Clank....Clank....Clank
Posted March 25, 2007, 10:07 PM ET

We're down to the Final Four, and my bracket doesn't look too bad...I had Georgetown, UCLA and Florida making it to Atlanta, but those A&M Aggies let me down from making it a clean sweep.

The regional finals were anticlimactic until the Tar Heels reached into their bag of tricks and decided to choke away their invitation down the Dixie Highway to Hotlanta. The loss by UNC means that the ACC stays home from the Final Four for the second consecutive year....and that's the first back-to-back no-show for the league since 1980.

The Tar Heels were simply pathetic in crunch time on Sunday. In the final 12 minutes of regulation time and for another 5 minutes in OT, the Heels were 3 of 26 from the field. It was a total team collapse...from the players to Ol' Roy, himself. It seemed like a game of which UNC was in command, but the Hoyas proved that they were tougher mentally and physically. Players, coaches and fans don't like to hear that about their own, but North Carolina turned to Jell-O when it mattered the most.

The old man, Billy Packer, made reference to Reyshawn Terry as being "soft" during an earlier radio interview in New York. Terry responded by saying "Anybody that thinks I'm soft doesn't know sh%t about basketball....I will say if Billy Packer played in my day, I would beat his ass. It would be a massacre."

After watching Terry fire away with a 4-13 performance from the field, including a stellar 0-5 from the field in OT, he might be lucky that Billy didn't lace up his Chuck Taylors and bring his old Wake Forest garb out of mothballs. For the record: while I think Billy has lost his mind, I haven't seen Terry beat anybody's ass during his four years in Chapel Hill.

There's no other way to describe the choke job. The double-digit lead with 7 minutes to go was enhanced by an amazing discrepancy from the FT line, too. In the first 40 minutes of play, the Heels had outshot the Hoyas from the line by a 32-9 margin. In OT, the Hoyas had a 9-2 edge. But those numbers pale in comparison to the edge that Georgetown had over UNC when they finally grabbed the lead in the extra session. You could feel it while sitting at home watching it on the tube, and I'm sure Roy Williams and his staff could feel it while sitting on the bench, too.

This is a very young UNC team, and depending on the early departures (if any) to the NBA, Roy's boys will be in great shape next season to make another title run. I believe they have replaced Duke on top of the ACC food chain, and until somebody can match the talent level in Chapel Hill, the Heels are in position to make a Duke-like run in the conference. Unfortunately, the ACC finds itself on equal footing with a number of conferences from around the country...and in some cases, playing catch-up. The days of domination are over, and the past two years prove the point.

So, where does this leave the ACC? The answer is simple...at home....watching the Clemson Tigers try to win the NIT. And if you can't stomach watching the play from Madison Square Garden, then I'm sure the Big East, Big Ten, Pac 10 and the SEC would have no problem if you wanted to sneak a peek at the Semifinal games on Saturday.

While the Heels were in free-fall, the other end of the sports spectrum had Tiger Woods closing the door and winning again as a perfect tune-up for next week's Masters at Augusta.

Tiger has now won the 31 consecutive PGA Tour events which he has led heading into the final round. That's a great tribute to his incredible play and to the gutless, spineless efforts of the rest of the PGA Tour. Does anybody have the Titleists to step up at least once and take this guy on when it matters on a Sunday back nine? It certainly doesn't appear so.

I read earlier in the week that in the 33 times Woods has finished outside of the Top 20 in Tour events, he has won the next tournament 12 times. That's insane. I guess the rest of the world will just roll over and play dead when Tiger shows up.

I found a great quote from current US Open champ Geoff Ogilvy. The Australian said: "He's good on bermuda, good in the wind, good in no wind, he's good on bent grass....he's a good player." Really? So, you think he's a good player? If Tiger is a good player, then how would you describe the rest of the Tour players? Does the word "hack" mean anything to you and the rest of the PGA Tour?