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Trying
to Save Face The Sweet 16 is set, and the overhyped ACC is down to one team...North Carolina. All season long, coaches like Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Maryland's Gary Williams whined about how the conference was disrespected by the NCAA basketball decision-makers. Late into the season, Coach K even had the audacity to claim that the league deserved 9 teams in the Big Dance....I assumed Duke was one of them. There's nothing wrong in promoting your team or your league, but this year, the committee listened to the incessant complaining and gave the ACC an all-time record seven teams in the NCAA Tourney. It didn't take long for the pretenders to go home, and - unfortunately for the ACC - that included Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech. These six teams produced a grand total of four wins. Please pick up your parting gifts at the door. If it wasn't for the always-pathetic Big Ten representing two of the ACC's four tournament wins, it could have really been embarrassing for the "Nation's #1 Basketball Conference". At least the ACC can always count on the Big Ten to help elevate their basketball esteem, not to mention their over-inflated RPI. Not only does the ACC own the Big Ten in this tourney, but they've also never lost to them in the ACC-Big Ten "Challenge". The Big Ten even gets bitch-slapped in the NIT by the ACC, to the extent that Michigan fired Tommy Amaker after their loss to Florida State. More about that later. So, it is the Tar Heels that have to carry the conference banner and pride, heading into the next round of the NCAA Tournament. Up next is Southern Cal, and if the Heels survive, they face the winner of the Georgetown-Vandy game in East Rutherford, New Jersey. If UNC fails to win the East Regional and make it to Atlanta, it will be the first time the conference has failed to make it to the Final Four in back-to-back seasons since 1980. As for the remaining 16 teams, my bracket doesn't look too bad. All four of my Final Four teams are still alive...barely. I still have Florida, UCLA, Georgetown and Texas A&M alive and kicking. The games this week should be awesome, and nothing should shock you at this point. Without a double-digit seed remaining, only Vandy or UNLV can be looked upon as a "Cinderella Story", but even in those cases, that's a stretch. I can't wait to see how it unfolds this week. I mentioned earlier that Michigan fired Tommy Amaker after the Wolverines were eliminated by FSU in the NIT. The former Duke assistant now joins the rest of Coach K's legion of underachieving coaches...Where is Pete Gaudet when you need him? Tommy Amaker joins the Duke coaching disasters like Quinn Snyder and Dave Henderson. The K Coaching Tree (if you want to call it a tree...it looks more like tumbleweed) now consists of Jeff Caple (Oklahoma) and Mike Brey (Notre Dame). Anybody in the mood to hire Johnny Dawkins or Wojo? I didn't think so....how about Cris Collins? How about it if I throw in a State Farm Insurance policy and a gold American Express Card? As I was watching the finale of the Nextel Cup race in Atlanta, I couldn't help but wonder how the big-wig executives at Atlanta-based Home Depot enjoyed watching their driver and car get passed by Jimmie Johnson and the Lowe's car on the final laps? Somehow, I bet the guys at Lowe's were high-fiving as their guy took the checkered flag. Speaking of NASCAR, I need to update the standings after the race in Hot-lanta. Part-time driver Mark Martin still has the points lead, with 629 points. Martin will give up the lead after the race this upcoming week in Bristol, since he has decided not to race a full-season schedule. Behind Martin, the standings look like this: Jeff Gordon is second, followed by Jeff Burton and then Jimmie Johnson. But if you look down the standings, it looks like this:
I'm off to a slow start, but I do take some pride in knowing that I'm still 27 points ahead of the face of Toyota's NASCAR presence after four races this year. I know that Toyota has spent tens of millions of dollars on Waltrip, but I'm feeling good so far, knowing that - other than filling up the tank of my Ford F-150 pickup - I've been able to stay in front of Waltrip in the standings. It might be tough to hold him off all year, but considering my budget compared to what Toyota has spent on Buffy's husband, I feel like I'm getting a decent return on my investment. We'll see how qualifying goes this weekend in Bristol. I couldn't help but laugh, when I read that the Worldwide Leader of Sports, HYPE, announced that they plan on covering the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" Championships. I don't know what is worse: the fact that ESPN is going to televise this event, or my amazement that there is an actual "Rock, Paper, Scissors" League. Either way, nobody on the planet promotes the grade school game better than ESPN-Unavailable.
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Packman
on Sports Commentary
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