Last year, Duke was out in Round 1. This year, they’re out in Round 2. The Blue Devils lost to West Virginia 73-67 in a game they looked solid in the first half, and awful in the second. Duke was just 5-22 from beyond the arch and only 19 of 50 from the field. West Virginia looked sluggish in the first half, often turning the ball over and incapable of dealing with Duke’s pressure D, but didn’t seem to have any problems after Bob Huggins’ inspirational, drunken halftime speech.

You know you’re an annoying team when someone picks you in their bracket (that someone being me), and is still rooting for you to lose.

As we still wait for that big “upset,” here’s some of the scores that are final and are still going on.

Finals:
-Georgia 61, Xavier 73
-Portland State 61, Kansas 85
-Temple 61, Michigan State 72
-Kentucky 66, Marquette 74
-Kent State 58, UNLV 71
-Oral Roberts 63, Pittsburgh 82
-Baylor 79, Purdue 90
-Cornell 53, Stanford 77

In Progres:

-Kansas State 44, USC 38: If K-State can pull it off, it’ll be the first underdog to actually win a game. In a tournament that’s known for surprises, we haven’t seen many so far on Day One.

-Belmont 52, Duke 56: Normally, I’d be cheering for Belmont as if they were my own team. But I’m not caught up in the West Virginia hype, and I”ve got the Blue Devils in the Elite 8. So let’s hope that upset doesn’t happen here.

-Winthrop 29, Washington State 38: The game was tied at halftime, but WSU has just opened up the half with a 9-0 run, giving them the lead.

-Texas A&M 29, BYU 29: It wouldn’t be an “upset” if BYU won, per se, given that this is an 8 vs. 9, but at this point, any lower seed winning would be nice to see.

As everyone suspected the moment UNC beat Clemson, the Tar Heels took over the No. 1 overall seed for this year’s tourney. The other three No. 1 seeds were Memphis, Kansas, and UCLA. To see the entire bracket, go here.

Thoughts on each bracket:

-East

• Carolina’s No. 1, which was the obvious pick. That said, does UT, who was thought to possibly be a No. 1 seed earlier in the day, really deserve to be thrown in the same bracket as UNC and Louisville? It makes for a tough region, and if the Sweet 16 pans out as anticipated, Louisville vs. UT could be a game that reaches 200 combined points.
• It may be a long shot, but don’t be surprised if Winthrop sneaks past Washington State.
• Indiana and Arkansas may be one of the best first round games, and Indiana/UNC could quite possibly be the best second round game.

-Midwest

• After beating Texas, Kansas seemed like the obvious pick. Even as a UT fan, I won’t argue that.
• Siena will upset Vanderbilt.
• Georgetown will make the Final Four.
• It’s crazy, but I think Kansas could lose to Kent State in the second round, doing what Kansas does best, exiting the tournament early.

-South

• Memphis won’t make the Final Four again. While everyone is bent on them playing the best out of conference schedule, their in conference schedule was terrible; and beyond that, their two best out of conference opponents, Tennessee and Georgetown, were both home games, and they only came away with a W in one of them.
• Michigan State will make a nice run, but Texas will win a close one in the Elite 8 to represent the region.
• People love the run Kentucky’s made to close the season, but I don’t see them getting past Marquette in Round 1.

-West

• To me, this is the easiest region. UCLA should be able to run through it. Duke is overrated, Xavier’s an untested, weak No. 3, and Uconn isn’t quick enough to hang with the Bruins.
• Don’t be surprised if West Virginia pulls one out against Duke in Round 2. The Blue Devils are fundamentally sound, but they’re not super athletic.

It’s never fun to lose to your rival, and it becomes even less fun when their balls are in your face.

I saw this last night when I saw my Yellow Jackets get dismantled by Coach K’s football team (they tackle players, foul, and are annoying as shit about it), and I must say: There should be some sort of athletic test for these guys that are mascots. Props to the Blue Devil for keeping a smile all the while writhing in pain.

With the other 20,000 students rushing the court, you’d thinking choking one would be pointless. Though possibly fun, as well.

-The Big Lead-

It’s not often that people fire back at Coach K — his nose is quite terrifying — but Roy Williams is showing he’s far from afraid at his ripe age.

