Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I Repeat: No. 2 UNC Ain't Going to the Final Four

Like I said yesterday, UNC -- ranked No. 2 or (laughably) No. 1 (from some) -- ain't making the Final Four this season, no matter how much hype they have right now.

Now I have the instant-history evidence to back it up: I just watched them barely beat Winthrop at what was essentially a home game in Charlotte. (Yes, 7 is "barely.")

I'm not dissing Winthrop, a scrappy sub-mid-major, but this is the type of UNC "quality win" to file away for your March predictions.

I appreciate that UNC is young and still learning to incorporate a bevy of sick freshmen, but you'd expect a little more domination from them. Don't let the pro-UNC spin fool you. Foreshadowing...

14 comments:

Christian Thoma said...

Yeah, I take this as seriously as the "Adam Morrison is a bust" post.

MoonHopper said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
MoonHopper said...

(Had to edit a major boo boo)...
I look for any reason to see bad fortunes for just about any team east of the Sierras. Its a product of growing up on the west coast and developing a serious reverse east coast bias anti-virus infection syndrome.

Problem is, most of the time going overboard "supporting" a west coast squad turns out badly. Except for...mostly just UCLA.

That all being said, I agree with DS. UNC is going NOWHERE!! (Thats what he said, right?)

Christian Thoma said...

Somehow I suspect that come March, the only thing anyone will remember about tonight is Oral Roberts beating Kansas.

ryan said...

yeah yeah, it was a little scary, but as posted above, UNC began the 2005 campaign with a loss to a MUCH worse Santa Clara squad. its obvious that defense is what's lacking right now, but a team's defense can improve as they play together and get comfortable around each other, the 2005 squad was maligned for their D, but it came through in the end. point being, UNC has too much talent and too good a coach to be ignored, I'm not saying final four, i'd bank on elite eight as a given and if the ball bounces the right way, they'll be right there.

The Big Picture said...

oral roberts: this year's george mason???

TJ said...

Calm down, Dan. Long season, don't get yourself all worked up about every little thing or youll never make it to the end.

Gary said...

It was more a home game for Winthrop techincally (their campus is only a 30 minute drive from campus) UNC Chapel Hill's campus is over a 2 hour drive

At least it was an exciting early season CBB game when there are too often big time blowouts early.

Jon said...

College is much different than High School, so who knows how those UNC kids are going to do. No matter how good they are they'll still have their ups and downs.

Anyway, when UNC doesn't make it to the Final Four maybe they can meet up with the Gators and watch the games somewhere because your wife's (not yours) team isn't making it either.

Anonymous said...

lol there were far more UNC fans than Winthrop fans..so don't toss that excuse out there.

Call it as it is. Winthrop, a solid team for the last decade, played a good game against UNC, who IS breaking in new players. Winthrop is more experienced, and they used it.
UNC won't be in the Final Four. But this game isn't the reason why.

Mega said...

Personally I cannot wait to see the damage the MVC can cause this year. Who was that schmo from the last tournament that said mid-majors don't belong? Witchita St, Creighton, Southern Ill., Bradley, all these teams can do some serious damage to the "powerhouses".

Go Salukis!

Sean said...

I agree wholeheartedly with Jason from East Lansing.

Had that been Florida, it would have been touted as a great comeback win for the defending champs. Instead, it's Carolina (or Brett Favre or some other Shanoff outcast). So, we get to hear how they don't deserve the hype. Talk about Kansas! They actually lost!! But, of course, we all know that no college bball team goes undefeated so both of those games will be long forgotten whether both teams rebound or bomb.

Please, please, please Dan...try to be a LITTLE unbiased!! I'm tiring of the Florida fball/JAX/Florida bball hype and the constant dissing of alot of other quality sports teams. I guess it was entertaining when it was a team I didn't care about like the Red Sox or Yankess but when you starting dissing a program like Carolina, it gets old VERY QUICKLY. Please show some unbias!!!

Mega said...

In his defense, Mr. Shanoff is a fan, and I don't think he has ever claimed to be unbiased (unlike ESPN). So essentially, he is a fan of his teams and will talk about his teams.

Tino said...

Ugh, what a bad post. Young teams always start out iffy and start to put it together in Feb and March. Predicting the final four in November is an exercise in futility.

Imagine if Shanny's wife went to Duke? He would be even more insufferable.