Who is left to pull for?

[Son of Jarhead]

With all the ACC teams that are worth pulling for out of the NCAA Tourney, Who will you be pulling for?

I'll be pulling for ABC! ... Actually, I'd like to see somebody win it who has never won it before, like Vandy or Butler. Of course, I'd rather we won every year...

Go Duke! Ladies, bring home a championship banner for the rafters at Cameron!

[throatybeard]

Go Duke! Ladies, bring home a championship banner for the rafters at Cameron!

Precisely. I'll be pulling for Duke.

[BlueDevilBaby]

Anyone but Kerlina, FL (no repeat) or Kansas (can't stand their fans). So anyone else will do.

[Son of Jarhead]

I figured that was a given...

... but who are you pulling for in the men's ncaa tourney? (this year) ;-)

I suppose many will not even care about the men's tourney at this point, and I may agree with that, but I just wondered what everyone else thought.

[throatybeard]

For some reason, I find Texas A&M acceptable. Southern Illinois. Memphis is unobjectionable.

I'd pull for Oregon if I didn't hate their football uniforms so much.

[Sir Stealth]

The hardest thing about figuring out who to pull for or against is that sometimes you don't want a team you don't like (e.g. Georgetown) to lose, because even though it would make you happy in the short run you don't want the bracket to open up for a team you really don't like (e.g. UNC) in the long run.

I really don't like Florida and don't want them to repeat, and I also don't like the Big 10 or the Pac 10...or the Big East. I think that my ideal champ at this point is Memphis. I've always had a good time in Memphis. Texas A&M isn't too objectionable, but then you hate to see your school have great teams year after year only to win it all rarely, while one school has a good team one year out of a hundred and wins it all. As a diehard Atlanta Braves fan, I call this Florida Marlins syndrome.

[Duke15304]

A&M is the way to go, i have kind of liked them since i watched them play at kansas earlier this year, and were down 10 most of the game and they came back and won, Billy G is a good coach, seems like a good guy, they have struggled to win in the past, and the kids seem to conduct themselves well, and Acie law is the real deal

[Duvall]

S-o-u-t-h-e-r-n
C-a-l-i-f-o-r-n-i-a

[grossbus]

ABC

(anyone but carolina)

[ChrisP]

I have in-laws with strong ties to SC so I'm pulling for them. After that, I like Kansas. Someone else said that they disliked KU because of their fans. I don't really know any KU fans and it seems like a clean program with good kids. I will absolutely NOT be pulling for TX A&M after seeing the recent piece on HBO's 'Costas Now' about how their athletes pretty much get a pass on the student part of "student-athlete"

[rthomas]

I am pulling for WVU in the NIT.

WVU plays NCSt Tuesday at 9PM. WVU beat them in December but they are are different team now. At that time they were without Engin Atsur. Now they have a lot more confidence and are just playing better.

It should be a great game.

[dockfan]

As I pondered today (with some reservations), what about UNLV?

Oh, how times have changed.

[throatybeard]

And don't forget, the Mountaineer women have made round two of the NCAAT.

[throatybeard]

As I pondered today (with some reservations), what about UNLV?

Oh, how times have changed.

I noticed today that the state of Nevada had two teams in the 2nd round of the NCAAT.

That cannot be said for North Carolina, as Davidson and Duke fell in round one, and none of the other non-UNCCH teams made it in the first place.

[Son of Jarhead]

I was thinking:

Rule 1: ABC (Anybody But Carolina!)
Rule 2: No repeats by anybody other than us. (No dancing Gators!)

I'll pull for USC in the short term (see rule 1 above), but I don't want another football school to win it (see rule 2 above & think Florida). As I said earlier, I think I'd like want someone to win it that has never won it before, so maybe Butler. I can't quite pull for So. Ill., though my reason is 25 years old... they pounded my Western Carolina Univ. Catamounts 50-something to 7 in the 1982 I-AA Football Championship game my freshmen year in Cullowhee. We never made it back, & now the Boone Goons have won it twice. Grrrrr! ... Ok, so that's a long time to hold a grudge... I guess I can pull for them, too. If I can't have a cinderella, then I guess I'll go for Memphis over Kansas or Butler in the championship game, with G'town also making the final 4.

GTHC!

Jarhead, this ones for you: I don't give a damn about caro-lina-lina-U, caro-lina-lina-U, caro-lina-lina-U... I don't give a damn about caro-lina-lina-U, 'cause I'm from Duke Uni-vers-ity!

[dukemsu]

As the tournament is basically over for me now that Duke is gone, and MSU is gone, my attention now turns to hoping Carolina is eliminated.

I know, given the way they finished off the Spartans last night, that my hope may be wishful. What's of utmost concern is the way Hans is being officiated. In no way am I saying this cost MSU the game-the Heels are superior in all facets-but there were many times in the game when MSU's player had position or the principal of verticality, and Hans just rammed into him and was rewarded with two free throws. It reminds me a lot of how May was officiated in 2005 and Okafor in 2004. If that continues, UNC will be almost impossible to beat IF they remember to get Hans the ball, since Hans is a very good foul shooter. Not even Horford and Noah of Florida (who are just as good as Hans in my opinion, despite having different sorts of games) get this kind of respect from officials. I don't understand it. The guy's name isn't Alcindor or Jordan.

That said, Carolina still has a couple of weaknesses in my view. They still aren't very consistent in the halfcourt defensively. Seven or eight times in my count they were burned by MSU on a relatively pedestrian backdoor high post play. Georgetown runs these as well and unlike MSU, has multiple players who can finish at the rim. Second, they tend to forget from time to time how efficient a weapon they have in Hans. For about a six minute period in the second half, they fell in love with jump shots. They were rewarded because Terry and Lawson made them, but they might not be so lucky four more times. Hans' strength is the same as Jamison's was-he makes incredibly fast, decisive moves to the basket, and he almost never makes a mistake at the offensive end. USC will probably give them problems for at least a half due to their speed and the fact that Floyd will cook up some pretty interesting stuff this week. He's a very underrated coach who may build a monster at USC.

dukemsu

[crimsonandblue]

Clean? Maybe relatively clean. Our uniforms are generally spotless. We cleaned the outside of our building a couple years ago (build up of black gunk on limestone).

We're currently on probation for some booster-related stuff we should have monitored better, I guess. Oh and there were graduation gifts to players during Roy's tenure.

So, I think we're about as clean, relatively, as the average program and we've got tough and good kids who generally act like adults on the court. So, that's nice.

A&M's a nice story. I can understand liking Southern Illinois, other than the whole, trying to bring Big Televen basketball to the mid majors, only with even lesser athletes so it turns into a bloodbath. But whatever suits you...

[DevilAlumna]

... but I will still cheer for the remaining ACC team. That said, my bracket has G'town advancing through them, so maybe deeper down, I want them to lose?

I totally agree that the Ducks' football uni's eliminate them from contention for further support, and will add that their yellow bball uni's are just gawdawful ugly in hi-def.

What about UCLA? Their game against Indiana was painful (even watching the score ticker at the top of the screen), but they seem pretty tough and gritty.

[_Gary]

I'm falling right in line with many of the other thoughts in this thread. Above all else, my rooting pick has to be ABC. That's a given. Secondly, no repeats! So the blasted Gators have to go down. I don't care to see UCLA win another title, that's for sure. And I don't really care to see any Big East, Big Ten, or SEC team win it all. So my selections are getting thin at this point. On the positive side, I've thrown my support to A&M first and foremost. Seems to be the least egregious. But if they don't win it all, I wouldn't find KU winning to be that bad a thing.

Gary

[npdevil27]

I'm falling right in line with many of the other thoughts in this thread. Above all else, my rooting pick has to be ABC. That's a given. Secondly, no repeats! So the blasted Gators have to go down. I don't care to see UCLA win another title, that's for sure. And I don't really care to see any Big East, Big Ten, or SEC team win it all. So my selections are getting thin at this point. On the positive side, I've thrown my support to A&M first and foremost. Seems to be the least egregious. But if they don't win it all, I wouldn't find KU winning to be that bad a thing.

Gary

I'm actually pulling for the Gators to repeat. It's been long enough since Duke did it, and I think it could actually bring a little bit of positive attention to the Duke program for the first time in a while, in that maybe people would re recognize the accomplishment and just how difficult it was. Plus I just like that team... it's one of the best put together college bball teams I can remember in a long time.

I'd also love to see a Florida/UNC or Kansas/UNC title game, I think both of those would be fantastic.