There were moments where Syracuse brought back memories of the Virginia game. Syracuse cut the Tar Heels lead from 17 all the way down to 7. When they started that press, they forced a few turnovers. And then, North Carolina answered – and answered. Ironically, they answered with three pointers – since they couldn’t hit from three in the first half. I would say that the real difference was just too much talent. UNC had the big men who could settle into the middle of that 2-3 zone and do some damage. Normally, the zone will converge on that player and force either a bad shot, a turnover, or the ball being passed back outside. But the Tar Heels big men just turned into the pressure and shot over them.
So, it will be the Big East regular season champion Villanova Wildcats against the ACC regular season and tournament champions North Carolina Tar Heels. And both teams have done this in pretty impressive fashion. The Tar Heels have won all their games by double digits (16 vs FGCU, 19 vs Providence, 15 vs Indiana, 14 vs Notre Dame and 17 tonight vs Syracuse). Villanova can only claim 4 of their 5 victories were double digits. But the one that was close was against the #1 seed in the entire tournament. And even with that, Villanova’s margin of victory is higher than the Tar Heels (30 vs UNC-Asheville, 19 vs Iowa, 23 vs Miami FL, 5 vs Kansas, and 44 tonight vs Oklahoma). So, – should be an interesting game between two amazing teams.
At this point, congratulations are in order for both Michael Swinson and Gregg Farber. While it is technically un-official until Monday night, Michael has locked up the Upset Pool with 279 points. Michael is the only one of the Upset leaders who has picked Villanova, and the top person in the Upset Pool who has North Carolina is the Lunatic – who would not be able to catch Michael with the 6 extra points from a Tar Heel victory. The person who is also very happy about this is Gregg Farber – he finds himself 1 point behind Michael Swinson. But as Michael has done for years, he is one of my good friends who always does the pool just for fun. And so that means Gregg would take the Upset Pool prize. John Bachmann, Doug Crowe and Kelli Shonts are also probably happy, since their Upset totals should lock them into the Upset prizes as well. That leaves Rick Flynn in the precarious 5th place prize – hoping that North Carolina doesn’t allow the Lunatic to sneak into the prize list at his expense.
In the Standard Pool, it is a three person race. Currently, Michael Swinson also is leading the Standard Pool with 1130 points. So, a Wildcats victory will give Michael the rare sweep of both pools (believe it was only done in 2009 by John Homan). That will also reward Jason Lacks – our current 3rd place challenger, who also has Villanova. Our second place challenger is Sharon Thornton, who will take the Stomp the Lunatic championship with a Tar Heels victory. There are enough people who have picked Villanova and North Carolina to make the standings move more than the Upset pool – but I imagine there are many who will be rooting more heavily for Villanova and UNC based on their standings in the pool.
The two person race in the Second Chance Pool is between our leader Andrew Murphy, who will be rooting for UNC, and our second place contestant, John Bachmann, who will be rooting for Villanova. Will give Kristian Schmidt a call out as well for being tied for second – he will get second with a Tar Heel victory.
Good luck to our leaders – as well as the Wildcats and Tar Heels. Should be a fun championship game!!!!