Now North Carolina must wait to learn NCAA Tournament fate
Posted March 14, 2025 11:01 p.m. EDT
Updated March 14, 2025 11:14 p.m. EDT
 North Carolina Tar Heels |
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 1Duke Blue Devils |
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The players on North Carolina's men's basketball team think they've done enough to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The Tar Heels' coach seems to think so as well.
And the school's athletics director is the chairman of the committee that will decide.
It all makes for two long nights before the field of 68 is announced Sunday evening.
North Carolina lost 74-71 to top-seeded Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament on Friday night, coming oh-so-close to earning the resume-boosting victory it has been seeking.
UNC rallied from a 24-point deficit in the second half to close within one point late. A game-tying free throw was taken off the board due to a lane violation. Duke played without injured star Cooper Flagg.
"Without a doubt, 100 percent," UNC's Seth Trimble said when asked if the Tar Heels are a tournament team "No other thought in my mind. We're a tournament team. I believe it. The whole team believes it. The whole coaching staff believes it."
North Carolina guard Seth Trimble drives to the basket past Duke center Khaman Maluach during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Guard RJ Davis, who played in the national title game in 2022, said the Tar Heels have high hopes that their name will be called Sunday. UNC missed the tournament in 2023 after starting the season ranked No. 1.
"If you look at the trajectory of our whole season, the way we dealt with adversity, perseverance, and especially these last couple of weeks, we overcame all of that," Davis said. "You couldn't ask for a better team than that, that goes through that type of adversity, goes through that type of criticism and still perseveres through it all and comes out on top. I think that's a tournament team for you right there, because that's what March is about."
UNC (22-13, 13-7 ACC) could end up in Dayton for the tournament's First Four round. The games in Dayton, often called play-in games, are Tuesday and Wednesday night. The final four teams in the field play on those nights, as well as the four lowest-seeded teams that automatically qualify for the tournament by winning their conference tournaments.
The Tar Heels have been on the bubble for most of February and March, particularly after a stretch in which they lost four out of five games to Stanford, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and Duke. UNC won eight of its last 10 with the only losses to Duke since a Feb. 10 loss to Clemson.
"Those are questions that have been asked over a month," UNC coach Hubert Davis said. "For our guys to stay focused on what is real, and that was being the best team that we could become, continue to prepare, practice and play. Whomever we're playing, keep our eyes focused on the competition right in front of us and be the best that we can be. And for a month and a half, we basically played must-win games. In that situation, our team played the best. That's pretty cool from a bunch of kids."
North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham is the chairman of the selection committee. He was not in Charlotte for the ACC Tournament because he is in Indianapolis, where the committee will pick the field.
ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi said earlier in the week that North Carolina would need to defeat Duke in order to feel good about its chances. The Tar Heels defeated No. 12 seed Notre Dame and No. 4 seed Wake Forest earlier in the tournament.
"Short of every bubble team ahead of them losing early and there being no bid stealers, Carolina probably has to beat Duke to go to the tournament, although there's an outside chance that beating Wake would be enough," Lunardi said.
UNC is 1-12 in Quad 1 games with three losses to Duke. Quad 1 games are games against the best teams in the nation with a sliding scale for whether the game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site. UNC played one of the toughest schedules in the nation, but the one victory sticks out.
"You can say in some ways they pass the eye test and the talent test," Lunardi said. "But we're all getting tired of saying 1-11 Quad 1. Pick any other school in America. If Colorado State was 1-11 Quad 1, we wouldn't even be having a conversation."