Coach K made a comment the other day about how “other team’s handle their injury reports,” a remark Roy Williams felt was aimed at UNC and the way he’s handled Ty Lawson’s ankle injury. Well, it ruffled Roy’s feathers, and he isn’t going to take it.

“It’s not like I’m getting a dadgum plane and flying it around to say, ‘Roy fell against a wall and banged his nose’ or anything,” Williams said in a news conference. “We have to do those things [talk about injuries] and everybody’s hurt. But there’s different stages of being hurt.

“If you’re hurt and missing games, that’s not exactly like having a hangnail. And so we do have some people that are getting hurt and missing games. I don’t think that somebody should say we’re putting it in front of the public.”

“I said before we played Duke it’s impossible to have any more respect than I do for Mike,” Williams said, “but I felt like that comment was aimed towards us.”

It doesn’t have the cheap shots I would hope for when calling one out, but it does heighten the rivalry a bit. Now students will line up 10 weeks in advance for the big game.

In the midst of recruiting, some people have forgotten that a.) it’s Duke/UNC tonight and b.) it’s a game that matters for the first time in many years.

The demise of Duke was greatly exaggerated, and the surging Blue Devils stroll into this one with one loss and ranked third in the nation, just behind the Tar Heels.

It’ll surely be the Duke/UNC games we were used to four and five years ago, when both teams were stacked and wanting like hell to beat one another. I’m not sure what the spread is on this one — betting on college basketball is absolutely insane — but I’m guessing it can’t be much more than a couple of points.

It’s in Chapel Hill, which leads you to believe Tyler Hansbrough will put up 25 points and go to the stripe every time he’s brushed, but the Tar Heels most important player, Ty Lawson, was on crutches yesterday, and you don’t go from crutches to sprinting in 24 hours.

My prediction?

UNC 86, Duke 82

You know that annoying, white point guard that Duke always seems to have? The one that’s really, really successful in the NCAA and sucks in the NBA? Well, that’s Greg Paulus, only minus the success. The guy flops when I’m not certain he was touched, and then looks as if he’s had his clock cleaned when I’m not even sure he was hit (and if he was hit, it looked more of a slap, though Paulus is flimsy). The only time I’ve seen a rougher acting job? This guy.

Boston College 60, Georgia Tech 74: Outside of their game with UNC, this was GT’s most complete game of the year (and, like the UNC game, I was there — maybe I’m some sort of good luck charm). Javaris Crittenton played well enough to probably assure his early entry to the NBA, and the rest of the team was right in stride. Thaddeus Young had 10, Jeremis Smith 13 (with two nice alley-oops), Anthony Morrow 11, and our lone senior, Mario West, had 7. Tech fans are probably the only people out there who believe GT can be dangerous in the tournament, and you can count me in that group. They have the right mix of youth and maturity, and if they can get over this fixation they have with playing sloppy on the road, they can make some noise a week-and-a-half from now.

Clemson 75, Virginia Tech 74: This suddenly makes the ACC “teams that were in” list interesting. Zabian Dowdell had 25, but missed a jumper with 19 seconds left that would have given VT the lead. I know they’ve kinda sucked recently, but now Clemson has to be considered as a team to play in March.

Duke 72, UNC 86: The biggest rivalry in all of sports wasn’t much of a rivalry this year. And other than Tyler Hansbrough getting beaten up and bloodied, it really wasn’t that great of a game to watch.

Kentucky 72, Florida 85: I don’t know if this win means Florida’s back on track, but it helps. Kentucky kept it close at moments, but it seemed every time the Gators needed a basket they got one. It was Senior Day in Florida, which only means it was the last game their juniors will ever play there.

Creighton 67, Southern Illinois 61: I hate to sound like the guy who whines and moans about the small teams being ranked so high, but I think this justifies my bitching about the Salukies. And this win by Creighton is going to have a dramatic effect on my bracket: One way or another, the Bluejays always manage a win in March.

Seton Hall 71, Louisville 86: I remember when Louisville was being talked about as a team that had no chance of making the tournament. A month later, they’re in the top 25, and are probably a 5 seed.