Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Wednesday 01/28 A.M. Quickie:
Wake, Duke, Media Day, Cavs, A-Rod, More

So Media Day was sort of a dud, I think.

I have been very excited about Wake-Duke tonight. Then I had a standard reality check: College basketball regular season games -- these "Game of the Year" candidates -- are entirely overrated.

So Duke wins? So Duke loses? So what? Everything in college basketball is back-loaded to the NCAA Tournament. If you are a "national" contender, it's all how you do in late March.

Duke's No. 1 ranking this week? A win over Wake? An ACC title? Hell, even a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament? Meaningless, unless Duke wins the national title.

(It's a bit more complicated for Duke: They have been so awful the last few Tournaments that even a Final Four appearance would be some kind of validation.)

Anyway, as I said in today's SN column, I'll definitely watch the game tonight -- but, as with every game I watch during CBB's regular season, it's with one eye on the TV and another on my bracket in March.

Complete SN column here. More later, although the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the Super Bowl are traditionally some of the slowest days of the sports year.

-- D.S.

1 comment:

james said...

"Everything in college basketball is back-loaded to the NCAA Tournament. If you are a "national" contender, it's all how you do in late March."


Yes and no. I think the argument of "it doesn't matter 'til March" is usually only uttered after your nationally ranked team goes down. With all the tradition, the passion, the amazing match-ups -- it DOES matter. No, it doesn't matter AS MUCH as in March, but don't tell that to either Duke or Wake before tonight's game. And especially in a Tobacco Road matchup, you can't just discard the game as a filler before the tourney. These games might not matter to you, but to the students watching this is their whole life for two + hours -- and that means SOMETHING.