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After a breakout season that ended by giving eventual national champion South Carolina its toughest NCAA tournament game, expectations are high for North Carolina’s women’s basketball team next season. The Tar Heels peaked in the AP Top 25 at No. 16 on Feb. 28 but are higher than that in two “way-too-early” preseason rankings that came out this week. The only ACC team picked higher than Carolina on both lists is Notre Dame.
My Chicago Cubs cap got me some national television time and eventually got praise from Brady Manek. This was one of the craziest aspects of my long March experience that put me on the road 14 of 27 days. It started innocently enough. The television lights are so bright in these arenas that they’re hard on the eyes. Instead of constantly putting my hand above my eyes, I wore my Cubs cap.
Will North Carolina have the talent to come back from a loss in the national championship game to challenge for the title the following season, as the Tar Heels did in 1982 and 2017? Roster turnover in the age of the transfer portal can be harrowing for fans and coaches. But with NIL deals changing the equation for some players, UNC should be in a position to be a national contender.
National college basketball observers like North Carolina’s chances next season if the way-to-early preseason rankings are any indication, with some saying that the Tar Heels have the talent to return to the Final Four. The consensus is that the Tar Heels should be around No. 5. Of the 11 rankings listed below, the Tar Heels were No. 2 in two of them, No. 3 in one, No. 4 in one and in No. 5 in four. Only two lists, from 247Sports and bustingbrackets.com, have UNC outside of the top 10 at No. 12.
After North Carolina’s amazing NCAA tournament run, the Tar Heels soared to No. 2 in the final Top 25 coaches poll. The Tar Heels (29–10) lost 72–69 Monday night in the NCAA championship game to Kansas (34–6), which is No. 1 in the final coaches poll.
Justin Jackson scored 24 points Tuesday night to lead the Texas Legends to a 115–110 victory over the Birmingham Squadron in the first round of the G League playoffs for the first postseason win in franchise history. The Legends, the No. 5-seed in the Western Conference, were the only road team to win a first-round game. They knocked off the No. 4-seed Squadron, the affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans.
CHAPEL HILL — The thrills of the first half were drowned in an excruciating near-miss at the Smith Center when the favored Kansas Jayhawks edged UNC to take the NCAA national title Monday night. Thousands came to the arena to watch what they hoped would be the school’s seventh championship. There was a fever pitch as fans actually arrived early for a potential crowning.
NEW ORLEANS — Two months after a rare taste of the NCAA bubble, North Carolina came so close to completing an unprecedented run to a national title. Carolina, who went from midseason struggles to playing like one of the best teams in the country, dominated Kansas in the first half but the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks stormed back to win 72–69 on Monday night in the Superdome.
On the same night that Carolina beat Duke at the Final Four, Justin Jackson had a monster G League double-double in Texas. Jackson collected 39 points and 10 rebounds in 36 minutes in his Texas Legends’ 106–99 home win Saturday over the Austin Spurs, their regular-season finale.
NEW ORLEANS — The tensions, the heart palpitations and anxiety just kept pulsating through fans during the last thrilling final minutes of North Carolina’s historic 81–77 victory over No. 9 Duke on Saturday night at the Superdome at the Final Four in the second national semifinal. In some of the most scintillating final minutes of a game in Carolina basketball history, the lead changed six times in the last 4:36 and the Tar Heels ended the coaching career of Mike Krzyzewski. Read and watch how the final tense minutes played out after the last television timeout.
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