UNC Basketball: Tar Heels finally on right side of bubble?
The UNC basketball program looks to be on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, but for how long?
The North Carolina Tar Heels are winners of four straight games and 10 of their last 12, and finally find themselves on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble just two weeks ahead of Selection Sunday. At least, it seems that way for the time being.
Obviously, that could change, and I wouldn’t be all that surprised if it did. That’s particularly true if they come out and lay another egg against the Duke Blue Devils in their final regular season game of the season, a rematch of an embarrassing 20-point loss that the Tar Heels suffered at the Dean Smith Center in early February.
Although ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has had the Tar Heels in his projected NCAA Tournament field for quite some time, CBS’ bracketology expert Jerry Palm has not. In fact, it wasn’t until after the Tar Heels’ thrilling come-from-behind overtime victory against the Syracuse Orange on Monday night that Palm added them to his field of 68. But alas, he did, and they currently rank among those in the tournament’s first four games.
He’s got North Carolina pegged as a 12-seed and slated to play against the Florida Gators to open up the tournament. Other teams listed in Palm’s “first four” include 11-seeds Memphis and Wake Forest and 16-seeds Nicholls State, Cleveland State, Alcorn State and Bryant.
With a victory over Duke this weekend, the Tar Heels’ position would obviously improve and their inclusion in the tournament would be 100 percent solidified. A loss, on the other hand, specifically a lopsided one, could put them back on the outside looking in.
At least according to Jerry Palm.
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Check back with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the Tar Heels’ projected position in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, as well as everything on the UNC basketball program.