You can tell the players are having fun and loose this past weekend- plus you throw in the refs staying out of the way and letting teams play... We might just could go all the way if this continues. Go Tigers!
After last week's ACC Tournament and but before NCAA pairings were announced, I told my good Tar Heel friend and neighbor I hoped that we got sent out west, because our greatest tournament success occurred when we went out west. I said there were two reasons for that: (1) There is less pressure when you are far away; (2) we would avoid ACC referees who always get our big men in foul trouble, and call other violations that don't happen. In 79-80, it was Moose Campbell. In ACC play, almost every time he touched the ball they called walking, and he could only play 10 to 15 minutes a game. In the NCAA tournament, those violations disappeared, and he played the best ball of his career. This year it was Elijah Thomas, and almost every ACC game he was called for at least two moving screens, and fouls were called when he made clean blocks. I told my neighbor Thomas would be treated much more fairly without the ACC bias against Clemson. So he played 30 minutes against NM State with 3 fouls, and 28 minutes against Auburn with either 1 or 2 fouls.
I also told him that I thought the Tar Heels were vulnerable if they played a team with several good big men inside, as I thought they could be exploited inside. Exhibit A is the game against A & M. If the refs had not screwed Thomas, he could have done the same thing to the Tar Heels that A & M did.
So its on to Wichita to play Kansas. Go Tigers, and may we be ACC referee free for the remainder of the tournament!