Duke Fighting For History

[arxpert]

#4 Seeded Duke is currently fighting to knock Arizona off the mountain and back into complete irrelevance tomorrow.

#4 Duke
Thus far has defeated:

#13 Vermont
#12 James Madison
#1 Houston
#11 NC State
#1 Purdue?
#1 UConn?

(If this happened and Duke won it all, they would have defeated the #1, #2, #3 overall ranked teams going into the Big Dance)

#4 Arizona '97

Defeated:
#13 South Alabama
#12 College of Charleston
#1 Kansas
#10 Providence
#1 UNC
#1 Kentucky

That 10 vs 11 seed would not favor Arizona due to NC State's immaculate run. They were voted in as a potential #25 Ranked team (coming in at #29 I believe technically as NC State got 36 votes to be Ranked in the final poll before the Big Dance, James Madison had 31 votes to be ranked right behind NC State too ironically). The 11 seed is horrendous. They were much closer to their first round counterpart 6 seed than an 11. So the Quality of team is much higher for NC State than Providence was back then.

For the sanctity of the only thing Arizona has over the World of College Basketball, everyone better pray Duke falls short along the way. Preferably tomorrow. Especially with Jon Scheyer being a Year 2 HC is it? This would put Tommy to shame unlike anything I've ever seen.

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For the record, Arizona was ranked lower than Duke headed into the tournament. Plus, Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky are all blue bloods. UConn is now, but Purdue isn't and Houston isn't. It's just not as impressive. They're not defeating all the dynasties one by one. It doesn't require a deeper dive than that.

[KansasCityCats]

Plus, I can't envision a situation where Dook beats both anyway. It would be a miracle.

[arxpert]

For the record, Arizona was ranked lower than Duke headed into the tournament. Plus, Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky are all blue bloods. UConn is now, but Purdue isn't and Houston isn't. It's just not as impressive. They're not defeating all the dynasties one by one. It doesn't require a deeper dive than that.

I don't agree with the blue blood sentiment, but what I will say is I personally believe that Kansas, UNC, and Kentucky had Serious NBA Star Power (So did we). More than that the 1 seeds this year had/have.

So for me, it is more impressive having defeated the actual players who went on to mostly be allstars or have long NBA careers than anything.

Either way the path was True. NCST was far better than 97 Providence. Although I believe College of Charleston back in 97 was ranked #16 even though they were a 12 seed. People often forget Lute had to COACH his way out of the 1st and 2nd rounds with being down double digits (more than 10) to So. Bama and Chucktown. So in that way I believe 1997 was also a special run. After barely limping through the first weekend I can only imagine that none of the Sports Books really gave Arizona much of a chance.

I think Arizona beat UNC that season in G1 of the year, but I am not sure if anyone can pull up historical betting odds. I would have been interested in seeing what our odds vs 1 Kansas were at least.

Also interesting that this was the first time a 4 played an 11 in the Elite 8 (Duke vs NC State). I am wondering if 4 Arizona vs 10 Providence was the 1st 4v10 meeting and if it happened again.

Either way, this was my organic contribution and content creation and for whatever it was worth, I hope people found enjoyment and interest in watching Duke go down in a way that did not steal the 1 true thing Arizona has over the rest of College Basketball. Especially with a Year 2? Amateur HC like Scheyer.

[arxpert]

Plus, I can't envision a situation where Dook beats both anyway. It would be a miracle.

It was a Miracle when Lute's Army did it in '97. I am just happy that NC State's win proves it is not easily emulated, especially by being stopped in the Elite Eight there is no credit to be handed out to Scheyer for barely getting past Houston who lost basically their best player early to a very suspect and questionable injury in a very important game in the Era of free enterprise and encouraged betting. Especially Prop betting. I don't care what Grade they gave the sprain, there is hardly anyway to convince me that a bag was not secured by a guy who didn't have a legitimate high level NBA future right away.

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Alabama can still pull it off.

[arxpert]

Alabama can still pull it off.

True, but I disqualified them when they played #1 UNC

13 Charleston
12 Grand Canyon
1 UNC
6 Clemson
1 UConn
1/11 Purdue/NCSt

The true bracket would have had Tennessee as the #1 in the West, UNC #2 in the East, Iowa St #2 Midwest, Marquette #2 in the South as the worst #2. The Selection Committee *cough* AD's wanted the ratings to go down a certain way though. Honestly goes out the door when that happens.

I also disqualify their #6 Clemson, but a spade is a spade. A Seed is a Seed so they could do it and erase Arizona from the map.

Ironically Arizona had a chance to stop it and they shit the bed so all the blame would fall on them if it did happen. Arizona beating Alabama this year OOC in Phoenix is also Ironic. Especially because we played horribly. That was during the stretch where Purdue destroyed Tommy Lloyd and this team for good and we lost to Purdue + FAU with that Bama game in between where we only lost because Bama took like 50 3's and didn't even try to win any other way and we just chipped away until we pulled away to their bricks. Winning by virtue of an opponent choosing to lose doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment to me.

Funniest thing I guess is Bama played the game vs UNC that they should have vs Arizona OOC. So they knew when to get serious and how most likely from studying the blueprint from that game. Kudos to them. Nate Oats is the Mike D'Antoni of College Basketball and deserves credit.