The Holy Land of Hoops

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

2-Villanova
4-Butler
5-Georgetown
7-Providence
7-Seton Hall
10-Xavier
11-St.John's

Last four in: Texas A&M, Mississippi, George Washington, Temple
First four out: Davidson, North Carolina State, Old Dominion, Washington

I was pretty satisfied with the SHU draw until I noticed the 2nd round game with Duke in Charlotte.

Hall2012 wrote:I was pretty satisfied with the SHU draw until I noticed the 2nd round game with Duke in Charlotte.

Duke doesn't have a big fan base like UNC would at putting 18,000 plus in an arena.

Duke has lost 2 of the last 3 years in the round of 64 games in the state of North Carolina.

MUPanther wrote:

Hall2012 wrote:I was pretty satisfied with the SHU draw until I noticed the 2nd round game with Duke in Charlotte.

Duke doesn't have a big fan base like UNC would at putting 18,000 plus in an arena.

Duke has lost 2 of the last 3 years in the round of 64 games in the state of North Carolina.

That's a good point- we may well end up with a 15 or 16 seed in the second round with this draw! And Duke has shown to be vulnerable early on in the tournament. I'd just kind of prefer to play at a true neutral site.

Hall2012 wrote:

MUPanther wrote:

Hall2012 wrote:I was pretty satisfied with the SHU draw until I noticed the 2nd round game with Duke in Charlotte.

Duke doesn't have a big fan base like UNC would at putting 18,000 plus in an arena.

Duke has lost 2 of the last 3 years in the round of 64 games in the state of North Carolina.

That's a good point- we may well end up with a 15 or 16 seed in the second round with this draw! And Duke has shown to be vulnerable early on in the tournament. I'd just kind of prefer to play at a true neutral site.

Actually playing Duke here in NC can in some ways, be an advantage because Duke will never have the sort of local support that UNC or NC State has. While Duke has a national following, playing Duke in North Carolina might actually be preferred to playing them in the Northeast. In North Carolina, whoever is playing Duke will have the full support of everyone in the building but the Duke fans (because everyone but Duke fan hates Duke). I was at the Duke-Mercer game last year and for all practical purposes, it was probably the biggest "home" crowd Mercer has ever had. 90% of the building was behind Mercer. Now Mercer being a huge underdog also garnered them crowd support.

How many other universities have books written about hating them? Duke has at least two:

1. Duke Sucks: A Completely Evenhanded, Unbiased Investigation into the Most Evil Team on Planet Earth
2. To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry

I've actually read the second book, my wife, a UNC grad, received it as a gag gift for Christmas one year. It is pretty funny.

No one has really talked about it, but if 7 hypothetically did make it (spread over 10 for distribution), it wouldn't take that high of a percentage of those 7 making a run to result in an enormous paycheck from the NCAA.

MUPanther wrote:

Hall2012 wrote:I was pretty satisfied with the SHU draw until I noticed the 2nd round game with Duke in Charlotte.

Duke doesn't have a big fan base like UNC would at putting 18,000 plus in an arena.

Duke has lost 2 of the last 3 years in the round of 64 games in the state of North Carolina.

Duke in the NCAA 2nd Round? We'll take it!

I am thinking about taking off Thursday and Friday off from work this year to watch all the games. Although it was fun to sneak watch and follow the games in the office last year. hard choice.

Ah...good ole Murray State. Butler fans will remember that game well. That 2009-2010 Murray squad was effing GOOD. We won with a little good luck.

I believe that game was the earliest battle between two 30+-win teams in NCAA history. It was something like that.

DudeAnon wrote:I am thinking about taking off Thursday and Friday off from work this year to watch all the games. Although it was fun to sneak watch and follow the games in the office last year. hard choice.

I take off the Thursday and Friday to watch the Big East Tournament and other conference tournaments and the Thur/Friday of the NCAA Tournament! Great time of the year.