By R.L. Bynum
No. 4 North Carolina continues to rise in men’s bracket projections with Selection Sunday two months away, while women’s projections suggest the No. 23 Tar Heels have work to do to host the first two rounds.
Both ESPN and CBS project Carolina’s ACC-leading men (13–3, 5–0 ACC), No. 7 in the NET rankings, to play in the South Region, to be played in Dallas, and to get first- and second-round games in Charlotte.
Joe Lunardi’s ESPN bracket has the Tar Heels as a No. 1 seed in the region, with No. 5 Houston (14–2) as the No. 2 seed. His other No. 1 seeds are No. 1 UConn (15–2), No. 2 Purdue (15–2) and No. 3 Kansas (14–2).
Jerry Palm’s CBS bracket has UNC as the No. 2 seed in the South, with Kansas as the No. 1 seed. His other No. 1 seeds are Purdue, UConn and Houston.
Bracket Matrix still shows that the average of dozens of projections has Carolina’s men as a No. 2 seed and the sixth overall seed, with 14 projecting the Tar Heels as a No. 1 seed.
ESPN’s women’s tournament projection has UNC (12–5, 4–1), No. 36 in the NET rankings, as the No. 6 seed in one of the two Albany, N.Y., regionals and playing its first two rounds in Manhattan, Kansas, with No. 7 Kansas State (17–1) the No. 3 seed and the host.
ESPN’s projected No. 1 seeds are No. 1 South Carolina (15–0), No. 2 Iowa (17–1), No. 4 N.C. State (15–1, 3–1) and No. 5 UCLA (14–1).
The Her Hoops bracket projection has UNC as the No. 5 seed in the first Albany regional, playing in Salt Lake City in the first two rounds, with No. 20 Utah (12–5) as the No. 4 seed and host.
In the College Sports Madness projection, UNC is a No. 7 seed in South Carolina’s region, playing in Boulder, Colo., with No. 3 Colorado (15–1) as the No. 3 seed and host.
Photo by Smith Hardy
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