Championship Week!

[pfrduke]

Championship Week* is now upon us with the start of conference tournament play, and the very first game featured free extra basketball with Winthrop beating Radford in overtime. Early tournament play features conferences where not every team qualifies (sorry to the dregs of the Atlantic Sun, Northeast, and Ohio Valley Conferences), games played in home arenas, and the swan song for the WCC's enjoyable stepladder bracket, which involves 5 rounds for 9 teams to play 8 games. Put your thoughts on conference tournament play here.

*Championship Week, like many of ESPN's "weeks" is thirteen days, spanning the start of tournament play today through Selection Sunday.

[hurleyfor3]

*Championship Week, like many of ESPN's "weeks" is thirteen days, spanning the start of tournament play today through Selection Sunday.

In fact espn is referring to "Week 1 of Championship Week" on its website.

[MCFinARL]

In fact espn is referring to "Week 1 of Championship Week" on its website.

All weeks are equal, but some are more equal than others....

[pfrduke]

First titles and first bids to be handed out are decided today. The first team to get into the dance could be Florida-Gulf Coast, victors over the Miami Hurricanes (and vanquished by the Blue Devils) - they take on Mercer in the A-Sun title at noon.

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First titles and first bids to be handed out are decided today. The first team to get into the dance could be Florida-Gulf Coast, victors over the Miami Hurricanes (and vanquished by the Blue Devils) - they take on Mercer in the A-Sun title at noon.

FGCU gets the first bid. In a Six Degrees of Duke connection (other than the victory including a 30-0 run earlier this year), Brett Comer, their point guard played in the backcourt with Austin Rivers at Winter Park High.

[Olympic Fan]

It's always interesting to see how many Duke opponents make it into the field.

Florida Gulf Coast is the first, but they will be joined (for sure) by:

Louisville
Ohio State
VCU
Miami
Miami (because we played them twice)
UNC
UNC
NC State
NC State

Also possible at large:
Kentucky
Minnesota
Temple
Virginia

Also possible as conference winners:
Davidson (the big favorite in the Southern; Elon, which Duke also beat, is the second-best team in the league)
Delaware (second in the CAA)

That could be as many as 16 of our 31 games against NCAA teams ... well, 18 if by some miracle Maryland got a bid. It's a pretty good bet that Maryland will be the only non-NCAA team to beat Duke this season. Of the 13 non-conference teams Duke faced this season, 12 -- all except 5-9 Cornell -- have a winning record in their conference play. THAT is why Duke has the nation's No. 1 RPI.