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Olympic Fan
01-30-2012, 05:08 PM
FWIW (and that's not much), Lunardi has moved Duke back to the No. 1 line in his latest bracketology -- along with Kentucky, Syracuse and Ohio State. He had Baylor, UNC, Kansas and Missouri as the No. 2 seeds. He has four ACC teams in the field -- and N.C. State is along his first four teams out.

Interesting take -- and sure to generate outrage at a lot of places (indeed, the only reason I like this is the anticipated gnashing of teeth in Chapel Hill).

The two polls are interesting -- there's once again a huge disconnect between Duke in the writers' minds and in the coaches' minds. The AP (writer's) poll has No. 5 UNC, No. 6 Baylor and No. 7 Duke. But the coaches have No. 5 Duke, and tie at No. 6 between UNC and Baylor.

Virginia is at No. 16 in he AP and No. 18 in the Coaches; Florida State is No. 21 in the AP and No. 24 in the Coaches.

No other ACC team got a single vote.

COYS
01-31-2012, 10:17 AM
FWIW (and that's not much), Lunardi has moved Duke back to the No. 1 line in his latest bracketology -- along with Kentucky, Syracuse and Ohio State. He had Baylor, UNC, Kansas and Missouri as the No. 2 seeds. He has four ACC teams in the field -- and N.C. State is along his first four teams out.

Interesting take -- and sure to generate outrage at a lot of places (indeed, the only reason I like this is the anticipated gnashing of teeth in Chapel Hill).

The two polls are interesting -- there's once again a huge disconnect between Duke in the writers' minds and in the coaches' minds. The AP (writer's) poll has No. 5 UNC, No. 6 Baylor and No. 7 Duke. But the coaches have No. 5 Duke, and tie at No. 6 between UNC and Baylor.

Virginia is at No. 16 in he AP and No. 18 in the Coaches; Florida State is No. 21 in the AP and No. 24 in the Coaches.

No other ACC team got a single vote.

Thanks for sharing, OlyFan. As much hand-wringing as we have been doing about the team's long-term prospects, it's worth noting how good our wins against Kansas and Michigan St. look. I know those games will have been a season ago by all practical measures when the tournament begins, but those are some seriously big wins. Kansas has been as high as number 2 on KenPom (although they are now at number 4) while Michigan St. sits at number 5. Regardless of how we feel about how well the team is playing as a whole or what the prospects are for a tourney run, if the tournament started today, we would have earned that number 1 seed. Now, let's hope we can put it all together and play like a number 1 seed the rest of the regular season.

JasonEvans
01-31-2012, 10:36 AM
Lunardi makes a point of saying that he does not believe Duke is the fourth best team in the country. However, he says our resume (RPI, SOS, non-conf SOS) makes a very clear case for us as a #1 seed.

He goes on to say that he expects one of the Big 12 schools (Kansas, Baylor, Mizzu) or UNC to eventually pass us as a #1 seed, but for now... we are it.

-Jason "#1, #2, #3... you still gotta beat the teams you face" Evans

Olympic Fan
01-31-2012, 11:11 AM
Jerry Palm, who is probably a better bracketologist than Lunardi (I know that's not saying much) has Duke as a No. 2 seed. He gives Baylor the othr No. 1.

It really doesn't matter a lot -- in fact, I might rather be the No. 2 seed in the South as Palm has us (and get to play our regional in Atlanta) than No. 1 in the West as Lunardi has us (having to play the regional in Phoenix).

What is important is to be a top seed -- at least a 2, although maybe a 3 will work -- to get to play the first two games in Greensboro. Duke almost never loses an NCAA game in-state (32-4 alltime), especially in the early rounds (31-2 ... the only losses in the first two rounds were 1997 in Charlotte and 1979 in Raleigh). With the pod system, the top two seeds closest to Greensboro get those spots. UNC and Duke seem the most logical, but if Duke slipped behind, say, Virginia, that could cost us a spot in Greensboro.

That's the only thing I'm focused on now when it comes to an NCAA spot.

Turk
01-31-2012, 09:40 PM
The two polls are interesting -- there's once again a huge disconnect between Duke in the writers' minds and in the coaches' minds. The AP (writer's) poll has No. 5 UNC, No. 6 Baylor and No. 7 Duke. But the coaches have No. 5 Duke, and tie at No. 6 between UNC and Baylor.



I dunno, Oly, flipping 5, 6, and 7 doesn't seem that huge of a disconnect to me. Those are 2 seeds no matter how you slice 'em. And the polls have nothing to do with bracketology anyway, since they're easy to skew (hah!) and often dead wrong, tending to favor overexposed BCS schools that have built their record on cannon fodder...