By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — The only way that a Quad 4 win can help a team is if it’s a blowout, and North Carolina’s overtime victory Saturday over Boston College was decidedly not like that on a day that a Tar Heels loss earlier in the week was upgraded.
The 102–96 Saturday overtime win for UNC (13–8, 6–3 ACC) avoided a disastrous Quad 4 loss that would have been a black mark on the Tar Heels’ NCAA resume. Even with the win, UNC dropped one spot to 40th in the NET rankings.
Boston College (9–11, 1–8) went up seven spots to 224th after nearly pulling the upset but still has the second-worst NET rankings of any power conference team. The only power conference team with a lower NET ranking is Miami (4–16, 0–9), which went up seven spots to 240 after its 98–94 overtime loss Saturday at California (11–0, 4–5; 118 in the NET).
“I’m taking this win, I know it was ugly, but a win is a win,” said RJ Davis after leading the team with 22 points and five assists. “We’re at a point right now where we’re just trying to stack some wins, and we’ll take the wins how they come. So, it was ugly today, but it’ll go up on the scoreboard as a W, so we’re good.”
Wake Forest (15–5, 7–2) delivered some good news for UNC with its impressive effort in a 63–56 home loss Saturday to No. 2 Duke (17–2, 9–0; 2nd in NET). The Deacons moved up six spots to 71st, flipping UNC’s 67–66 loss Tuesday in Winston-Salem from Quad 2 to Quad 1.
How good the Tar Heels are in the eyes of the NCAA tournament selection committee may come down to their performance in the next four games, three of them Quad 1 opportunities.
The NCAA tournament committee, which UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham chairs, 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 is 3–1; 8 games left): 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 is 1–0; 5 games left): Home 31–75, neutral 51–100, road 76–135
Quadrant 3 (UNC is 2–0; 5 games left): Home 76–160, neutral 101–200, road 135–240
Quadrant 4 (UNC is 6–0; no games left): Home 161 or lower, neutral 201 or lower, road 241 or lower
Only 58 of 80 projections listed on Bracket Matrix — most made before the Boston College win — have UNC in the field, with the consensus predicting the Tar Heels as the highest No. 11 seed. The 22 projections leaving the Tar Heels out of the field is up from 12 just after the loss to Wake Forest.
The DRATINGS website projects the Tar Heels the highest, predicting that they will be the highest No. 8 seed.
Jerry Palm, in CBS’ projection released Friday afternoon, has UNC as a No. 11 seed in the East Region and playing in the First Four against New Mexico (15–4, 58th in NET), with a potential first-round matchup with No. 6-seed Michigan (15–5; 13th in NET) in Milwaukee. No. 2 Duke (16–2, 8–0; 2nd in NET) is the region’s No. 1 seed and Michigan State (16–2, 16th in NET) is the No. 2 seed.
In projections released Friday, Joe Lunardi’s latest ESPN projection has UNC as the fourth team on his “last four byes” list, meaning it is one spot away from being sent to the First Four in Dayton, Ohio.
UNC has two Quad 1 road games this week — 9 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN) against Pittsburgh (13–6, 4–4; 32nd in NET) and 6:30 Saturday (ESPN) against No. 2 Duke. After a Quad 2 home game against the Panthers a week later, on Saturday, Feb. 8, Carolina heads to Clemson (17–4, 9–1; 31st in the NET) two days afterward, on Monday, Feb. 10, for a Quad 1 game.
After that, the rematch against the Blue Devils in Chapel Hill on March 8 is the only lock to be a Quad 1 game.
The Feb. 24 visit to Florida State (13–7, 4–5) is still penciled in as a Quad 1 game. But after the Seminoles’ 78–71 loss Saturday at Stanford, they fell three spots to 75th in the NET. For that game to be Quad 1, that’s the lowest FSU’s NET ranking can go.
