The Next Play: Madness begins; No rest for the Canes; College baseball conference play
Let the madness begin!
Sunday marks a veritable holiday for many, many people. Those college basketball fans with a horse in the race, so to speak, are particularly on edge because Sunday is the day we’ll all find out which NCAA teams will play in which venues, and against which other teams they’ll play.
Yep, Selection Sunday is upon us, which means the NCAA tournament proper is just a few days out, also. Duke and UNC know they’re into the field, and Duke will likely be a No. 2 seed. The fun comes trying to guess what else the committee has in store.
UNC bolstered its case the past couple weeks, while an early exit has Wake Forest trembling on the bubble. That’s part of the madness associated with this month, and we haven’t even played any NCAA tourney games yet.
The rest of the speculation, beyond which teams get in, is the “where”? Will the committee look favorably upon Duke when it places the Blue Devils in their first- and second-round locale, and then of course in the region brackets. Coach K-led teams have never fared well coming out of a West bracket.
Scheduling madness
Speaking of madness, the NHL has had some funky scheduling quirks in the past — and even some shenanigans this year around rescheduling games lost to COVID back in the early part of this season.
But this spring’s schedule is maddeningly tough. The Hurricanes will have a three-day break this week between games Sunday and Thursday.
It’s the last three-day break of the entire season for the Canes, who will play every other day, or in some cases back-to-back games, for the following month, through the end of the season. Starting this coming Thursday, Carolina plays 23 games in 42 days, has four sets of back-to-back contests, and only has two days off in a row twice.
Conference test awaits
Coming off a weekend set against No. 3 Notre Dame, the N.C. State baseball team, which set the baseball world ablaze early in the season, has some tough roads ahead against some ACC opponents.
After a tough weekend against Northeastern a week ago, the Pack got into its conference slate this weekend at home against the Irish, but now must go on the road for its first test away from Doak Field, at Florida State.
The defending ACC tourney champs from Duke also opened up ACC play this weekend at home, hosting Virginia. This week the Blue Devils are back at it with another home slate, this time against rival UNC. Perhaps the baseball team can do against the Heels what the basketball team couldn’t and hold serve in a home game at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
