By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina jumped four spots to 16 in the NET rankings, the second-highest in the ACC, after the Tar Heels’ second Quad 3 victory.

The jump came after the 77–58 victory over East Tennessee State on Tuesday night. After Wednesday’s games, the Tar Heels slid up to 15.

No. 12-ranked UNC (10–1) now has a better NET ranking than No. 11 Louisville (9–2), which dropped six spots in the NET to 17 after the Cardinals’ 83–62 loss Tuesday at No. 20 Tennessee.

No. 3 Duke (11–0) stayed at 2nd in the NET after rallying from 10 points down in the first half to beat Lipscomb 97–73 at home Tuesday.

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 is 4–3; 5 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 1–1; 3 games left): Home 31–75, neutral 51–100, road 76–135
Quadrant 3 (UNC is 6–0; 2 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

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The remaining Quad 1 games on the Tar Heels’ schedule are down from 10 to 9 after Clemson fell below the threshold of 30 for home games to be Quad 1 status.

The Tigers (9–3) dropped from 30 to 31 after their 68–61 home win Tuesday over rival South Carolina, then fell to 32 after Wednesday’s games. The March 2 game in the Smith Center currently is Quad 2, but it would not take much for that to change.

One of those nine Quad 1 games is at 3 p.m. Saturday at the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta against Ohio State (8–2), which is 49th in the NET, just ahead of the 50 needed for a neutral-site game to be Quad 1.

With the quirks of the NET, a UNC victory over the Buckeyes could easily knock that down to a Quad 2.

UNC’s other Quad 1 games are:
— Jan. 2 at SMU (9–2; NET ranking of 43).
— Jan. 17 at California (10–1; 63).
— Jan. 23 at No. 24 Virginia (9–1; 21).
— Feb. 7 vs. No. 3 Duke (11–0; 2) and March 7 at Duke.
— Feb. 10 at Miami (10–2; 33).
— Feb. 16 at N.C. State (7–4; 33).
— Feb. 23 vs. No. 11 Louisville (9–2; 17).

The Dec. 22 home game against East Carolina is the only remaining game on the schedule that’s currently a Quad 4 game. The Feb. 14 home game with Pittsburgh was a Quad 4, but moved to Quad 3 when the Panthers’ NET ranking moved to 154 after their 103–63 Wednesday home victory over Binghamton.

UNC’s NCAA résumé

(Via bracketologists.com)
NET ranking: 25
High NET: 13 (2 days)
Low NET: 30 (4 days)
Average opponent NET: 122
Average NET win: 141
Average NET loss: 44
NET strength of schedule: 50
KenPom: 29
ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI): 32
Bart Torvick T-Rank: 29

UNC quad schedule breakdown

(Through Saturday games)

Date	Opponent	NET ranking	Current quad designation	Outcome
N3	Central Arkansas	199	4	Win
N7	Kansas	14	1	Win
N11	Radford	243	4	Win
N14	N.C. Central	340	4	Win
N18	Navy	170	4	Win
N25	(N) St. Bonaventure	146	3	Win
N27	(N) Michigan State	11	1	Loss
D2	At Kentucky	28	1	Win
D7	Georgetown	95	3	Win
D13	USC Upstate	286	4	Win
D16	ETSU	129	3	Win
D20	(N) Ohio State	40	1	Win
D22	East Carolina	289	4	Win
D30	Florida State	102	3	Win
J3	At SMU	34	1	Loss
J10	Wake Forest	70	2	Win
J14	At Stanford	78	2	Loss
J17	At California	51	1	Loss
J21	Notre Dame	85	3	Win
J24	At Virginia	18	1	Win
J31	At Georgia Tech	143	3	Win
F2	Syracuse	73	3
F7	Duke	2	1
F10	At Miami	39	1
F14	Pittsburgh	114	3
F17	At N.C. State	26	1
F21	At Syracuse	`73`	2
F23	Louisville	17	1
F28	Virginia Tech	56	2
M3	Clemson	31	1
M7	At Duke	2	1

Quad designations are according to the current NET rankings. The only designation that matters is the designation on Selection Sunday.

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 13 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. 14 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. 7 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	W, 79–66	vs. Florida State	13–1, 1–0 ACC
	January
3	Saturday	L, 97–83	at SMU	13–2, 1–1
10	Saturday	W, 87–84	vs. Wake Forest	14–2, 2–1
14	Wednesday	L, 95–90	at Stanford	14–3, 2–2
17	Saturday	L, 84–78	at California	14–4, 2–3
21	Wednesday	W, 91–69	vs. Notre Dame	15–4, 3–3
24	Saturday	W, 85–80	at No. 17 Virginia	16–4, 4–3
31	Saturday	W, 91–75	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 5–3
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 4 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. 20 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 22 Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 4 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte