Final Four fever is in full bloom in Indianapolis with all of the teams arriving yesterday various activities starting to take place, including tonight's 3-point and slam dunk contest involving Danny Granger and Dahntay Jones as judges.
The Pacers will remain in the mix since they have home games on Friday and Sunday perfectly placed in the down time surrounding the practices and games so there should be plenty of buzz in the Fieldhouse. There should be pleny of college hoop luminaries in the crowd especially with Dwyane Wade in town on Friday.
There's some buzz in the Pacers' locker room as well with so many players from big-time programs who have played on the big stage of the NCAA Tournament and Final Four. This week the Duke trio of Mike Dunleavy, Josh McRoberts and Dahntay have bragging rights and it sounds like Dunleavy for one is taking full advantage.
Dunleavy talked with Eddie Whiteyesterday afternoon and naturally the conversation turned to Duke coming to Indy for the Final Four. He didn't guarantee a win for the Dukies saying it was wide open, but did say he'd be rooting for a Duke vs. Butler championship game on Monday.
Eddie couldn't pass up the chance to stoke the rivalry fires with North Carolina and Dunleavy delivered.
Eddie: Did you give Hansbrough some crap for the season that he Tar Heel turned out this year and did you give Murph a hard time for Notre Dame going out in the first game flame out?Dunleavy: Well, Tyler hasn't been around a whole lot with his injuries and stuff, but last night when I turned on the TV after we got home, Carolina was playing in the semis in the NIT and I'm not gonna lie, I had to laugh a little bit. You don't see UNC playing in the NIT final four very often, so I sent him a text message and gave him a hard time about it. It's always fun, between him and Murph and Brandon Rush and all of the other guys that played at big programs, we have a lot of fun this time of year.
Dunleavy isn't exactly a boastful, trash-talking type of guy so it has to hurt UNC fans even more considering the visual of Dunleavy guffawing at their expense while Duke preps for the Final Four. Ouch.
Speaking of Dunleavy at Duke, Bruno checked in with Earl Watson on his NCAA Tourney memories including his best chance at a Final Four ending at the hand of Duke's eventual National Championship team.