Canes Earn 7 Seed

The Selection Committee has finished making its selections and as expected, the Canes are in as a 7 seed. Something between 8-9 was to be expected, but the ACC carries enough respect with it that the Committee gave us a 7 seed and a 1st round matchup vs St Mary's.

However, my disaster scenario came to be to a tee. We got a winnable game in round 1 (and by no means is St. Mary's a pushover, there's a good chance we lose this game) only to be matched up against Texas in Round 2. That being said, we actually got slotted in a favorable 8th of the overall bracket.

Do not quote me on this, and I don't have any reason to believe it will happen, but this bracket is probably the easiest one available for the Canes to make the Elite 8. Maybe the West bottom bracket is easier. But aside from Texas, the 8 teams in our side of the South bracket aren't exactly world-beaters. The other top seeds are Marquette and Stanford, two good teams, but Marquette isn't special and Stanford has a history of falling apart in the NCAA Tournament.

If the Canes can win a tough game vs St. Mary's and pull off a stunner vs Texas, then I believe they would have it in them to make the Elite 8. But that's a huge if. I'd give us a 50% chance of beating St. Mary's and then a 5% chance of beating Texas. This isn't Duke at home, and this team has not been playing well of late. But that's why they play the games, right? It's still ok to dream sometimes.

In any case, this season should be considered a success, particularly if we win the first round matchup. We did horribly last season and many people were beginning to doubt Frank Haith and his team. This was an up and down season, but the players showed flashes of being able to be the 3rd best team in the ACC. Considering the pedigree of the Top 2 teams, that's something I would be comfortable with.