NCAA Tournament: UNC-KU in KC suggests selection process is suspect

Wondering how a No. 1 seed could walk into a hostile environment against a 4-seed just 45 minutes from home in the Sweet 16? So is everyone else.

The NCAA Selection Committee claims that its members don’t look at matchups during the selection process each year, but rather the locations involved in placing teams in their respective regions.

Despite the widespread understanding that the aforementioned claim is an absolute lie — one that not even the most pedestrian fan would buy into — the committee continues to pitch the same narrative every March regardless of the multiple obvious examples that there’s nothing random or accidental about their pairings in the tournament.

Take this year’s bracket for example, where there are at least five instances of intentional pairings or potential games to be played in later rounds.

For starters, Minnesota and head coach Richard Pitino will face off with Louisville, where his father was employed for 16 years and helped lead the Cardinals to the 2013 NCAA Championship. Or the way that Marquette’s Markus Howard and Murray State’s Ja Morant, two of the nation’s top scorers and most exciting players, will go head-to-head in their first round matchup, sending one of them home just a few hours into tournament play on Thursday.

Then there’s the committee’s obvious attempt at setting up a second round matchup between Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and UCF head coach and former Blue Devil Johnny Dawkins. And consider the possibility of Kentucky meeting up with North Carolina in the Midwest regional final for a rematch of the game that the Tar Heels won two years ago en route to the 2017 national title.

Last but not least, the committee made sure to put fourth-seeded Kansas in the same region as North Carolina in the “Roy Williams used to coach at Kansas but spurned the Jayhawks to return to North Carolina” classic. Never mind the fact that he’s now been the head coach at North Carolina more than half of his career, or that many of the players currently at either school were in diapers when he made his move from Lawrence to Chapel Hill.

Even more difficult to figure out is the Selection Committee’s decision to put Kansas in the Midwest region, where the Jayhawks have an opportunity to advance two rounds and play a virtual home game at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Not only is it peculiar because Big 12 champion Kansas State was certainly more deserving of that right this season, but also because of the clear disadvantage that it would seem to put No. 1 seed North Carolina at.

The Tar Heels are the team in that region that the committee is expected to favor geographically, not put at a marked disadvantage to a much lower seed in front of a hostile crowd just three games into the tournament. If it’s an oversight on the committee’s part, then it’s an egregious one that should be rectified before next season. If it was a conscious decision, then somebody — or somebodies — need to have their head examined and their position on the committee reevaluated.

Of course, a Kansas team that lacks size, experience, perimeter defense and senior leadership, which also limped into postseason play after losing seven of its final 17 games, may not make it to Kansas City anyway.

Stick with Keeping It Heel for all the latest news and information on the 2019 NCAA Tournament, and everything North Carolina basketball.