UNC Basketball: CBS’ Jerry Palm reluctantly adds Tar Heels to field of 68

CBS bracketologist Jerry Palm has finally moved the UNC basketball team into the field of 68 in his latest NCAA Tournament projection.

We all know that CBS bracketology expert Jerry Palm doesn’t feel very strongly about the North Carolina Tar Heels. He’s either had them on the bubble or out of his projected NCAA Tournament field for most of the season, even when other bracketologists had them in a much more favorable position.

But following a big road win over the fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils, Palm has reluctantly bumped the Tar Heels up from one of his first four teams out of the tournament to an 11-seed in the West Region. That would pit the Tar Heels up against Palm’s projected 6-seed, the 24-4 Colorado State Rams, who finished in second place of the Mountain West Conference with a league record of 14-4.

That’s all likely to change, of course, as we’ve still got a full slate of conference tournaments to get through before Selection Sunday arrives a week from today. It’s also likely that if the Tar Heels give Palm any reason to remove them from his current field of 68, he will.

Despite improving to No. 32 in the NET rankings, having three Quad 1 wins to their resume, a second-place finish in a Power 5 conference, and a record of 23-8, the Tar Heels still haven’t convinced Palm that they truly belong in the tournament. Furthermore, do the Tar Heels fall out of Palm’s bracket if they go one-and-done in the ACC Tournament?

We’ll just have to wait and see what the Tar Heels do later this week when they play their first game in the ACC Tournament, a quarterfinal game against a team yet to be determined. Regardless of who their opponent is, a win would make the Tar Heels a surefire lock to make the NCAA Tournament, even in the eyes of Palm.

A UNC loss, on the other hand, would give Palm all the ammunition he needs to boot the Tar Heels from his bracket once and for all.

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