pretty strong against the Canes and after all, they are The Tarheels……always talented, well coached and tough to beat every time they step on the court. Was a close and entertaining final to watch today.
Is it just me, or did the ACC take a slap in the face with Miami’s # 2 seeding to Indiana getting the top spot in the South? And I know I’m heavily biased against them, but Puke as a #2 also? Really? The same Duke team that got bounced early by Maryland, who got beat twice by a UVa team that didn’t even make the show? (Told you so Hokiehater) ? I think making Indiana a 1 seed over the Canes is gonna motivate them in a way that’s gonna make them even tougher to beat….at least it should.
Man, I love the excitement and anticipation that comes with March Madness! When is college football gonna pick up on that and go with a Sweet Sixteen?
Nice to see somebody other than Duke or UNC win the ACC Championship in Basketball. Nicley done Miami. You should have been a number 1 seed in the Big Dance representing the ACC.And UVA fans, VT fans know the feeling of the NIT bridesmaid drama-Greenberg landed there 5 of 9 years @ VT and had a football AD that accepted it for far too long.
I love the bandwagon Duke fans who pretend condescension while crying like Coach K because their opponent’s fan base doesn’t lick their boots. The funniest part of Duke getting punked by Miami was the wailing you heard from all those wannabe Dukies who never could even spend enough money to send in a college application to Durham, much less endure the humiliation of having it rejected.
Here they are, coming all (what they think is) strong, trying to lie their way into people thinking they actually went there. They are so quaint…
#11 Drew, I don’t know about St. Marys. Maybe they beat nobody. I don’t know. I do know that UVa’s well publicized problem was that they DIDN’T beat the nobodies on their schedule. They had more embarrassing losses that should have been convincing wins over much weaker teams – than they had upset victories over well established teams. They didn’t deserve a bid, regardless of conference affiliation.
CR, you stole my point. UVA: you want to make the NCAA…it’s quite simple. Win your games. Don’t lose to ODU. Don’t lose to Delaware. Don’t go 3-10 away from the JPJ. Take care of your own business first…don’t count on the selection committee overlooking the ugliness you’ve ammassed…they’re not that dumb.
I was afraid Virginia had played itself out of the NIT…cr, oj, you’re exactly right. Gotta win the ones you’re supposed to win.
Lost in all this was that this was still a young team, picked to finish 7th. They played a lot of freshmen (who seemed to fade as the season wore on), Evans is the only significant loss for next season. They have Anthony Gill transferring, Malcolm Brogdon returning from injury, all those freshmen with another year of experience, Harris and Mitchell returning, and two freshmen point guards for next year.
The point being that they should be rightfully disappointed that they didn’t earn an NCAA bid, but they did exceed most expectations, and things look good for next year.
Gongaza as the #1 seed and Indiana as the other #1 seed seem to have some folks with their panties in a bunch. It’s hard to argue against Indiana but I can see some points made about Gongaza. Miami does deserves the #1 seed but John Swofford didn’t do a good job of campigaining for the ACC.
Duke in as #2 is pure BS. UNC lasted longer than Duke in the tournament and that should have counted for something, but according to the selection committee, Duke had the #1 SOS and RPI, and that was enough to warrant them the highest seed in the Midwest region. Meanwhile, UNC could face an early ejection from the tournament courtesy of Bill Self’s Jayhawks.
Looking at the brackets, the South Region is murderer row with Midwest as a close second, and the East is as easy as a walk in the park.
No tournament is without flaw and this year is no exception. Oregon? The staggering number from the Big Least (8!) pretty shows how lopsided the perception from the selection committee are.
#2 Trev, as to the last question in your post, my answer is – no gritting of my teeth. Instead, I’m happy for Larranaga for unknowingly avoiding this tiger cage that is Hokie basketball. If Larranaga had come in here, with Weaver lowballing him on contract and funding for staff and travel budget and, and, and… he’d likely go 18-12, make the NIT & people would yawn and think, ‘Why’d we fire the other guy?’
Instead, he went somewhere that made a commitment, and the result is what we see. Good for him in making a late career move that has worked out well. I expect that this strong season will help him recruit well to a great locale for a university, and also that the Miami AD will be more likely to invest even more, now that the possible results can be seen.
Contrast that with VT, and you can see why I’m happy for Larranaga in going there.
#18 Trev, my theory is that the selection committee bowed to Duke and dropped Miami down to a #2 seed, bumped up Duke, so that K’s ego could be salved. Duke, ranked behind Miami in ACC regular season, but still rated higher in the polls. Duke losing their first ACC tourney game with Miami winning the conference tourney, yet receiving the same seeding for the NCAA.
I’m following up on the argument Jay Bilas was making. Who did you play and beat? UVA has more TOP 50 RPI wins than St. Mary’s, Lasalle, and MTSU combined. No sense that the Pac 12, A10, and MWC got all those bids.