2007 NCAA Men’s Tourney: Biggest Disappointments
Writing by admin on Thursday, 29 of March , 2007 at 6:53 pm
If you haven’t been enjoying this year’s version of March Madness, you just don’t like basketball.
Or maybe you’re a Duke fan. If there’s been one major disappointment at the 2007 NCAA men’s basketball Tournament, it came in the first round when the No. 6 Blue Devils were turfed by the No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth Rams by a final count of 79-77. VCU was a 6-point underdog, so it wasn’t a huge upset by any stretch of the imagination. But to see Duke fail to make the Sweet 16 for the first time in a decade was still jarring.
Granted, there are plenty of lifelong Duke haters out there who were elated instead of disappointed at the Devils’ misfortune. Perhaps they’re the type who always root for the underdog; too bad, because this has been a historically chalky Tournament. VCU and Winthrop, both 11-seeds, were the closest things to a Cinderella story we had this year. And both were shown the door in the second round.
Disappointing for the storyline-starved press, you betcha. For the rest of us who actually care about the quality of play, the later rounds have been some of the best basketball you’ll ever see. But it comes at a price. With so many great teams making the Sweet 16, it was inevitable that some of the title contenders would fail to make it to Atlanta. The No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks and the No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels both bowed out in the Elite Eight. Fans of those two clubs have to chew on that all summer long.
Finally, for those intrepid handicappers on the Strip, watching the No. 7 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels get torched in the Sweet 16 by Tajuan Porter and the No. 3 Oregon Ducks (who were laying three points) was a kick in the gut. UNLV was handed a ridiculously bad seed, won in each of the previous two rounds as the underdog, and would have matched up well against the defending champion Florida Gators in the next round. But when Porter hits eight 3-point attempts, what’s a Rebel to do?
Category: Online College Basketball Betting
- Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg
No comments yet.
You must be logged in to post a comment.