Sweet 16 goes through Tobacco Road

I have never been to Phoenix, but it appears to me that the path to the Men’s NCAA Final Four scheduled to be held there includes a trip down Tobacco Road here in North Carolina.

I could go off on a tangent about how disrespected the ACC has been by the selection committee in recent years, despite decades of success.

The conference has gotten a team in the Sweet 16 every year since 1979. This year, the ACC is 8-1 thus far in the tournament and there are four ACC teams in the Sweet 16.

Three of the last eight NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournaments have been won by ACC schools. I recognize that there’s no Roy Williams or Mike Krzyzewski roaming the sidelines, however the programs they ran remain prominent.

I could make fun of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey for suggesting that smaller leagues shouldn’t be afforded NCAA tournament bids. The idea is beyond dumb. This isn’t football, the opportunity for small schools to knock off blue blood programs is what makes March mad.

If I did make fun of Greg Sankey for his dumb idea, it wouldn’t be simply because it was dumb. I have too many dumb ideas of my own and live in a glass house, so I shouldn’t throw stones.

I would however make fun of Sankey because he advocated for the exclusion of what he believes are unworthy teams from smaller conferences right before watching them send his best teams home. None of them were more fun to watch than a John Calipari led Kentucky squad sent packing in the first round by Oakland out of the Horizon League.

Was I the only one that found out this week that Oakland University was in Michigan? They are the Golden Grizzlies and play near Auburn Hills, where the Bad Boy Pistons of the 90s played. They had a fun run in the tournament that ended when they met N.C. State.

That leads me to what I actually wanted to talk about this week. North Carolina, Duke and N.C. State are in the Sweet 16 and it is a cool week to live in North Carolina. Everyone is repping their team and I haven’t seen this much red worn with pride in a long time.

You might be wondering why I haven’t mentioned that Clemson made it to the Sweet 16 as well. It’s because they are in South Carolina and they are Clemson, so I just care much less.

The state of North Carolina though has three teams, located an Uber ride distance away from each other, that believe they can win a national championship and have earned the opportunity to continue playing for that goal.

Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but for now, all eyes are on Tobacco Road.