By R.L. Bynum
After first- and second-round games in Charlotte, No. 3 North Carolina will head west in the NCAA men’s tournament, with two bracket projections predicting only three ACC teams in the field. That’s a huge contrast to ESPN’s projection that nine ACC teams will make the women’s field.
ESPN, CBS and The Washington Post all project the ACC-leading Tar Heels (17–3, 9–0), who play at Georgia Tech at 7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN) before hosting No. 7 Duke (16–4, 7–2) at 6:30 Saturday (ESPN), as the No. 1 seed in the West Regional, which will be at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. All three have the Tar Heels, with a NET ranking of 8, playing first- and second-round games at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center.
ESPN’s women’s projection has No. 24 Carolina (15–6, 7–2), with a NET ranking of 32, as the No. 5 seed in the Albany 1 regional, playing first- and second-round games in Los Angeles at Southern Cal’s home court.
The Tar Heels would host first- and second-round games as a No. 4 seed, and will get two chances to improve their NCAA resume this week, visiting No. 5 N.C. State (18–2, 6–2) at 8 p.m. Thursday (ACC Network) and hosting No. 17 Virginia Tech (16–4, 7–2) at noon Sunday (ESPN2).
Last season, eight ACC teams made the women’s field for the fifth consecutive year. The ACC’s 47 bids in the last six tournaments are the most of any conference.
ACC teams ESPN projects to make the women’s field in addition to UNC are N.C. State (2 seed in Portland 3 regional), No. 16 Louisville (18–3, 7–1; 4 in Albany 1 regional), No. 17 Virginia Tech (5 in Portland 3 regional), No. 21 Syracuse (17–3, 7–2; 5 in Albany 4 regional), No. 14 Notre Dame (15–4, 5–3; 6 in Albany 1 regional) Florida State (15–7, 6–4; 7 in Albany 4 regional), Duke (13–7, 5–4; 8 seed in Albany 1 regional) and Miami (13–6, 3–5; 11 in Portland 2 regional).
To contrast the relative respect of the ACC men vs. the ACC women: Miami’s women (41st in the NET), with a 3–5 league record, are projected to make the field, while 6–3 conference records aren’t enough so far to project Virginia (15–5; 49th in the NET) or Florida State (12–8; 87th in the NET) into the men’s field.
If the ESPN and CBS projections for the ACC men are correct (which The Athletic also projects) — with Duke and Clemson (13–6, 3–5) as the only other league teams to make the field — that would be the fewest bids since three made it in 2000 when it was a nine-school league. That year, Carolina went 22–14 and lost 71–59 to Florida in a national semifinal at the Final Four in Indianapolis.
The Washington Post, though, projects the ACC to get four teams, with Wake Forest included in its projection as a First Four team.
Joe Lunardi’s ESPN bracket has Caleb Love’s No. 11 Arizona team (15–5) as the No. 2 seed in the West. Jerry Palm’s CBS bracket sees the No. 2 seed as No. 6 Wisconsin (16–4). Patrick Stevens’ Washington Post bracket has No. 5 Tennessee (14–4), which Carolina beat in Chapel Hill 100–92 on Nov. 29, as the No. 2 seed.
Both brackets have the other No. 1 seeds as No. 1 UConn (18–2; East Regional in Brooklyn), No. 2 Purdue (19–2; Midwest in Indianapolis) and No. 4 Houston (19–2; South in Dallas).
Bracket Matrix, which shows dozens of projections and averages them, has UNC as the fourth No. 1 seed.
ESPN and CBS project Duke for the Midwest Regional in Detroit (a 5 seed, according to ESPN, and a 4 seed, according to CBS). ESPN has Clemson as the 7 seed in the East and CBS has the Tigers as the 4 seed in the South.
ESPN lists Wake Forest and Virginia in the “next four out.” The Athletic lists Florida State, Miami, Syracuse, Virginia and Wake Forest as “on the bubble.” The Washington Post has Wake first in the “last four included” and Virginia in the “first four on the outside.”
Photo by Smith Hardy
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