2018 NCAA Tournament: West Region preview

The North Carolina Tar Heels are in the West Region for the 2018 NCAA tournament. Let’s breakdown their path to the Final Four.

For a third-straight season, the North Carolina Tar Heels are trying to make the Final Four. This year, they find themselves as a two seed in the west regional.

From the first look of things, the region doesn’t appear to look that hard for the Tar Heels. There are a couple of familiar opponents in there, but North Carolina won’t see them until the later rounds.

North Carolina will kick off their title defense on Friday in a comfortable location. The win over Duke in the ACC Tournament proved to be a deciding factor in getting the Tar Heels to Charlotte.

But even with playing in their home state, the Tar Heels know it won’t be easy. They will face Lipscomb in the first round and should they advance past that, they will get the winner of Texas A&M and Providence.

The other teams in the west region should make for a fun first few games. The number one seed in the region is Xavier and they will face the winner of NC Central and Texas Southern. The Tar Heels have played a total of three teams from this region already: Florida State, who is a nine seed, Ohio State, who is a five seed and Michigan, who is the three seed.

There is also another former Tar Heel coaching in the west region. Wes Miller is heading to the NCAA tournament this year and is facing off against Gonzaga, the four seed, in the first round.

Here is an overview of the entire region.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the region and discuss the Tar Heels path back to another Final Four.