UNC Basketball: Loss to Duke puts Tar Heels on bubble

The UNC basketball team fell behind early in Saturday’s showdown with Duke and they never recovered as the Blue Devils went on to rout the Tar Heels in front of the packed Dean Dome crowd.

It was a disappointing night for UNC as they saw their win streak get snapped but more importantly, it was disappointing to see the effort out there on the court. While the loss dropped UNC to a tie for fourth place in the conference, it did some damage to their NCAA Tournament resume.

The loss moved UNC to 0-7 in Quad 1 games this year and all of those have been ugly games for the Tar Heels. As it stands right now, they have just one more chance to get a Quad 1 win this year, and that’s the regular-season finale…at Duke. So yeah, it’s not likely they pick one up there.

Following the game, ESPN’s resident bracket expert Joe Lunardi updated his Bracketology and the result dropped UNC to the bubble.

The Tar Heels are currently one of the last four byes in the field and are third among those four teams. Joining UNC on that line is BYU, Wyoming and Oklahoma. Behind them in the last four in are Oregon, Notre Dame, San Diego State and Florida.

Now, this doesn’t mean UNC is not in the field. But they are on the bubble and really can’t afford many losses moving forward. With 8 games left and an 8-4 conference record, they need to find a way to get to 14 wins in conference play at the minimum which would put them at 22 wins on the year.

From there, they need to have a good showing in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament and have to avoid any upsets. It’s not time to panic, but it’s getting close.

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