Sunday, March 08, 2009
Quick, Sports
March madness here ...
March sadness there
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski
March madness here …
ACC fans tolerate the fact that the first five conference football championship games will have been held in the Sunshine State (the title game moves to Charlotte in 2010). But they’re currently bemoaning that their beloved men’s basketball tournament returns to Atlanta this week for the first time in eight years. In 2001, a record 182,525 fans contributed to a Final Four atmosphere at the Georgia Dome during the dramatic semifinal battle between Duke and Maryland. Of course, the United States is experiencing its worst downturn since the Great Depression, and for the first time in 43 years, the tournament is not a sellout. Even so, expect to see plenty of Blue Devils fans and an overflowing bandwagon of North Carolina elitists as the nation’s most storied hoops conference tosses its biggest party downtown. Who knows? Maybe a tornado will rip a hole in the Dome and Georgia Tech will make a historic run to cut the nets. But don’t count on it.
… March sadness there
With the ACC folks here, that means the SEC Tournament is not, for only the fourth time in the last dozen years. (It’s at the St. Pete Times Forum in Florida.) The Gators might need another impressive run to avoid missing the Big Dance for the second straight year, after winning national championships in 2006 and 2007. Florida’s topsy-turvy year is just one storyline in yet another
disappointing season for the SEC. Last year, the league sent six teams to the NCAA Tournament, but only Tennessee made it to the Sweet 16, and quickly exited. While as many as five teams could make it in,
the Gators, the Vols, South Carolina and Kentucky are shaky selections. And it wouldn’t be a huge shock if the league’s top representative, LSU, got bounced early. Still, the most important news for the football-crazed SEC is that spring drills are in full force. If you’re not lucky enough to get one of the 92,000-plus tickets to Alabama’s A-Day Game, don’t worry: ESPN will air it live.