- Since the creation of the BCS in 1998, the Big Ten is 2-6 in basketball and football championship games. Can you name the winners and years they did it?
- Michigan State ran into one of the best college teams this decade they had to do it after defeating two other No. 1 seeds. (Only 1997 Arizona has defeated three No. 1 seeds.) Michigan State is a great team with good players. North Carolina is a great team with great players. But, even removing my homerism, UNC is second to 2007 Florida in terms of the best teams of the decade. While both teams defeated a team in the finals they had defeated in the regular season, 2007 Ohio State is far better than Michigan State. Florida was also trying to do something never done before; the same starting five repeating as champions. Both UF and UNC have NBA-ready talent, but I'd take Green-Humphrey-Brewer-Noah-Horford over Lawson-Ellington-Green-Thompson-Hansbrough. UNC's guards are fantastic, but Florida's front three would dominate.
- Speaking of Hansborough, if you love Tim Tebow, you cannot hate Hansbrough. I think the kid looks like a doofus, but Hansbrough is a great player. He's hated for that; looking like a doofus and being a great player. Change out doofus for religious, and you have why people hate Tebow. While Tebow is a bigger winner, Hansbrough is playing under a bigger microscope and more history. The legacy pre-Tebow is Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel. That's it. Hell, people barely know Emmitt Smith was at UF. Hansbrough is following Jordan, Big Game James, Dean Smith, Larry Brown, Bob McAdoo and Sam Perkins. Not to mention UNC's 2005 championship team. You cannot compare the pressure on Tebow vs. Hansbrough. Tebow's been more successful, but don't underestimate Hansbrough because he looks funny and talks like he never attended a day of classes in Chapel Hill.
- If I may say something about baseball, I know Derek Jeter. Derek Jeter is a friend of mine. And that is no Derek Jeter. Seriously. He has no range anymore. He had trouble throwing out Gregg Zaun today. He's making the last years of Cal Ripken look good, and Ripken sucked. Although, there wasn't much Jeter could do to make the Yanks' 300 pound waste of cash pitch well. Rays-Red Sox today will be the ALCS preview.
- Finally, the winner of the Florida Gators Armagnet is "HeightsGirl's Bracketology", with 132 points. She edges out "I am Tebow!", who gets The Presidents' Trophy with one more win but one less point. Just like the College Bowl Pick'em, the winner is from the Tampa area. City of Champions, bitches.
Alligator Army would like to thank Armagnets for their sponsorship and encourages you to visit them for easily the most creative way to decorate your car with Gator gear. If you'd like to contribute your product for future contests, email us at alligatorarmy@gmail.com. The plan is for a weekly Alligator Army College Football Pick'em, which we had this year, but no prize for.
0 recs | 12 comments
That would be Michigan State over UF in ‘00 or ’01, and Ohio State over Miami in the ’02 season – I have a much clearer recollection of the sequence of champs in football than basketball, and wouldn’t remember anything about MSU’s title if they hadn’t beaten the Gators. (Who had just topped UNC in the semis, as I recall – UNC as an eight-seed, in fact, during their brief rut of mediocrity.)
peachy rex - April 7, 2009
Damn it.
Beat me to it. No way in hell was I going to be awake at 6:30 on spring break.
bdalebs - April 7, 2009
And that's kinda sad if a "mediocre" UNC team gets seeded 8th and STILL makes it to the Final 4.
Or did you mean the Sweet 16?
bdalebs - April 7, 2009
Final Four. Two seasons later, the Heels went 8-20 and 17-15.
mlmintampa - April 7, 2009
That was a deeply weird tournament – aside from the winning one-seed, the FF included a five and two eights (the other was Wisconsin, in full-blown ugly-ball mode.)
peachy rex - April 7, 2009
Explains how we nearly won.
bdalebs - April 7, 2009
Those were also the days of true Billyball, our very own version of ‘forty minutes of hell’ – UF would throw nine or ten athletic guys at you, rain down threes like nobody’s business, and leave teams for dead in the last five minutes. Our title teams used a very different approach.
peachy rex - April 7, 2009
Seems like Billy tried to return to that these past two seasons.
And it doesn’t seem to be working too well.
bdalebs - April 8, 2009
Just so
Insufficient depth, not enough reliable shooters.
peachy rex - April 8, 2009
You are wrong about one thing...
I do love Tebow and I hate Hansbrough with a passion. Tebow sometimes gets embarrassingly adoring comments from announcers and sportswriters as does Hansbrough. However, Hansbrough gets the most ridiculous favoritism from the refs that I have seen since Shane Battier’s flopping. He travels and nobody notices. He hammers the opposing Big and rarely gets called for it. He gets looked at cross-eyed by an opponent, and he goes back to the foul line to set another record for free throw attempts. Tebow’s equally strong reputation cannot influence ref’s calls as much, and he earns his success by himself. One reason I prefer football.
Gater - April 7, 2009
Hey,
Big Ten is 4-2 in NIT championship games since 1998. That makes it a more respectable sounding 6-8.
Cairo - April 9, 2009
Let's see...
2000: Michigan State-Florida in basketball (win)
2002: Ohio State-Miami in football (win)
2002: Indiana-Maryland in basketball (loss)
2005: Illinois-North Carolina in basketball (loss)
2007: Ohio State-Florida in football (loss)
2007: Ohio State-Florida in basketball (loss)
2008: Ohio State-LSU in football (loss)
2009: Michigan State-North Carolina in basketball (loss)
V. Money - April 10, 2009
You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Alligator Army to post a comment.