Oh Well...

The season is over for both Duke and Xavier. My dream of a Duke vs. Xavier game, to go to the Final Four, is over. Both teams lost last night. Xavier was the underdog, so it was kind of expected for them to lose. Duke, however, was the higher seeded team, so their loss was harder to take. Needless to say, I am bummed.

Xavier played their hearts out. They kept it close, but Pitt was able to pull away in the last minute of the game. Xavier had a great season and this year has given them a lot to build on for next year.

Duke was never really in their game after half-time. It seemed they were out of sorts the entire second half. Their big three players, Gerald Henderson, Kyle Singler, and Jon Scheyer, all had one of their worst games of the year. Even though they didn't make it to the Final Four, they still had a really great season. They won 30 games this year. Coach K has set the bar so high that anything less then a Final Four is a bit of a disappointment. That says a great deal for Duke's basketball program. Duke has a great recruiting class coming in, so maybe next year will be the year they make it back to the Final Four.

March Madness always seems to lose a bit of it's excitement for me when Duke gets eliminated. Sure, I will still watch many of the games, but it's not quite the same. With Duke and Xavier both losing, I don't have a team that I really want to win. But, as the old saying goes, "There's always next year."