Happy Monday from Blogger So Dear. As you probably know or have read below, Wake was named a four seed and faces a first round matchup against Cleveland State on Friday at 9:40. As you may have guessed, there are a lot of tournament coverage articles and predictions today. Here are some interesting ones that I dug up for today:
Here are the brackets in case you need to give them another look.
I'm sure most people are not as concerned as I am about who is announcing each tournament game, but here are the pairings if you do. No Gus Johnson for Wake, which is disappointing. Instead, we get Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel, who called the game that shall not be mentioned in 2005.
Luke Winn at SI.com has his 50 Thoughts on Selection Sunday, which have a couple mentions. He, like many others, is hesitant to pick such an inconsistent Demon Deacon squad.
The Indianapolis Star has a nice article on Indy native Jeff Teague, who will get to play in front of his home crowd if Wake can get to the Sweet 16.
Gregg Doyel shows his ignorance here. No comment needed.
In our headline of the day, Mark Blaudschun of the Boston Globe says that "Taking Wake lightly is a Cardinal sin" as he picks Wake to make the Final Four.
Gary Parrish has a crush on the ACC, as he picks three of our teams to make the Final Four. While I do not wish for the Heels to advance, this would definitely be a great thing after all the attention that the Big East received this season.
Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports breaks down the Midwest Region and picks Wake to emerge.
MSADeac of the Scout boards created a nice desktop background if you need a new one for tournament season.
Another SI article explains that the Deacs need to grow up quickly after their ACC Tournament failure.
The Raleigh N&O says that Wake needs to regain their form from the earlier portion of the season.
The Dime says that Louisville got screwed. I guess I would be upset if my team was a one seed and drew an NBA-laden Wake team too, despite the inconsistency we show.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a nice brief matchup of CSU and Wake Forest and predicts the Deacons to win by 8. You have to be a little bolder than picking the spread, although after watching the ESPN talking heads pick to the Final Four he would fit in well with them. All chalk, all the time.
The Charlotte Observer says that Wake drew a hungry Cleveland State team.
The Detroit News has a nice article on Cleveland State coach Gary Waters, who reportedly knows how to dance.
Here is another nice Cleveland State article with photos from their Selection Sunday celebration.
The Cleveland Leader discusses our first round game and features this quote from Coach Waters about our Wake Forest squad: "They are tough. They are really tough. They are talented. They are athletic and have great size. They can shoot the ball. The one negative is that they are young." I guess he has not seen us shoot very much.
If you are a Scout subscriber, Ed Thompson, a senior NFL analyst, has a nice article about Chip Vaughn.
Here is the NIT bracket, which features Virginia Tech and Miami, who may be without Coach Frank Haith soon says ZagsBlog. If he goes to Alabama this would be a huge blow to the Canes who have a good recruiting class coming in next year. Regarding the NIT, the committee missed a golden opportunity to let Stephen Curry nail Virginia Tech for not offering him a scholarship to his Dad's alma mater. I would love to see that matchup in the finals.
Finally, the Wolfpack received some bad news yesterday when 5-star 2010 recruit C.J. Leslie decided to back out of his verbal commitment to N.C. State. This appears to be the work of John Calipari at Memphis, but that's just speculation. Leslie has been around the John Wall recruitment and probably just wanted some more attention.