Hubert Davis, R.J. Davis and the Tar Heels are going to the NCAA tournament. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images)
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North Carolina was very much on the NCAA tournament bubble last week and projected by many to miss the field when it fell short of the ACC championship game in a heartbreaking semifinal loss to Duke.
But the Tar Heels were revealed on Sunday as an 11 seed in the South region as the last at-large team to make the field. They made the field thanks to a vote of the NCAA tournament selection committee that’s chaired by North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham.
This, of course, raised questions about how UNC made the field. Cunningham and selection committee vice chair Keith Gill — who’s the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference — addressed those questions while speaking with CBS after Sunday’s bracket reveal.
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Cunningham told CBS that he was not in the room when North Carolina was voted in in accordance with selection-committee protocol. He then yielded to Gill.
“I’m gonna defer that to Keith,” Cunningham said when asked about UNC’s inclusion by CBS’ Seth Davis. “All of the policies and procedures were followed. Keith can address exactly how North Carolina was discussed. I was not in the room for any of that.”
Gill went on to provide more detail about the committee’s protocol to avoid conflicts of interest.
“As the vice chair, I managed all the conversations that we had about North Carolina, and we had quite a few,” Gill said. “Our policies require the AD of any school to recuse themselves and actually leave the room for those discussions. And they’re not allowed to participate in any vote as well.”
Gill then explained that North Carolina was the last at-large team to make the field, and that it wouldn’t have had UAB beat Memphis in Sunday’s AAC championship game.
“Saturday night, we took our final vote. We voted in four teams in the field on Saturday night, and we had a contingency vote. The contingency vote — that was the last team in the field. And it was based on Memphis and UAB.
“If Memphis won that game, then that was gonna free up a spot in the tournament and that was gonna be North Carolina. If UAB had won, then Memphis was gonna be in the tournament, UAB would have been in the tournament and North Carolina would’ve been the first team out.”
Memphis beat UAB, 84-72, and UNC made the field.
So why did North Carolina make the field over other bubble teams that missed the cut like West Virginia and Indiana?
The case against UNC was its 1-12 record against Quad 1 teams. The Tar Heels played one of the toughest schedules in the country, but it yielded just one win against that top tier of opponents. By comparison, Indiana finished 4-13 against Quad 1 teams and West Virginia finished 6-10. North Carolina also had a Quad 3 loss to Stanford as neither West Virginia nor Indiana had a Quad 3 loss.
The case for North Carolina was its 8-0 record in Quad 2 games compared to Indiana’s (5-0) and West Virginia’s (4-3). And North Carolina finished higher in advanced metrics. UNC finished 36th in NET rating and 33rd in the country in KenPom. Indiana finished 54th in NET rating and 48th in KenPom, while West Virginia was 51st in NET rating and 53rd in KenPom.
North Carolina also closed strong with an 8-2 finish while playing its best basketball of the season following a 14-11 start and finished with a 22-13 record and 13-7 mark in ACC play. Ultimately, the committee determined that it added up to enough to put UNC into the field.
