UNC’s 54th NCAA tournament appearance will start in First Four

By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina’s non-conference strength of schedule was ultimately enough to get the Tar Heels into the NCAA tournament field. In the program’s 54th appearance, they’ll play in the First Four as the last team in the field.

UNC (22–13) will meet San Diego State on Tuesday at 9:10 p.m. (truTV) in a battle of No. 11 seeds for the right to advance to Milwaukee’s Fiserve Forum on Friday in the South Region to meet No. 6-seed Ole Miss (22–11) at 4:05 p.m. (TNT). If UNC wins that round of 64 game, it would play on Sunday against the winner of the game between No. 3-seed Iowa State (24–9) and No. 14-seed Lipscomb (25–9).

If Carolina makes it to the second weekend, those games would be in Atlanta at the State Farm Arena.

The decision by the NCAA tournament selection committee, which UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham chairs, came after only 24.3% of the Sunday projections on Bracket Matrix (27 of 111) had the Tar Heels in the field, with most putting the Tar Heels among the first four teams out.

Wins above bubble (WAB) was a metric that helped Carolina make the field. As the last team in the field, the Tar Heels wouldn’t have been in the field if two No. 1 seeds won their conference championship games on Sunday: VCU in the Atlantic 10 tournament and Memphis in the American Athletic tournament.

Three other ACC teams made the field: No. 1-ranked Duke (31–3; No. 1 seed in East Regional), No. 13-ranked Louisville (27–7; No. 8 seed in the South Region) and No. 10 Clemson (27–6; No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region).

The Tar Heels’ late surge with eight wins in the last 10 games was enough to get on the right side of the bubble despite their 1–12 record in Quad 1 games.

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Date	Month/day	Scores	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
15	Tuesday	W, 84–76	at No. 16 Memphis	Exhibition
27	Sunday	W, 127–63	vs. Johnson C. Smith	Exhibition
	November
4	Monday	W, 90–76	vs. Elon	1–0
8	Friday	L, 92–89	at Kansas	1–1
15	Friday	W, 107–55	vs. American	2–1
22	Friday	W, 85–69	at Hawai’i	3–1
			Maui Invitational
25	Monday	W, 92–90	Dayton	4–1
26	Tuesday	L, 85–72	No. 3 Auburn	4–2
27	Wednesday	L, 94–91, OT	No. 7 Michigan State	4–3
	December		ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
4	Wednesday	L, 94–79	vs. No. 5 Alabama	4–4
			—————————
7	Saturday	W, 68–65	vs. Georgia Tech	5–4, 1–0 ACC
14	Saturday	W, 93–67	vs. LaSalle	6–4
			Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte
17	Tuesday	L, 90–84	No. 4 Florida	6–5
			CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden
21	Saturday	W, 76–74	UCLA	7–5
			—————————
29	Sunday	W, 97–81	vs. Campbell	8–5
	January
1	Wednesday	L, 83–70	at No. 13 Louisville	8–6, 1–1
4	Saturday	W, 74–73	at Notre Dame	9–6, 2–1
7	Tuesday	W, 82–67	vs. SMU	10–6, 3–1
11	Saturday	W, 63–61	at N.C. State	11–6, 4–1
15	Wednesday	W, 79–53	vs. California	12–6, 5–1
18	Saturday	L, 72–71	vs. Stanford	12–7, 5–2
21	Tuesday	L, 67–66	at Wake Forest	12–8, 5–3
25	Saturday	W, 102–96, OT	vs. Boston College	13–8, 6–3
28	Tuesday	L, 73–65	at Pittsburgh	13–9, 6–4
	February
1	Saturday	L, 87–70	at No. 1 Duke	13–10, 6–5
8	Saturday	W, 67–66	vs. Pittsburgh	14–10, 7–5
10	Monday	L, 85–65	at No. 10 Clemson	14–11, 7–6
15	Saturday	W, 88–82	at Syracuse	15–11, 8–6
19	Wednesday	W, 97–73	vs. N.C. State	16–11, 9–6
22	Saturday	W, 81–66	vs. Virginia	17–11, 10–6
24	Monday	W, 96–85	at Florida State	18–11, 11–6
	March
1	Saturday	W, 92–73	vs. Miami	19–11, 12–6
4	Tuesday	W, 91–59	at Virginia Tech	20–11, 13–6
8	Saturday	L, 82–69	vs. No. 1 Duke	20–12, 13–7
			ACC tournament Spectrum Center, Charlotte
12	Wednesday	W, 76–56	2nd-round: vs. Notre Dame	21–12
13	Thursday	W, 68–59	Quarterfinal: vs. Wake Forest	22–12
14	Friday	L, 72–71	Semifinal: vs. No. 1 Duke	22–13
			NCAA tournament
18	Tuesday	9:10 p.m.	First Four in Dayton, Ohio: vs. San Diego State	truTV
21	Friday	4:05 p.m.	First round in Milwaukee (with Tuesday win): vs. Ole Miss	TNT

Photo by Smith Hardy