ESPN improves NCAA Tournament outlook for UNC basketball after win

The UNC basketball program got its biggest victory of the season on Saturday night, upsetting the Duke Blue Devils in Coach K’s final home game and improving their projected position in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Following an exciting upset victory over the heavily-favored Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night, the Tar Heels are looking like a surefire NCAA Tournament team.

And we aren’t the only ones that think so.

Shortly after the conclusion of the game, ESPN’s John Gasaway moved the Tar Heels from the “work to do” category to a team that “should be in.” He notes in his write-up that the Tar Heels’ convincing Quad 1 win, their second of the season, really reshapes how the NCAA Selection Committee will view their resume moving forward.

"“On a night when the entire college basketball world was focused on Mike Krzyzewski, the North Carolina Tar Heels had other ideas,” Gasaway writes. “UNC scored 55 points in the second half to post a remarkably decisive 94-81 win at Duke. The momentous victory brings an end to what might otherwise have been an interesting conversation. North Carolina’s team-sheet metrics were outstanding, but this group was being continually relegated to the No. 11 or even 12 line in the mocks because of a poor record in Quadrant 1 games. That will be less of an issue going forward because the Tar Heels now have a really good Quadrant 1 win.”"

Wake Forest is in the “should be in” category with North Carolina while Miami, who went on a 15-2 run at the end of the game to beat Syracuse on Saturday afternoon, is grouped with Notre Dame and Virginia Tech in the “work to do” crowd.

Talk of the Tar Heels not making the NCAA Tournament will now cease, as they got their biggest victory of the season over the No. 4 Blue Devils in Durham in a game that they were never expected to win. In fact, the Tar Heels were 11-point underdogs heading into the game, one that was played in front of roughly 100 former Duke players and quite possibly the loudest and most exuberant crowd to ever fill the seats at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Now, at 23-8 overall and 15-5 in Atlantic Coast Conference play, the Tar Heels finish the regular season in a tie for second place and earn the 3-seed in next week’s ACC Tournament. Regardless of how they play there, they’ll hear their name called on Selection Sunday.

At this point, they’re just playing to improve their seed in the big dance.

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