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NCAA Tournamnet – North Carolina State & Albany Get Past First Four
Not everyone really agrees with the expanded NCAA tournament, which is the two nights of the First Four stage, but the winning teams don’t really care. The first two to go through? North Carolina State with a 74-59 win over Xavier, and Albany, beating Mount St Mary’s 71-64.
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Conference Championships: Virginia in the ACC, Florida in the SEC, Michigan State in the Big Ten
Selection Sunday slightly puts the conference tournaments out of the spotlight, but tournament champions were declared in the ACC, where Virginia beat Duke; the SEC, in which Florida overcame Kentucky; an the Big Ten, with Michigan State beating Michigan.
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Michigan State vs Michigan For the Big Ten Tournament Title
Something weird happened this season for both teams. Michigan looked bad during the non-conference part of the season, but finished with the Big Ten title for the second time in three years, including beating Michigan State twice. The Spartans looked like the best team in the nation during the first half of the season, but lost seven times in the final 12 games of the regular season.
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Kentucky vs Florida For the SEC Tournament Title
This is only the second time in five years that Florida are facing an unranked Kentucky team, but the Gators have a lot to do with the Wildcats not getting any love from the polls, heading into their third meeting of the season in the SEC Tournament Final.
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Duke vs Virginia For the ACC Tournament Title
An interesting matchup between a ‘Blue Blood’ team like Duke with many feeling they’re ranked a lot higher than they deserve to be this season against the surprising Virginia, who will try and win the ACC double, including breaking a 38-year drought in the conference championship.
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Conference Championships: UCLA in the Pac 12, Iowa State in the Big 12
March Madness is asocciated with the NCAA tournament, but it’s also about conference championships, which begins with minor teams and goes on to the big boys. The first two champions from the five major conferences are UCLA, beating the favored Arizona to claim the Pac-12 title, and Iowa State, going through Baylor to win the tournament of the Big 12.
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Florida Over Kentucky – The Difference Good Coaching Makes
Home & away, Florida are simply too good of a team for Kentucky to handle. Too smart on the floor, with a better head coach on the sidelines. The face of one-and-done basketball, John Calipari, had his usual bag of excuses in the end, but that doesn’t offer the right kind of explanation of why his preseason number one team has looked so bad this season, beginning to look like recurring theme.
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Duke Over North Carolina – Overrated, But Still Pretty Good
Even if Duke get a bit too much love in the polls and don’t deserve to be a number one seed in the NCAA tournament when that decision is made, they’re still a pretty good team with two outstanding players in Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood, leading them to an impressive regular season ending win over North Carolina.
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Duke Lose (Again) And Almost Everyone is Happy
It’s hard to know who would be the most hated college basketball team in the nation if Duke weren’t around. Probably Kentucky, although in their case, a lot of it has to do with their coach and his one and done philosophy, not just the program itself.
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North Carolina Over Notre Dame – Confusing as Usual
This North Carolina team continues to confuse. One thing that is clear is that after their 63-61 win over Notre Dame, no matter what happens in the game against Duke, they’re heading into the ACC tournament as the hottest team in the conference, but without anyone really knowing what to expect from them.