I am here, as Mack is about to do his pre-Spring presser.

Looks like the NIT is getting a number of snubs this year as we did last. Could this be the end of that tournament?

Iowa State out east. Looks like UNC/Zona out west.

...and I'm not gonna dwell too much on tonight.

Y'all saw it --- there was NOTHING good about this one --- poorly played, coached and officiated --- and if the first two weren't so crappy the third probably wouldn't have even mattered. Thus, I'm only gonna mention ONE thing specific to this game, which is:

- WTF were we doing with Burns? All you hafta to do to negate his isos is an immediate flash double-then-recover. He will pick up his dribble every time. I've watched more than one opponent totally take him out of games with that. Hell, we did it once and then never again. Thus, we allowed a fat guy to be a one-man delay game, and when you let him dribble into the paint bad things often happen.

OK, everything else speaks more to the next (hopefully) 3 weekends:

- Our game-plan was just... bad. State is a HALF-COURT team, and one that was leg-weary, but as mentioned above, we laid back and allowed them to dictate tempo. We should've come out of the damn locker room hitting them with 30 and 40 with different pickup points. Hell, once we belatedly pressed we forced what?... 6 TOs in that last couple minutes? Granted, by then it didn't matter when we couldn't hit the broad side of a damn warehouse to convert, but the POINT is that we could have easliy broken them early. But no... we let them settle in and start believing they could win.

- the reason I'm saying this is the exact same reason I've been hammering on our tendency to take the foot off the gas. We simply can't count on playing not to lose. We NEED to force tempo, because as we saw tonight, you can't count on shooting your way out of trouble every night. And if we play into opponents' hands in the Dance, we might be going home early.

Finally, ok look.... offensive games like this happen, and as much as I hate letting an ACCT title (and maybe a #1 seed) slip away, we all know what really matters is still in front of us. Let's hope this horrific shooting performance is out of the way, but we also made way too many mental errors for an experienced team, and that dog will not hunt.

Anyway, this is a critical practice week for the staff as much as the players. If we enter the Dance with tempo, aggression and swagger, there is no limit. And sure, we have played a lot of good defense recently, but tonight we made ourselves sitting ducks. Hopefully that will be a lesson...

Posted Feb 19, 2024
The Atlantic Coast Conference asked a Florida court to pause Florida State’s lawsuit against the conference while the ACC’s claim against the school in North Carolina moves forward or dismiss the Seminoles’ case altogether, according to a filing submitted Friday. The ACC initially sued the Florida State Board of Trustees in North Carolina in late December, (Associated Press)

Posted Mar 14, 2024
Jerry Stackhouse has been informed that he will not return for a sixth season as Vanderbilt's basketball coach, sources told ESPN. The former North Carolina and NBA star signed a contract extension before the 2022-23 season, and the school is now expected to pay a significant buyout. Details are not available because Vanderbilt is a private institution. (ESPN.com)

Somehow Wojcik got equal pay in this deal

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Despite last night's disappointing effort, having the Heels in the conversation for a 1 seed again has me looking forward to the selection show. I don't recall if I even watched last year.

Anyway, FWIW Lunardi still has the Heels as a 1, and that bracket matrix site has us as a 1 seed in 101 of 107 brackets.