By R.L. Bynum
North Carolina appears to have done enough to host first- and second-round games in the NCAA women’s tournament for the first time in 10 years, but the Tar Heels will have to wait a week to find out.
The No. 14 Tar Heels (27–7) haven’t hosted since 2015, when they went 26–9 and lost to South Carolina in the Sweet 16. The selection show airs on ESPN next Sunday at 8 p.m.
UNC put its hosting chances in peril by losing its final two regular-season games, including a 68–54 road loss at No. 11 and ACC champion Duke (26–7) and a damaging Quad 3 home loss to Virginia (17–15) while stars Alyssa Ustby and Reniya Kelly were nursing knee injuries.
But a 78–71 win over Boston College (when Ustby returned) and a 60–56 Quad 1 victory over No. 22 Florida State (with Kelly back) last week in the ACC tournament in Greensboro likely regained the Tar Heels’ status as one of the top-4 seeds, which comes with being able to host.
Hosting will allow Ustby to play again in Carmichael Arena after sitting out senior day.
ESPN’s Charlie Creme and Her Hoops Stats’ Megan Gauer project UNC to be a No. 4 seed and host the first two rounds in one of the Birmingham regionals, with No. 5 South Carolina as that region’s No. 1 seed. In a Friday projection before the win over the Seminoles, Connor Groel of CBS had UNC as a No. 3 seed.
Creme’s projections for UNC the last two seasons were wrong. He projected UNC to host in 2023, but the selection committee sent the Tar Heels to Columbus, Ohio, for the first two rounds.
Carolina has to hope more factors will be considered besides NET ranking since the Tar Heels were 20th in that metric after Saturday’s results. The Tar Heels are 7–5 in Quad 1 games, 4–1 in Quad 2, and 16–1 in all other games.
UNC is 1–3 against South Carolina in NCAA play. The Gamecocks eliminated the Heels last season (88–41 in the second round), in 2022 (69–61 in Sweet 16) and in 2015 (67–65 in Sweet 16), with UNC’s only NCAA win over South Carolina coming in 2014 (65–58 in the Elite Eight.)
Gauer has nine ACC teams in the field and Creme predicts the league will get eight bids.
UNC season statistics
Non-conference schedule
| Date | Day/ month | Time | Opponent/event (rank in final poll) |
|---|---|---|---|
| November | |||
| 2 | Monday | TBA | Oui-Play in Paris vs. No 12 Oklahoma |
| 8 | Sunday | TBA | Ally Tipoff in Charlotte vs. No. 2 South Carolina |
| 11 | Wednesday | TBA | vs. N.C. Central |
| 14 | Saturday | TBA | at Penn in Palestra |
| WBCA Showcase Orlando | |||
| 19 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | vs. Texas Tech |
| 21 | Saturday | 5 p.m. | vs. No. 24 Alabama |
| ——— | |||
| 24 | Tuesday | TBA | vs. Gardner-Webb |
| 27 | Friday | TBA | vs. Army |
| 29 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Brown |
| December | |||
| 2 | Wednesday | TBA | ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge vs. No. 8 LSU |
| 6 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Elon |
| 9 | Wednesday | 11 a.m. | vs. Winthrop |
| 21 | Monday | TBA | vs. Norfolk State |
| 28 | Monday | TBA | vs. UNCW |
ACC home opponents: Duke, N.C. State, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Virginia.
ACC road opponents: Duke, Stanford, California, Louisville, Clemson, Miami, Syracuse, SMU and Pittsburgh
Photo courtesy of the ACC
