While we as North Carolina fans have been quite preoccupied by the coaching search that now envelops the men’s basketball program, there were still games going on over the weekend, and there will be into this weekend as well.
Last night was the national semifinals at the women’s Final Four and tonight will be the men’s edition, before champions are crowned tomorrow and Monday night. With that in mind, for today’s question, I thought I’d ask: who are you rooting for in this year’s Final Fours?
On the
men’s side, there’s a bit of a conundrum surrounding one particular school at this year’s Final Four. According to several reports, UNC was very interested in current Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who has led the Wildcats to Indianapolis. Of course yesterday, we got the news that he has instead come to terms on a new deal with Arizona, despite previous reports that there was some amount of mutual interest.
Previously, it was an interesting question. If UNC did stand a legitimate chance of landing him, would a national championship help or hinder those chances? There were arguments either way, and your rooting interests around Arizona would be understandable no matter which side you landed on.
There’s also the potential for a similar scenario surrounding Michigan coach Dusty May. There’s been less buzz around that possibility, and prying a coach from a high profile Big Ten job seems quite difficult to do, but there’s similar algebra you can do around him and the Wolverines. Personally, I also picked Michigan in various bracket pools, and them winning it all would win me at least some of those, so I may have an interest there.
On both the men’s and women’s side of things, my general opinion is “anyone but UConn.” If a Huskies fan were to find this, they may make some statements about being the dominant force in college basketball, “rent free,” etc. However, that dislike of them really boils down to a dislike of both of their current head coaches. For example, I really didn’t have any sort of dislike for Jim Calhoun. I just don’t want to see either current coach celebrating another title. I will thank the UConn’s men’s team for what they did last weekend against Duke, but that’s where my goodwill ends for this year.
That’s my opinion, but what about you? While we all wish the answer could be “UNC,” who are you rooting for in this year’s Final Fours? Does the UNC coaching search have any sort of impact on those thoughts about that? Let us know!