UNC’s NCAA résumé
(Via bracketologists.com)
NET ranking: 15
High NET: 13 (2 days)
Low NET: 26 (2 days)
Average opponent NET: 161
Average NET win: 173
Average NET loss: 13
NET strength of schedule: 76
KenPom: 21
ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI): 30
Bart Torvick T-Rank: 21
UNC quad schedule breakdown
(Through Tuesday games)
| Opponent | NET ranking | Current quad designation | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Arkansas | 236 | 4 | Win |
| Kansas | 16 | 1 | Win |
| Radford | 295 | 4 | Win |
| N.C. Central | 350 | 4 | Win |
| Navy | 206 | 4 | Win |
| (N) St. Bonaventure | 99 | 2 | Win |
| (N) Michigan State | 13 | 1 | Loss |
| At Kentucky | 26 | 1 | Win |
| Georgetown | 140 | 3 | Win |
| USC Upstate | 208 | 4 | Win |
| ETSU | 155 | 3 | Win |
| (N) Ohio State | 43 | 1 | Win |
| East Carolina | 303 | 4 | Win |
| Florida State | 129 | 3 | |
| At SMU | 36 | 1 | |
| Wake Forest | 68 | 2 | |
| At Stanford | 76 | 2 | |
| At California | 46 | 1 | |
| Notre Dame | 81 | 3 | |
| At Virginia | 23 | 1 | |
| Georgia Tech | 190 | 3 | |
| Syracuse | 88 | 3 | |
| Duke | 3 | 1 | |
| At Miami | 34 | 1 | |
| Pittsburgh | 115 | 3 | |
| At N.C. State | 31 | 1 | |
| At Syracuse | 88 | 2 | |
| Louisville | 17 | 1 | |
| Virginia Tech | 62 | 2 | |
| Clemson | 37 | 2 | |
| At Duke | 3 | 1 |
| Team | League | Overall | NET* |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 0–0 | 12–1 | 46 |
| No. 12 North Carolina | 0–0 | 12–1 | 15 |
| No. 6 Duke | 0–0 | 11–1 | 3 |
| No. 21 Virginia | 0–0 | 11–1 | 23 |
| Miami | 0–0 | 11–2 | 34 |
| Virginia Tech | 0–0 | 11–2 | 62 |
| No. 16 Louisville | 0–0 | 10–2 | 17 |
| SMU | 0–0 | 10–2 | 36 |
| Stanford | 0–0 | 10–2 | 76 |
| Clemson | 0–0 | 10–3 | 37 |
| N.C. State | 0–0 | 9–4 | 31 |
| Notre Dame | 0–0 | 9–4 | 81 |
| Syracuse | 0–0 | 9–4 | 88 |
| Wake Forest | 0–0 | 9–4 | 68 |
| Georgia Tech | 0–0 | 8–4 | 190 |
| Florida State | 0–0 | 7–6 | 129 |
| Pittsburgh | 0–0 | 7–6 | 115 |
| Boston College | 0–0 | 6–6 | 191 |
* — Through Tuesday games
Sunday’s results
Pittsburgh 80, Penn State 46
N.C. State 76, Ole Miss 62
No. 11 Vanderbilt 98, Wake Forest 67
Purdue Ft. Wayne 72, Notre Dame 69
SMU 99, Central Arkansas 82
Clemson 68, Cincinnati 65
Miami 105, North Florida 67
California 74, Columbia 56
Monday’s results
No. 12 North Carolina 99, East Carolina 51
No. 21 Virginia 95, American 51
Syracuse 77, Stonehill 48
Boston College 72, Fairleigh Dickinson 61
Florida State 87, Jacksonville 63
Saturday’s game
Cal State Northridge at Stanford, 8 p.m., ACCN Extra
Sunday’s games
Le Moyne at Boston College, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Cal State Fullerton at SMU, 3 p.m., ACCN Extra
Florida A&M at Georgia Tech, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Tuesday, Dec. 30, games
Florida State at No. 12 North Carolina, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Pittsburgh at Miami, 7 p.m., ACC Network
No. 16 Louisville at California, 9 p.m, ACC Network
Notre Dame at Stanford, 9 p.m., ESPN2
| Date | Month/day | Time | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. No. 10 BYU in SLC | Exhib. |
| 29 | Wednesday | W, 95–53 | vs. Winston-Salem St. | Exhib. |
| November | ||||
| 3 | Monday | W, 94–54 | vs. Central Arkansas | 1–0 |
| 7 | Friday | W, 87–74 | vs. No. 17 Kansas | 2–0 |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 89–74 | vs. Radford | 3–0 |
| 14 | Friday | W, 97–53 | vs. N.C. Central | 4–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 73–61 | vs. Navy | 5–0 |
| Fort Myers Tip-Off | ||||
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 85–70 | vs. St. Bonaventure | 6–0 |
| 27 | Thursday | L, 74–58 | vs. No. 9 Michigan State | 6–1 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 2 | Tuesday | W, 67–64 | at Kentucky | 7–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 7 | Sunday | W, 81–61 | vs. Georgetown | 8–1 |
| 13 | Saturday | W, 80–62 | vs. USC Upstate | 9–1 |
| 16 | Tuesday | W, 77–58 | vs. ETSU | 10–1 |
| CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta | ||||
| 20 | Saturday | W, 71–70 | vs. Ohio State | 11–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 22 | Monday | W, 99–51 | vs. East Carolina | 12–1 |
| 30 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Florida State | ESPN2 |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Saturday | 2:15 | at SMU | The CW |
| 10 | Saturday | 6 p.m. | vs. Wake Forest | ACCN |
| 14 | Wednesday | 9 p.m. | at Stanford | ACCN |
| 17 | Saturday | 4 p.m. | at California | ACCN |
| 21 | Wednesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Notre Dame | ESPN2 |
| 24 | Saturday | 2 or 2:30 | at No. 21 Virginia | ESPN or ESPNU |
| 31 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | at Georgia Tech | ACCN |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. Syracuse | ESPN |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | vs. No. 6 Duke | ESPN |
| 10 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at Miami | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 14 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | vs. Pittsburgh | ESPN |
| 17 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at N.C. State | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 21 | Saturday | 1 p.m. | at Syracuse | ABC |
| 23 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. No. 16 Louisville | ESPN |
| 28 | Saturday | 6:30 or 8:30 | vs. Virginia Tech | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Clemson | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | at No. 6 Duke | ESPN |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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