Shocker of the Year

[SeanieMac]

UTEP +8

I love this spot for a very good and underrated UTEP team. They get Maryland, which is off 4 upsets. Im gonna flay out say, the ACC is bakstball country, but they are soft. Maryland has 0 senior "leaders" their best players are underclassman. Gary Williams is taking a bunch of kids all the way to Phoenix. The WAC is a very underrated conference, and I think that every ACC team will be out by the Elite 8. There just isnt a team that has an impact player big enough to take them to the Final 4. Duke? They are fading so fast its rediculous. They shouldnt even be a 1 seed, just because they are "Duke" They have completely fell apart. Maryland is a huge hit or miss team. If they get rolling they are hot, and they play thier best basketball when they are behind. I just cant see Maryland keeping this up. You are gonna tell me these "kids" dont have a chip on thier shoulder after their huge upset ACC Title win. Gary wont be brining these kids down from Cloud 9 anytime soon. Some of thier biggest impact players are here for the 1st time. Wheres the Juan Dixon or Steve Blake to lead the team this year? I dont see a Steve Francis on this team. Bye Maryland, see you and Zona next year

[unchill]

ACC Country

Put St. Joseph's in the ACC, and let's see how soft you think it is.
St. Joe's would have finished 6th at best. If the Hawks can get to an ACC team in the tourney, you will see for yourself. Maryland would have never been down 44 points to Xavier. Clemson would have never been down 44 points to Xavier.

[zeib10]

I agree Seanie Mac. The ACC is down this year despite everyone saying that this conference is loaded. Sure the ACC is tougher than the Atlantic 10 and WAC. Although both of those conferences will represent well this year in the tourney. I like the play myself as they have a legit shot to win outright.
Duke is very overrated.
Unchill, you would have to agree with that.

[knockonwood]

St. Jo, 8-8 at Best!!! Agree though, Maryland will not cover the pts.!!! If Duke is Healthy, we'll see!!! Have a Good nite!!! Knock!

[frankb03]

This is a tough call. You can all the ACC soft. That's your opinion. The best team in the WAC Nevada would finish 6th or 7th in the ACC.

Maryland has had the tougher non-conference schedule 9-2 overall, 2-1 vs top-25. Beating Wisky and Florida. Losing to Gonzaga.

UTEP 7-1 overall 0-1 vs. TOP-50 . They haven't even played a top-25 team outside of conference play.

UTEP has a huge FT shooting advantage. Maryland will own the boards vs. UTEP

[SeanieMac]

LOL bringing up st joes??? someone is angry at life. Didnt Duke lose to san jose st or san diedo or some shit like that???

Fact is the ACC isnt strong anymore. Luol Deng is thinking about which team is gonna draft him, wake and ga tech have freshman running the teams.

Talk all you want about St Joes, but the fact is THEY ARE NOT IN THE ACC, SO LOOK DUMB ANYMORE BY SAYING THEY WOULD FINISH AT BEST 7TH THERE. You make yourself look like Joe Public. A knowledgeable person wouldnt even make the statement since they are not there.

All im saying is that if Maryland wins, they wont cover. but they wont win so i dont have to worry about it.

thank you come again

[shorty3830]

hmm

for whatever it is worth, i will throw my 2 cents in::anybody who thinks st. josephs would have finished 6th in any conference does not know that much about college basketball.........i do not think the ACC is down, i think it is by far the best conference but i also think st. josephs would have either won it or come very close..........nc state came in 2nd and st. josephs is better than they are

nelson and west and the best backcourt in years in college basketball and lost in all this ridiculous billy packer commentary is the fact that before they started conference play, they beat gonzaga , pacific and boston,a ll which won their conferences, they beat BC, won at penn, at drexel, at cal and at villanova........

i too think UTEP ****** vs. maryland

b

[Dr. T]

I saw St. Joe's in person vs. Old Dominion and they only won by 3.

I think they would have finished about 4th or 5th in the ACC. The ACC has very few seniors:

Duke............Duhon
Wake...........none
Md...............Jamar Smith
UNC.............none
GT.........Lewis, Brooks
NCSU....Melvin, Sherrill

That's 6 seniors that play significant minutes on the 6 NCAA teams. UNC and Duke usually have players leave early for the NBA. NCSU finished 2nd in the ACC mainly due to senior players listed above and junior Julius Hodge, plus the fact that they led the NCAA's in free throw %. Also, NCSU's Josh Powell left school early last year to declare for the NBA.

BTW, I think the ACC was the best conf. top to bottom but may not get a team to the Final Four since they are young.

