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I grew up in NC and my dad went to Chapel Hill, so I've been a Tarheel fan my whole life. I can understand a lot of the resentment around how the elite ACC teams are treated by the media, but I look at this particular UNC team a little differently than years past. They're young, athletically talented, but are coming off a year where they didn't make the Dance and were relegated to the NIT. They were picked in preseason polls to finish behind Duke and VT, which is of course a bit of a slap in the face for their tradition. They played crappy at the beginning of the season and came on stronger as the year wore on.
Not saying there are direct parallels, but the Buffs can look at where they are this year and see the potential of a young team building on a deep NIT run & taking that into the next season. I don't see near the arrogance on this UNC squad as I've seen in others, because last year was pretty humbling (Carolina fans' arrogance is another story). Now, the Buffs don't have near the talent pipeline that UNC does, but I can see Boyle showing his guys the path Carolina took from last year to this year and saying, "you guys are young, but capable of using the NIT to make a lot of noise next year." I know that's where any parallels end; because they also have world class facilities and a dedicated fan base in which men's bball supersedes all other sports by a wide margin. But the Buffs also showed they can play with anybody.
As for Carolina's run- Carolina earned a #2 seed with its wins in the last few months and the regular season ACC title; and the fact that they had a relatively easy path thus far is a function of having a good seed...as it should be. Can't fault the committee or media bias for that - the other 2 seeds played close by as well; Florida in Tampa, ND in Chicago, and SDSU in Tuscon. Those sites were selected long before the field was set, and they're all within a few hours. They got no easier a bracket than any other seed. I think a lot of folks picked WA to upset UNC; and they probably should have. I'd argue that Florida had the easiest path by far - an overrated BYU team that slightly over-performed in the Tourney and a marginal UCLA team were the strongest in their group.
As an overall #1 seed, OSU got screwed versus Kansas' bracket. No matter how young they are, having UNC and Kentucky in your bracket is always dangerous purely because of talent. Two HOF coaches and top 10 recruiting classes. KU's next 4 tops seeds were ****e - ND was schizophrenic & Purdue was suspect. I thought Louisville was the most dangerous team in their bracket & I picked them over KU for the Final Four slot. BUST.
I think Kentucky will take down UNC - their play has been just too inconsistent this year and they've barely survived too many games in the last few months. Unfortunately, this looks like KU's year again.
BTW- I'll always follow ACC basketball & root for the Tarheels; but if Carolina and the Buffs were to play, I'd be cheering for CU. Definitely my alma mater over my dad's.....
Marshall (UNC) only scores 6 ppg (to Nate's 3 ppg), but of course he has a deep selection of scorers to dish to; plus the speed and driving ability that Nate doesn't. Marshall is no Lawson, that's for sure; at least in his freshman year. I still don't see him a 10+ ppg score as an upperclassman; mostly because UNC can always find extraordinary players at all other positions. But yeah, he's more of a threat; even if he doesn't rack up the totals - his assists per game also double that of Nate's. But Nate's a statistically better 3pt shooter.
FiFY
