UNC Basketball: Heels Drop in Early Bracket Projection

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the UNC basketball team moving in the wrong direction in his latest bracket update.

The UNC basketball team has had an extremely difficult last couple of weeks, and the national hype that the Tar Heels had heading into the season has quickly turned to heavy criticism.  After failing to look impressive against mid-major programs in their first five games, Carolina has now lost four in a row and has dropped from #1 in the AP Poll to unranked in just two weeks.

Today, ESPN “Bracketologist” Joe Lunardi released an updated bracket, and he has moved the Tar Heels all the way down to the eight-seed line.  Lunardi previously had UNC slotted as a one-seed prior to the season.

It is hard to argue that the Heels currently deserve a higher spot in the bracket, as they are 0-4 thus far against power conference competition.  With that being said, all four of UNC’s losses are against teams that are currently safely in the bracket according to Lunardi.

Similar to last year, Carolina could be in a tough spot if they are unable to pick up a couple of quality wins in the non-conference (they still face Ohio State and Michigan) due to the negative perception of the ACC.  In the league, only Virginia and Duke are currently ranked, and the Heels already missed an opportunity for a quality road win at Virginia Tech on Saturday.

While it is still early, if Carolina is unable to turn things around quickly it will be tough to build an impressive tournament resume in the ACC.  Last year, Carolina was able to use the “bubble” talk as fuel and turned their season around in March.  The Heels need to start beating some quality teams soon, or the national media will make sure the bubble talk returns.

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