Marty Gordon
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) has seven teams in the NCAA’s Big Dance and at least one (UVA) is a top seed and two others are two seeds (Duke and UNC).
When filling out my brackets earlier this week (for the fun of it and nothing else), I moved most of those teams in the next round with UVA, Duke and UNC all being in my final four.
My championship game has UVA playing Purdue. Initially, I had UVA winning it all but with the recent announcement that the conference’s sixth man of the year is out with a broken wrist, I chose Purdue to take home the trophy.
Congrats to Radford University for winning their opening game, and my bracket has Virginia Tech making it to the Final Eight before losing to Purdue. RU Coach Mike Jones is in his final year of a contract with the school and could be vying for a longer one or he might even be mentioned for several other openings around the country.
Radford needs to make the choice to offer him a great deal and keep him around a bit longer.
Of course, it would have been interesting to see RU and Tech face each other again but not likely. But there are some more intriguing scenarios and connections to the New River Valley in this year’s tournament.
Former Radford High School standout Nate Jones is playing for Bucknell. He is also the son of Mike Jones, Radford University’s head coach.
Two other former Bobcats are also in the tournament as assistant coaches. Darris Nichols at Florida and his brother, Shane Nichols at Murray State.
In addition, Virginia was slated to play UMBC this week, which includes former Virginia Tech assistant Ryan Odom.
Every bracket should include some upsets, but on my main bracket, I only picked one in South Dakota State making it to the sweet sixteen 16 after wins over Ohio State and Gonzaga. I’m sure there will be a few more including my prediction of Virginia Tech over top seeded Villanova.
When the dust settles, I honestly believe this will simply be the year for the top teams to push their way through the brackets and make the tournament committee geniuses.
I know no one in their right mind would give them props, but I am. Congrats for getting it right for once.
Meanwhile the recent winter weather has thrown off the spring high school season. Hopefully next week, we will finally play some soccer, softball or baseball.
Spring previews are on their way and will be published over the next week.
Sports tips should be emailed to nrvsports@ourvalley.org.
