November 30, 2002

Guess who's back! Back again!: North Carolina beat Stanford for the Owens Corning Preseason NIT title last night in New York, and are now 5-0 on the season, three wins away from matching their win total from last season. Things don't get easier as they play Illinois and Kentucky next week, but Tar Heel confidence is high right about now, especially after knocking off Kansas.

posted by jasonbondshow to basketball at 04:24 PM - 8 comments

And just when I was getting used to the new-look heels, too. Ah, well- should be a fascinating and exciting ACC regular season, similar (in results, if not in depth and experience) to the 1996-1997 classic regular season.

posted by tieguy at 11:24 PM on November 30, 2002

Oh, and FWIW, neither Kansas nor Stanford looked terribly hot. Recent NIT champions, with postseason results:

  • 2001- Syracuse- 2002 runnerup (in the NIT)
  • 2000- Duke- 2001 national champs [I'd forgotten all about that weird temple-twice-in-a-week thing.]
  • 1999- Arizona- #1 seed, upset in second round
  • 1998- UNC- *cough*Weber State*cough*
  • 1997- Kansas- #1 seed, upset in second round
  • 1996- Indiana- #8 seed, upset in first round
  • 1995- Arizona- #3 seed, lose in third round
  • 1994- Ohio- NIT
  • 1993- Kansas- #4 seed, lost in third round
  • 1992- Indiana- #1 seed, upset in fourth round
So... it does look like (judging from recent history) it would seem UNC is destined to do better than last year. It doesn't bode terribly well for making it to the second weekend, though.

posted by tieguy at 11:49 PM on November 30, 2002

And in a final 'ACC RULES' note, the ACC is currently 23-1, including an 8-1 record against other major conferences and a 4-1 record against ranked teams. The only loss is to Indiana, and that by only 7. So, yeah, the ACC is young, but it should be fun. [Sorry for the triple post, it's late and I'm not terribly coherent today :)

posted by tieguy at 12:00 AM on December 01, 2002

I doubt that Carolina has the talent to win the NCAA's this year, but they did look impressive this past week. It makes my pick of third in the ACC for the Heels more sound. Especially if the Heels knock off either Illinois or Kentucky this coming week. If they beat both, they should be ranked in the top 10. Tieguy, you just HAD to bring up Weber State, didn't you? I lost a good bit of money in my office pool that year!

posted by jasonbondshow at 01:48 PM on December 01, 2002

jasonbondshow: if I'd known the list was going to include a way to mention Weber State, I would have posted the list a lot earlier :) FWIW, I think the heels should at least beat Kentucky- they've looked poor in the early going. Illinois I haven't even read about, much less seen, so it is hard to say.

posted by tieguy at 03:53 PM on December 01, 2002

Another team in the Carolinas to watch out for is College of Charleston from the Southern Conference. They won the Great Alaska Shootout beating Oklahoma State and Villanova. CofC will be National Champions.

posted by Brian1250 at 09:57 PM on December 01, 2002

The first Eminem reference on Spofi. Jasonbondshow gets mad props, or whatever it is the kids say these days.

posted by Samsonov14 at 10:05 PM on December 01, 2002

I had the immense pleasure of being at that Weber State-UNC game. Oh, Harold "The Show" Arceneaux, where are you now? France, apparently.

posted by Mookieproof at 02:16 PM on December 02, 2002

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