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Did Bubba Cummingham help the Tar Heels? I sure hope so.
The Carolina athletic director has served on the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee, this year as chairman. As with protocol, Cunningham could not be in the room when the Tar Heels were discussed.
“There were a number of challenges, and always the hardest part of any selection is that you have to make a cut somewhere,” Cunningham told CBS Sports after the brackets were announced.
Apparently, this year, there were fewer “bid stealers,” teams that wouldn’t have made the field as at-large entries, only if they won their respective conference tournaments and as champions became automatic qualifiers.
Keith Gill, Commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference and vice chair of the committee, explained the one result Sunday afternoon that could have kept the “last in” Tar Heels from making the field.
“Saturday night we voted in the last four teams, and we had a contingency vote,” Gill said. “That was for the last team in the field, and it was based on Memphis and UAB. If Memphis won that game (for the AAC championship), that freed up the spot for North Carolina. If UAB had won, Memphis was in anyway and UAB would’ve been in the tournament. That process played out, Memphis won, and that put North Carolina in.”
How the 2024-25 Tar Heels got into that “Last Four In” will be the conversation because they had a 1-12 record against Quad 1 teams along with one of the strongest schedules in the country. So that was actually a 1-12(a) record because Carolina lost seven of those games to ranked teams and six to top 10 opponents.
Cunningham comes across as a very fair man, unlike some of his counterparts more concerned with power than popularity. My guess is that Bubba and the committee tried to find a way that the best bubble teams were treated fairly. In one other projected bracket after UNC lost its second game to Duke in a week to go with eight wins over unranked ACC teams, the Heels were in the “Last Four Out” with Texas, Xavier and San Diego State, three schools rated just above UNC but had worse NET rankings.
That’s how the Big Dance starts Tuesday night in Dayton with Carolina against San Diego State. The First Four had more bubble teams than most years and there were spots to put them in since there were no “bid stealers.”
Beside UNC-San Diego State, Texas plays Xavier on Wednesday and all four were given a No. 11 seed. The other four are mid-major 16 seeds that won conference championships and get placed into “First Four” doubleheaders.
So, yes, Carolina was lucky that UAB didn’t beat Memphis for that one spot that went to the Tar Heels, who can advance into the 64-team field with a win and play 6th seeded Ole Miss Friday in Milwaukee as the South Regional tips off.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
I am very, very torn on the Tar Heels selection into this year’s NCAA tournament. On the one hand, anything can happen in March and recent history tells us that with the parity in college basketball, upsets will, and often do, happen. On the other hand, this team has largely played uninspired and when they faced a “tournament” team, they did not come out victorious.
Credit where credit is due, after the debacle at Clemson when the team could’ve completely folded the tent and waived the white the flag, Coach Davis and players found a way to win one game at a time. There is a caveat, however, the teams they beat were terrible.
This harkens back to 2022 when UNC got hot late and rode the momentum all the way to the NCAA title game; twice defeating Duke and sending Coach K into retirement. It gave a “Hubert has finally figured it out” vibe. Flash forward seven months and UNC was preseason #1. And then the season started. We all know what happened.
So, here’s my dilemma … as a UNC alum, of course I want the Heels to perform well and go as far as they possibly can. Say they do the unthinkable and go to the Final Four or even win it all (highly unlikely, but stranger things have happened). What then? Has Hubert figured it out for real this time? Or is next year destined to repeat 2023 all over again? Why does it take him 2/3 of a season to finally figure things out or to get the players to buy in? These are questions that need to be asked and answered this offseason regardless of how many games the Tar Heels win starting tomorrow night.
For now, though, to quote the Godfather, “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me right back in.” At least, one game at a time anyway.
Sorry a55 fkn cheaters