UNC gains Quad 1 win but falls in NET rankings after two blowouts on Tuesday

R.L. Bynum,

By R.L. Bynum

Just because No. 10 Carolina isn’t playing a mid-week game doesn’t mean there aren’t fluctuations in the Tar Heels’ NCAA resume.

A pair of Tuesday night blowouts both helped and hurt the league-leading Tar Heels (20–6, 12–3 ACC), who fell one spot to 10th in the NET rankings.

The helpful result was Wake Forest’s 91–58 home victory over Pittsburgh that shot the Deacons (17–9, 9–6) up 14 spots in the NET rankings to 26. That made UNC’s 85–64 home win on Jan. 22 over Wake Forest the Tar Heels’ sixth Quad 1 victory since the threshold is 30.

The not-so-helpful result was No. 15 Creighton’s 85–66 victory over No. 1 UConn (24–3, 14–2 Big East). Strangely, that didn’t change the Huskies’ NET ranking (which stayed at 4), but it allowed the Bluejays (20–7, 11–5) to leapfrog UNC, going from 13 to 9.

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.

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

Carolina’s 4 p.m. Saturday game at Virginia (20–7, 11–5) is still comfortably a Quad 1 game with the Cavaliers at 48 in the NET rankings, but the only other Quad 1 game on the Tar Heels’ schedule is the regular-season finale against Duke (16th).

The home games Feb. 26 against Miami (15–11, 6–9, 77th in the NET) and March 2 against N.C. State (16–10, 8–7, 80th) are Quad 3 contests and the March 5 home game against Notre Dame (9–16, 4–10, 153rd) is Quad 4.

The Cavaliers’ 75–41 Monday loss at Virginia Tech dropped them to 1½ games back of UNC. No. 8 Duke (20–5, 11–3, 16th) can tie UNC for the ACC lead with a win at Miami at 7 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN).

In other metrics, UNC is 5th in KPI, 10th in KenPom and 12th in BPI and Bart Torvik’s T-Rank.

The NCAA tournament committee’s bracket reveal before UNC’s Saturday win over the Hokies had the Tar Heels as the top No. 2 seed.

Bracket Matrix’s average of 108 bracket projections has UNC as the second-highest No. 2 seed.

Joe Lunardi’s ESPN projection and Jerry Palm’s CBS projection both have UNC as the No. 2 seed in the East and playing first- and second-round games in Charlotte. Both have UConn as the No. 1 seed in the East.

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

Leave a comment