The Day of Reckoning is Here

NC State continued to make it look like 1997 yesterday. In 1997, State won what was then the only Thursday game, the "play in game" between the 8 & 9 seeds, then beat top seeded Duke on its way to play on Sunday for the automatic bid from the conference. Herb Sendek's crew played with the same slow down style that this year's team does. This team has two weapons that the '97 team, which came up short against Carolina in the Sunday final, did not. They have Engin Atsur and the big red jacket. Unfortunately, while the jacket will be at 100% for the game Sunday, it looks like Atsur really hurt his hamstring on Saturday, which will make a very difficult task of winning four games in four days with no depth (against a deep UNC team that has played one less game) just about impossible.

Either way, it has been one great run for the Wolfpack, a team that may have gotten an at large bid if not for the 12 games Atsur missed with the same hamstring. You can rest assured everybody in the country outside of Raleigh will be rooting for the Tar Heels to run them out of the gym and keep them from stealing what is an increasingly precious at large spot.

Same goes for the Arkansas v. Florida match-up in the SEC. All the bubble teams will be rooting for a Gator win, although Arkansas can at least consider itself one of the teams competing for an at large even if they were to lose today. I guess the folks in the Razorback administration better put that Stan Heath buyout package on ice for a while....

Akron will not be dancing this year, despite the fact that they had the talent to make a legit Sweet 16 run. They really have no one to blame but themselves, as they had a comfortable 5-8 point lead throughout the whole MAC Final, and then they really puckered up down the stretched and played scared. The fact that the Redhawks of Miami (OH) won on a miracle shot after Akron missed the front end of a 1-and-1 just makes that loss doubly brutal. Look for the Zips to be one and done in the NIT as that loss will be very difficult to get up from emotionally.

The tournament selection committee must be stressed out this morning, as the #1 seeds and the last teams in all remain up in the air the morning of the bracket unveiling. There has not been this much uncertainty around anything since they tried to figure out who the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is.

Great match ups in the Big 10 and Big 12. I look for Texas to give KU all they can handle and perhaps pull off the outright win, while, despite the 16 straight wins, Wisconsin seems to be playing better ball than the Buckeyes right now, so I will go with the folks from Madison to win in Chicago. Would anyone be surprised if neither of these teams made the even Final 8 by the way?

I will be back later today with my picks for the 65 chosen teams....