UNC Basketball: Latest Bracketology projections might surprise you
Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology projections will likely please some UNC basketball fans but worry others.
The North Carolina Tar Heels won arguably their biggest and most important game of the season on Saturday night when they bested the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils by a final score of 94-81 in Mike Krzyzewski’s final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
In doing so, they picked up their second Quad 1 win of the season — and now have a third thanks to the Michigan Wolverines’ win at Ohio State on Sunday — and ensured a second-place finish (tie) and No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament.
They were on or around the bubble prior to that game according to most bracketologists, but thanks to that victory they now appear to be safely in the tournament; maybe even more so than we thought they’d be following their commanding win over the Blue Devils during ESPN’s Coach K lovefest.
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Joe Lunardi, for one, has the Tar Heels all the way up to an 8-seed in his updated bracket. He’s got them lined up for a first-round game against the ninth-seeded Iowa State Cyclones which would put that game’s winner in a likely Round of 32 matchup against top seed Arizona.
Now, there’s no doubt that UNC fans are going to feel a measure of comfort just knowing that their team is in the NCAA Tournament’s field of 68, but seeing them on the 8/9 line with a date against a No. 1 seed in the second round is definitely scary.
If the 8/9 line is in fact where the Tar Heels currently sit, then they need to win at least a game or two in this week’s conference tournament to put themselves in a slightly better position to advance in the big dance. That’s not to say that they couldn’t beat Arizona or any of the 1-seeds — and quite frankly if they play the way they did against Duke they could — but their chances against a lower-seeded team almost certainly have to be better.
Things will probably shake up a lot by the time we get to the end of conference tournaments, but the best thing that the Tar Heels can do right now is win. And win again. And win some more.
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