UNC Baseball misses NCAA Tournament
UNC Baseball misses the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001
The selection show started and ended on Monday without any hearing of UNC’s name, this is the first time UNC Baseball has missed the NCAA Tournament since 2001. When Mike Fox was asked about what he thought would be next it was clear he was already thinking about improving for next season. When asked about what he thought after the selection show he had this to say,
"“The door’s closed, so to speak, on this season,” all we can do now is move forward and go back to work.”"
Looking back on the UNC season there is one thing that sticks out that might have made the difference for the Tar Heels. A 6 game ACC losing streak to wrap up the season really hurt the Heels chances of making it into the tournament. After a weekend sweep by Notre Dame, UNC played Virginia at home in the last 3 games of the regular season. UNC would lose the Thursday game in dramatic fashion as the game went into ten innings. After that game the series looked to go downhill as UNC lost the next two games.
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UNC entered the ACC Tournament as the number 8 seed and needed a win against Virginia Tech to advance to the pool play stage of the tournament. The Heels played a good game against the Hokies and won 5-3 to move them into the pool play stage. The thought for UNC is that they would have an advantage over other teams since they already played a game and had some momentum going for them.
Unfortunately that didn’t seem to be the case as UNC as they lost to Louisville 7-4 the next day and then fell to Florida State 8-4. With UNC 0-2 in the pool play stage and eliminated from a shot at the title game the last game against Clemson was a final way to show people why they deserved to play in the postseason and they did just that, beating Clemson with a final score of 6-3.
Going into Monday UNC was one of a few “bubble” teams left in talks for the tournament. When Mike Fox was asked about being a bubble team he had this to say,
"“Any time you’re on the bubble you can’t be surprised, really, one way or the other,” he said. “We just didn’t do enough. We just didn’t do enough – I don’t think we gave the committee enough reasons to get us in, honestly.”"
UNC’s late season losses and mid-week losses were the main reason the Tar Heels were left out of the NCAA Tournament this year. Losses to teams like UNCG, Coastal Carolina, and Davidson really don’t help the Tar Heels out especially when the have to play much tougher teams in weekend series. The Heels need to get all the wins they can and can’t be losing to teams like those in mid-week matchups.
Mike Fox seems eager to get the team back in the fall and start another hunt for Omaha and with 19 new recruits coming in for the 2015-2016 school year including Cole Aker, Sage Diehm, and Brendon Little the Heels look to make a deep run in the postseason.
Both quotes from Andrew Carter of the News and Observer