[SeanieMac]

I said tha the ACC is baskteball country. But its gone soft

I saw St Joes almost every home game in person, and win by 3 or win by 30 its still and win.

i just dont like the fact that Maryland doesnt have a major denior contributor, and isnt Smith a JUCO transfer??? they have one player that is, i dunno who it is. They dont have many players that were even on the team to see Juan Dixon hit the game winner last year in the tournament

i also like the fact Maryland has to go to denver to play.

I LOVE UTEP to at least stay within the number here

I follow the WAC more then any conference mostly because of the 12am games. UTEP is a good mid major team that fits the bill for an upset

Also the SEC was better than the ACC this year IMO

[unchill]

ACC

OK, Seanie, I'll bite.

1. "Didnt Duke lose to san jose st or san diedo or some shit like that???" Wrong. Duke lost to Purdue in November, not to lose again until Feb. 15 at NC State and then at Wake. Lost at end of season to Ga.Tech and then in finals against Maryland.
2. "Fact is the ACC isnt strong anymore." Wrong. It may be your opinion, but hardly a fact. RPI shows ACC to be the strongest conference. Look at the seedings,a #1, two #3s, two #4s, and Carolina a #6.
3. "You make yourself look like Joe Public. A knowledgeable person wouldnt even make the statement..." Look at a couple of your statements: "I ust cant see Maryland keeping this up. You are gonna tell me these "kids" dont have a chip on thier shoulder after their huge upset ACC Title win. Gary wont be brining these kids down from Cloud 9 anytime soon." or how about this one:
"Im gonna flay out say, the ACC is bakstball country, but they are soft." Wrong and wrong. You are grossly underestimating the coaching of Gary Williams who will not let his team get a big head or suffer a let down. Also, Maryland is all heart and guts, the opposite of soft.
4. "Luol Deng is thinking about which team is gonna draft him, wake and ga tech have freshman running the teams." I have never heard of a freshman leading a team to a national title....oh yeah... it happened last year.
5. "The WAC is a very underrated conference, and I think that every ACC team will be out by the Elite 8." We shall see. In my tobacco road opinion, Duke goes to Final game, Wake goes to Elite Eight, Ga.Tech goes to Elite 8, and UNC goes to Sweet 16 and might get by MissState for an Elite 8 appearance themselves, while Maryland gets to Sweet 16 and loses to Stanford. NCState will have trouble getting there to be sure.

Maryland will beat UTEP. Will they cover 8, I don't know. Then again, I haven't read anything about UTEP to convince me that they won't.

UNC-Charlotte (not in the ACC, but from North Carolina) will beat the Hawks (if they sneak by Liberty).

GL with your bets SeanieMac. Nothin personal, just ACC pride.

[HUNGlikeabear]

Seanie Mac

just a couple things to remember...

1-I think Maryland just came back from the dead in their last game. They were down a ton.

2-These kids may just be stupid enough not to know they are suppose to lose. Williams might be doing his best work now.

GL on your action

[SeanieMac]

only time will tell

[savage1]

I don't want to say I am any smarter or know more than anyone else here simply because I am a lot older(late fifties).
However, my best friend, who is also in late fifties, and I were discussing how good St. Joes is(and obviously we have seen them and the ACC teams play a number of times).
Well drawing on this and many years of seeing this type of situation, we concluded that if St. Joes played a regular ACC schedule, which is a real grueling one, they would probably have a minimum of 4 losses in regular season and more likely around 6.
I recall sometime in late 70's when an undefeated Rutgers team went up against a Michigan State Team in the tournament(it was not the finals);MSU had lost 4-5 games at least.
Anyways, I believe MSU was favored by 4 and they crushed Rutgers(I believe it was the Magic Johnson era).
Anyways, I am not saying St. Joes will not accord themselves well(and I hope they do);on the other hand I will be surprised if they do any better than reaching the final eight. jmho.
ps I should remember the game as I in my youth bet on Rutgers.lol

[HUNGlikeabear]

SeanieMac

At 1st glance....

Maryland has played a MUCH TOUGHER schedule. Maryland 5-0 against some monsters of their conference (as you know). UTEP 3-2 SU against some pretty weak teams. One glaring thing, Maryland pretty bad from the line laying the big wood here off a possible letdown. Maryland also not very strong as a nuetral court favorite. Maryland's trip to Phoenix may have the kids out of their element. I think another important thing is each teams non-conference opponents this year (I haven't gotten that far yet).

[SeanieMac]

its upset season now, anything can happen.

with all this publicity if it loses.....wow......f-me!!