Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Nobody’s finer than Carolina

I spent the first three days of the NCAA tournament at the Palazzo sports book and had a wonderful time.

The people there were great. They all had questions for me, asking me who I liked. I just told them that the experts are setting the line and that your guess is as good as mine.

I really like North Carolina and I think the Tar Heels will win it. They had 36 wins last season, they returned all five starters and they had the best recruiting class in the land. How can you beat that?

Still, you’ve got to play the games.

Arizona did not surprise me with how it played. What surprised me was how Arizona got into the tournament. At the time, I said there was something shady on that deal, something improper.

No legitimate person could have sat in that room and had their records in front of them and say they deserved a bid.

The Wildcats were 2-9 on the road! Their only two road wins were at Oregon and Oregon State, two of the worst teams in the country. Only two road wins for the season!

And they dropped five of their last six games. There isn’t one person who went into that meeting who could legitimately say they deserve to be in the tournament. That bothered me a lot.

Yet, I think they’re a very talented team. I don’t think there’s any team in the country with three better players at center, forward and point guard.

That’s Jordan Hill, Chase Budinger and Nic Wise. That point guard, Wise, is so underrated. They have two lottery picks in Hill and Budinger, and Wise will play in the NBA.

Usually with three NBA players you got a shot at making it to the Final Four. I thought they’d beat Utah. I didn’t think Utah was that good. Then I certainly thought Arizona would beat Cleveland State.

The biggest disappointment in the whole tournament was Wake Forest, which lost to Cleveland State.

The Demon Deacons just dissipated, completely, from early in the season. They were ranked No. 1. They were great. As the year went on, though, they just got worse. I can’t understand what happened to them.

I think Pitt has the best chance of winning, besides Carolina, but Pitt has been a total disappointment.

I can’t understand it. I don’t think they’re playing with the same passion that they played with during the season. They dominated teams. Now, Pitt isn’t dominating anybody. They were fortunate to win their two games.

But if they play Carolina, I still think Pitt has a good shot at beating the Heels. They could play in one of the national semifinals in Detroit.

Pitt gets Xavier next, and that’ll be a bruiser. I think Pitt will snap out of it. They have to get it together.

I was also very impressed by USC and Western Kentucky. The Trojans didn’t play well most of the season, but they did very well in the Pac-10 tournament, beat Boston College in the NCAAs and lost to Michigan State.

That game against the Spartans was a classic. Two physical teams, and they pounded each other. Michigan State is famous for its aggressiveness and physical play, but ’SC didn’t back down one bit.

They’re a tough-minded team and Tim Floyd, their coach, does a great job getting them to play that way.

Western Kentucky and Gonzaga was a strange game. To me, Gonzaga is the best outside shooting team in the country. They have more shooters than anyone.

But Western Kentucky was hitting tough shot after tough shot. They hung in there the whole time, but they seemed to be playing on borrowed time.

I am heading to Phoenix this weekend for the West Regionals. The National Association of Basketball Coaches called last week and invited me down there, so I’m excited about that.

I’ll write my next piece first thing Thursday and we’ll take a look at the Sweet 16 matchups and other action this weekend.

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