UNC falls in NET after win at Florida State

R.L. Bynum,

By R.L. Bynum

No. 3 North Carolina’s fifth road victory and fourth Quad 2 victory didn’t help the Tar Heels in the NET rankings. On the contrary, it somehow hurt them.

After the Tar Heels’ 75–68 victory at Florida State, they fell one spot to seventh even though none of the quad classifications for any games on the schedule changed. After Sunday’s games, UNC fell an additional spot to eighth. The Seminoles fell four spots to 86th Sunday and an additional spot to 87th Monday.

Alabama leapfrogged UNC, going from eighth to sixth after a 109–88 home win over unranked LSU (94th in the NET). It showed once again that if you blow out a team, no matter how bad that team is, your NET ranking goes up. Carolina went up five spots in late December after a 105–60 Quad 4 victory over Charleston Southern.

UNC gets another chance at a Quad 2 victory at 7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN) at Georgia Tech before No. 12 Duke visits the Smith Center at 6:30 Saturday night (ESPN) in a Quad 1 game. Carolina has three other Quad 1 games after that, at Miami on Feb. 10, at Virginia on Feb. 24 and at Duke on March 9.

According to Bracket Matrix, which averages dozens of bracket projections, UNC is projected as the fourth No. 1 seed. The Tar Heels are fifth in KenPom, eighth in Team Rankings and 10th in Bart Torvik’s rankings.

NCAA quadrant system

Quadrant 1 (UNC was 9–3): Home games against teams with a NET ranking of 30 or better, neutral-site games against teams ranked 50 or better, and road games against teams ranked 75 or better
Quadrant 2 (UNC was 7–4): Home 31–75, neutral 51–100, road 76–135
Quadrant 3 (UNC was 6–0): Home 76–160, neutral 101–200, road 135–240
Quadrant 4 (UNC was 5–0): Home 161 or lower, neutral 201 or lower, road 241 or lower

The latest projections of CBS’ Jerry Palm and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s, released Friday, have UNC as the No. 1 seed in the West Regional in Los Angeles and playing first- and second-round games in Charlotte.

The NCAA tournament committee uses the NET rankings as one of its metrics to determine who makes the field and how to seed teams. NET rankings will fluctuate throughout the season, and the only quad designation that matters is where your opponents stand on Selection Sunday, not where they ranked when the game was played.

UNC’s NCAA resume

(Via bracketologists.com)
NET ranking: 8
Season-high: 6 (for five days in January)
Season-low: 38 (Dec. 9)
Average opponent NET: 91
Average NET win: 101
Average NET loss: 53
NET strength of schedule: 31
KenPom: 9
ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI): 9
KPI: 5
Bart Torvick T-Rank: 9

UNC quad schedule breakdown

(Through Saturday’s games)

OpponentNET
ranking		Quad
designation		Outcome
Radford2364Win
Lehigh2674Win
UC Riverside2304Win
(N) Northern Iowa1093Win
(N) Villanova411Loss
(N) Arkansas1153Win
Tennessee71Win
Florida State963Win
(N) Connecticut21Loss
(N) Kentucky191Loss
(N) Oklahoma461Win
Charleston Southern3154Win
At Pittsburgh401Win
At Clemson351Win
At N.C. State631Win
Syracuse842Win
Louisville2174Win
At Boston College802Win
Wake Forest432Win
At Florida State962Win
At Georgia Tech1272Loss
Duke101Win
Clemson352Loss
At Miami1012Win
At Syracuse843Loss
Virginia Tech602Win
At Virginia541Win
Miami1013Win
N.C. State632Win
Notre Dame1243Win
At Duke101Win
Florida State962Win
Pittsburgh401Win
N.C. State632Loss
Quad designations are according to the current NET rankings. The only designation that matters is the designation on Selection Sunday.
DateMonth/dayScoreOpponent/event
(current ranks)		Record
October
27FridayW, 117–53vs. St. Augustine’sExhibition
November
6MondayW, 86–70vs. Radford1–0
12SundayW, 90–68vs. Lehigh2–0
17FridayW, 77–52vs. UC Riverside3–0
Battle 4 Atlantis
in the Bahamas
22WednesdayW, 91–69Northern Iowa4–0
23ThursdayL, 83–81, OTVillanova4–1
24FridayW, 87–72Arkansas5–1
ACC/SEC
Men’s Challenge
29WednesdayW, 100–92vs. No. 6 Tennessee6–1
December
2SaturdayW, 78–70vs. Florida State7–1,
1–0 ACC
Jimmy V Classic
in New York
5TuesdayL, 87–67No. 1 Connecticut7–2
CBS Sports Classic
in Atlanta
16SaturdayL, 87–83No. 12 Kentucky7–3
Jumpman Invitational
in Charlotte
20WednesdayW, 81–69Oklahoma8–3
—————————
29FridayW, 105–60vs. Charleston Southern9–3
January
2TuesdayW, 70–57at Pittsburgh10–3, 2–0 ACC
6SaturdayW, 65–55at Clemson11–3, 3–0 ACC
10WednesdayW, 67–54at N.C. State12–3, 4–0 ACC
13SaturdayW, 103–67vs. Syracuse13–3, 5–0 ACC
17WednesdayW, 86–70vs. Louisville14–3, 6–0 ACC
20SaturdayW, 76–66vs. Boston College15–3, 7–0 ACC
22MondayW, 85–64vs. Wake Forest16–3, 8–0 ACC
27SaturdayW, 75–68at Florida State17–3, 9–0 ACC
30TuesdayL, 74–73at Georgia Tech17–4, 9–1 ACC
February
3SaturdayW, 93–84vs. No. 13 Duke18–4, 10–1 ACC
6TuesdayL, 80–76vs. Clemson18–5, 10–2 ACC
10SaturdayW, 75–72at Miami19–5, 11–2 ACC
13TuesdayL, 86–79at Syracuse19–6, 11–3 ACC
17SaturdayW, 96–81vs. Virginia Tech20–6, 12–3 ACC
24SaturdayW, 54–44at Virginia21–6, 13–3 ACC
26MondayW, 75–71vs. Miami22–6, 14–3 ACC
March
2SaturdayW, 79–70vs. N.C. State23–6, 15–3 ACC
5TuesdayW, 84–51vs. Notre Dame24–6, 16–3 ACC
9SaturdayW, 84–79at No. 13 Duke25–6, 17–3 ACC
ACC tournament
Washington
14ThursdayW, 92–67Quarterfinals:
Florida State		26–6
15FridayW, 72–65Semifinals:
Pittsburgh		27–6
16SaturdayL, 84–76Final:
N.C. State		27–7
NCAA tournament
21ThursdayW, 90–62First round in Charlotte:
Wagner		28–7
23SaturdayW, 85–69Second round in Charlotte:
Michigan State		29–7
28ThursdayL, 89–87Sweet 16 in Los Angeles:
No. 19 Alabama 		29–8

Published by R.L. Bynum

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  1. Pingback: NCAA projections: 3 ACC men’s teams, UNC goes west; 9 ACC women’s teams, Heels a 5 seed

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