Tourney of Champs: The Elite Eight are selected

TOC

As promised this morning in my post about let the celebration begin here are the teams that I will be using in the Round Robin Tournament I nicnamed “UNC Tournament of Champs”. I have changed the format a bit, going from six teams to eight, since I thought a couple of teams needed to be inserted. I doubt anyone is going to complain to reading about more games between ex stars from years past. Before I give the list, please understand that several other teams could easily be in this tourney, but I choose from the years that were available, and I tried not to have back-to-back years, with the same players on the squad.

Of course the four teams (that were available) that won the national championship are going to be in the tournament. Meaning that the Dean Smith’s `81-`82 team will be showcased, along with his `92-`93. And not to be any less, the two from the Roy Williams’ era are here as well (`04-`05 & `08-`09). But I think all of you had these, didn’t you?

Now for the tougher selections. First one is a team that neither Dean Smith nor Roy Williams coached and got to the Final Four. It was the `97-`98 team, which was led by coach Bill Guthridge, and lost to Utah in the Final Four.

The next squad, another very good one, and another one that went to the Final Four, under Dean Smith, is the one from the `90-`91 season. This gives coach Smith a third team in the tournament, and probably won’t be the last one either!

I know this won’t be a popular choice, but I am putting it in more for the fact that I wanted to put a team for each of the four coaches that I have watched as a Tar Heel fan. So I took the `00-`01 team that was led by head coach Matt Doherty during his three year stint at Chapel Hill.

As I said before, coach Smith would probably get one more team in this tournament of mine, and he did, with the selection of the `94-`95 squad. This team too went to the Final Four under Dean Smith, which means he brings to this tournament two NC and two teams a step away from being in the final game.

Now for the rules: Each team will play (in the computer generated program) a home and home with every other team, giving each teams a 14 game schedule. Once those games are done all of the teams will be ranked (by their records from 1st to 8th) and we will have an Elite Eight playoff. First round will be best of three, second round best of five, and the finals best of seven. If you think I am dragging this out you are absolutely correct, cause I love these types of things and love my Carolina!

Edit:

Here is the schedule for Week One:

(second team is the home squad)

`08-`09 vs `90-`91 … (Tuesday)
`04-`05 vs `81-`82 … (Wednesday)
`00-`01 vs `94-`95 … (Thursday)
`97-`98 vs `92-`93 … (Friday)

Scores for each game should be out by mid/late afternoon, with play by play, comments and anything else I can figure out to get into the post. Good luck to all the teams (even if it’s just a computer generated game)!

Shortlink: