Dean spent half his career where only 1 team made the Tourney from each conference and he wasn't handed a title b/c of biased officiating like rat face was in 2001.
Carolina's non-conf sched, as usual, has been MUCH tougher than duke.
When did UT lose to la-Lafayette? They have 6 losses- butler, UNC, Vandy, OSU, Auburn and Ole Miss. Not a bad team on that list and they have beaten memphis, Texas and Oklahoma State.
OSU was playing BETTER w/o Oden and they kept that game clsoe b/c of amazing 3 point shooting, w/ Oden they wouldn't have shot as many 3's and we have FOUR qualioty big men to attack Oden.
UK was ranked until this week.
abusing Arizona at Tucson w/o 3 of our key players.
How many top teams do you want them to play? duke's only ranked win was over Air Force. They haven't played 1 FF caliber team yet this year.
Your problem is your taking this argument into a Duke-Carilona argument which it isn't. What I'm stating is simple, Carilona's non-conference schedule is not as good as your making it out to be. ON PAPER, it looks great but at the end of the day, a lot of the teams that might have looked good in the pre-season aren't, that's why pre-season polls are worthless. The first poll shouldn't come out until before conference play because before that it's all guesses. If you want to say Kentucky was ranked until a week ago then Duke has played Georgetown when they were ranked, Gonzaga when they were ranked, Marquette when they were ranked, and Indiana's ranked now, Air Force is too. Does that mean Duke has beaten that many teams that actually deserved those rankings, hell no. What your looking at is the quality of the name of the teams jersey Carilona has played and their ranking. Me, I look at a team in terms of what talent a team has, and if they actually have a chance to win their conference and a National Championship. Aside from Ohio St., who have you guys seen that are that good? That's my point. My point isn't that Duke has seen better ( because they haven't and my point has nothing to do with Duke), it's that let's no tout Carilona's non-conference schedule like they took on the world. Although I agree 100 percent that when you beat the third best team in the Pac 10 at their place like you guys did today your one of the top 5 teams in the country (and were before the win), all I'm arguing is that Carilona's non-conference schedule is more sexy then it is good. And sorry JUNC, you can spin it anyway you want but if Ohio St. had the Oden they have right now, I don't think you guys would have beaten them. They wouldn't have blown you out or anything because you guys are one of the ELITE but I think they would have won because I think Oden would have stabilized Hansborough!
With all that said I will go back to my original thought about Carilona and that is that their going to win the ACC and their a National Champions favorite along with a few other teams. Their one of the top 5 threats for the National Title along with Ohio St, Wisconsin, Florida, and UCLA (in no particular order). I think every team after them (Texas A&M, Duke, Oregon, Kansas, Pitt and whoever else) might have nice records that indicate on paper they are capable of winning it all, but in reality those teams will be exposed by the top tier teams if everything was to go right when they played and we were talking strictly on talent. When it comes to the top 5 teams I mentioned, those teams SHOULD (and probably will) be there in the Elite 8 (all 5 can't got to the Final Four and 1 or 2 will be upset by a lesser talented team) with a chance to play for the Final Four. Anything less is a disappointing season. The rest of the teams in the top 25 with good records, they'll be hit or miss come tournament time, which means they might get hot and do some damage in the tourny or they might be out in the 2nd round. If those teams make it to the Final Four they over-achieveed, if they lose in the 2nd round or sweet 16 that's what was expected of them so no big deal. See I don't hate Carilona so much I'm blinded to say their not one of the best teams in the country. CARILONA IS THE BEST TEAM IN THE ACC AND A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER, it's just their non-conference schedule appears sexier then it really is!