Some observations from the Sweet-16, Elite-8 weekend of the 2005 NCAA tournament:

• I’m an ACC fan, but basically I have to admit that the Big-10 waxed them when it really counted.  Of course the ACC has won the December show-downs every year they’ve had it, which is like winning during the NFL pre-season.
• I don’t think the Big-10’s success is a coincidence.  In general the Big-10 teams played with more deliberate offensive schemes and their defenses held up well against the superior offensive talent of their opponents.  This was very clear in clutch situations when teams like Duke, NC State and Arizona resorted to one-on-one clear outs while the Big-10 teams all seemed to have the ability to stay in their offense no matter what the situation.
• Word Association: West Virginia – Minor Choke; Arizona – Garphrezaaakerageckaaaaaack!
• Is it easier to count the number of games that DIDN’T go to overtime this year?

Hopefully the final four will live up to this last weekend, but unfortunately that usually doesn’t happen.  Good regionals=lame final four.  Fire up the TIVO!

Okay, I had to put my most general NCAA tournament prediction somewhere so I can either gloat in three weeks or take my punishment.  Please note that I’m making this at least six hours before the selection show, but I don’t think it matters.  Here goes:

The ACC will not get a team into the Final Four.  The prudent thing to say, and what the logical part of my brain is saying, is that only one ACC team will get there.  But I have a gut feeling that none will get there.  And if one does?  It won’t be Wake, UNC or Duke.  My money would be on Georgia Tech.

Okay it’s official.

As I mentioned in a comment on Patrick Eakes’ post about Chris Paul’s low blow to Julius Hodge in the Wake-NC State game last night, I thought that Mr. Paul deserved a one game suspension from the coach regardless of what the ACC decided to do.

According to the W-S Journal that’s just what he got.  (Here’s the statement on Wake’s website).

My compliments to the folks at Wake, and my sincere hope that Mr. Paul learns a valuable lesson from this.  By all accounts he’s the kind of kid that will, and from what I’ve heard about his family the suspension is probably the gentlest lesson he’s going to get from the people that matter to him!

Thanks to the miracle of Tivo I’m in the middle of watching Wake Forest play NC State about two hours after the live action.  This after watching the North Carolina-Duke game thanks to the same Tivo miracle.

Sidebar: Life is definitely good when you can take your wife out for your 13th anniversary and still get to satisfy your basketball jones.  My eternal gratitude to whoever invented the DVR.  And I got to play an 1 1/2 hours of my own b-ball at the Y earlier today!

My keen analysis of these games?  All of the ACC basketball refs had to have come down with the flu and had the football officials sub for them.  I swear I haven’t seen so many bodies on the deck in years.

To make matters worse the whistles are very inconsistent.  Guys are mugging each other with no call and then their blown for a hand check.

Still with all that the Duke-NC game was fantastic. I don’t know if Duke choked or Carolina choked them.

I’m at about 13:00 left in the NC State-Wake game and ugly doesn’t even begin to describe it.  More on that later.

Update:  4:16 left in the game.  Wake is playing like crap, but I’m telling you that State is getting some home cooking from the refs.  It isn’t deciding the game because State is shooting less than 50% from the free throw line. Ugly.

Of course I think Chris Paul brought it on the Deacs when he gave Julius Hodge a pop in his Julius early in the game.  Also, Wake got its fair share of home cooking more than a few times this season in Winston-Salem.

Update #2: 26 seconds left.  Refs just fell for the oldest trick in the book.  State’s Evtimov pulled a flop and pulled Wake’s Williams with him, and they call it a charge.  Geez.

Update #3: Holy cow!  Justin Gray hits a 3-pointer from somewhere in downtown Raleigh with a hand in his face and with 12.8 seconds left to tie the game at 53, then gets back to defend the three point attempt by Ansur to cause an air ball.  (Okay he fouled the guy and the refs reviewed the replay and gave the Deacs an extra .4 seconds; so much for home cooking). 

Wake gets the ball with 4.2 seconds left, and Chris Paul goes the length of the court and hits a running one hander from 12 feet to the right of the lane.  The kid played and pretty horrible game, but man did he come through.

Wow!

Last note:  Check out Patrick Eakes’ post about Wake Forest and Chris Paul.  I commented and generally agree with him.