It's a popular go-to.

Tournament expectations weren't met. I simply thought I'd provide thoughtful explanations as to why one could've seen these things coming. I only had one ACC team in my bracket Sweet 16 (not Duke, btw), and my preseason rankings had them fourth among other conferences. So my expectations in terms of relative conference strength weren't that far off.

My expectations for Duke obviously grew much lower in February than they were in November, for a variety of reasons I need not bore people with. But outside of Duke's disappointment, and Virginia exceeding expectations, I'd say everyone else was right around where I thought they would be.

Well, two more exceptions: I thought Notre Dame was a tourney team, but once Jerian Grant went down, that was obviously lost, and I thought BC would take a leap this year, but outside of one game in which they showed their potential, they inexplicably underwhelmed at every turn.

Regarding past Big East slams, I'm at a loss. I realize a lot of people have "conference pride" and cheer for their conferences to be the best and celebrate when other conferences fall, but I've always said fuck all that. I don't want any ACC teams to succeed, only mine. UNC, Cuse, or anyone else winning "on behalf of the ACC" gives me as much pleasure as I'm sure Duke winning on behalf of the conference gives UNC, Cuse, Maryland fans and the like.