Happy Selection Sunday!
The NCAA Tournament field will be announced at some point during the riducluously long two hour selection show starting at 5:30 PM on CBS.
The first order of business, even ahead of the seeding is whether the Tar Heels will be in the Raleigh pod for the First and Second Rounds. That is 99.9% certain at this point and really was even before UNC played Virginia on Saturday.
The other question is of course whether UNC will be a #1 seed or not. Bracket Matrix which takes the pool of bracket projections and averages the seeding is showing UNC as the #2 overall with an average seed of 1.16. Here is a sampling from the more prominent outlets.
Patrick Stevens, Washington Post
UNC #1 seed in the East.
Other #1 seeds: Kansas, Michigan State and Oregon
Friend of the blog Patrick Stevens noted that UNC's resume doesn't necessarily fit the top four profile due to fewer top 50 RPI wins than others but winning the ACC regular season and tournament titles is something the committee likes. Not to mention, UNC looked the part in the ACC Tournament.
UNC #1 seed in the East.
Other #1 seeds: Kansas, Michigan State, Virginia
Lunardi has been a strong proponent of UNC as a #1 seed even before the run through the ACC Tournament. It's possible he would have kept UNC at #1 even with a loss to Virginia though Oregon winning the Pac 12 would have made that a tougher sell.
UNC #1 seed in the East.
Other #1 seeds: Kansas, Michigan State and Oregon
You call Jerry Palm the anti-Lunardi with regard to UNC's seeding. Palm has insisted on keeping UNC as a #3 seed(though still assigned to Raleigh) even after the Tar Heels throttled Notre Dame. Palm, who Chris called a "flat-earther" for his almost slavish reliance on the RPI, must have thought better of his credibility and bumped UNC up two spots to #1 following the ACC title game win.
Michael Beller, Sports Illustrated
UNC #1 seed in the South
Other #1 seeds: Kansas, Michigan State and Oregon
This fall in line with what everyone else is doing at this stage.
UNC #2 seed in the Midwest
#1 seeds: Kansas, Oregon, Michigan State and Virginia
Mandel spent time on Twitter trying to downplay UNC's ACC regular season title because of the unbalanced schedule. What isn't clear is why UNC got zero credit for the ACC Tournament. UNC grabbed two Top 50 wins on a neutral court and avenged losses to both Notre Dame and Virginia. I suspect this is more slavish devotion to the RPI or straight up trolling with UNC being in the same region as Kansas.
UNC #1 seed in the East
Other #1 seeds: Kansas, Michigan State and Virginia
If you asked me to pick which bracket I liked for UNC the most, it would probably be this one. Getting Indiana in a Sweet Sixteen would be a nice revenge game for what happened in 1984 and for Marcus Paige. During Paige's freshman year he got destroyed by Yogi Ferrell as UNC was blown out at Indiana. Facing Indiana again would be fun.
