That proves it.
That settles it.
That should silence anyone who has been spreading misinformation regarding the North Carolina men’s basketball team.
The Tar Heels are …
… well, actually, the Tar Heels are an NCAA Tournament bubble-looking bunch. Which is what an entire season’s worth of data had already made clear.
South Region No. 11 seed UNC 95, No. 11 seed San Diego State 68 on Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, was an eyebrow raiser. It was a good example of what 14 3-pointers — the most ever by UNC in the NCAAs — can do for a team. But it actually proves little, settles nothing and probably won’t serve as much of a silencer.
North Carolina losing would have reprised screams of corruption, which have come largely from people who have no clue about the process of selecting teams for the field of 68 and must have better things to do with their time. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey heads both categories.
North Carolina winning provides a blowback opportunity for those brave souls on the other side of this year’s primary — and especially contentious — selection committee debate. But again, we’re talking No. 11 seed San Diego State. Add that to the Tar Heels’ meager collection of wins against the rest of the field — two of them at the expense of American University and UCLA.
North Carolina shouldn’t have been in the NCAA Tournament. That’s still true. But the committee’s bigger mistake was excluding West Virginia in favor of any of the other teams around the cutline. UNC, Texas, Xavier (they all got in), Boise State, Indiana (they didn’t) — all should have finished behind the Mountaineers in the final pecking order.
Sympathy is due to that program and its fans. Moreover, send some to all residents of that state for having to deal with a governor who has the time to hold a news conference threatening legal action over college basketball selections. It felt kind of like a guy who shows up at city hall and screams for 20 minutes at unsuspecting city council members about cicadas trapped in his garden hose.
It will be interesting to see how Morrisey balances resources now that he’s compelled to launch an investigation into Indiana stealing away his coach.
As for the North Carolina-focused portion of the discussion, the much larger portion, it’s been quite hyperbolic. People have been acting like North Carolina was a couple of dozen teams removed from the field.
North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham introducing himself to America as the head of the selection committee Sunday night was a less-than-ideal look. There’s no way he figured this preseason top-10 UNC team would put him in this position, but it did. The expression on his face as he said he wasn’t in the room when the committee talked about the Heels — a point that shall be made repeatedly by every play-by-play announcer who crosses paths with UNC — was that of someone who just swigged sour milk.
But he’s not the first AD with a team in the mix to head the selection committee. And this team was close.
The day before the field was set, I enjoyed a back-and-forth on social media involving two of the most respected voices in college basketball, Mike DeCourcy and Bart Torvik. Torvik made the case for the Tar Heels because of their combined Quad 1 and Quad 2 performance (9-12), their ambitious nonleague scheduling and their much-improved play of late.
Nuanced discussion of team quality gets blown up by people who don’t actually keep up with the teams, though. And that’s what’s happened this week. It’s great to have all the casuals parachute in for the tournament, except when they decide they must serve as its belligerent gatekeepers.
“It’s all about money and TV ratings!”
(Yes, but the current $8.8 billion deal is signed through 2032, and I’m guessing ratings for the 2024 First Four games won’t be the linchpin of the next negotiations.)
“The committee only cares about big brand names!”
(Luckily for the committee, big brand names that are capable of big runs populate the field, such as Duke, Kentucky and a variety of SEC teams whose fans have discovered a diversion from spring football and baseball. Also, if brand names and fan bases always win, how did Xavier get in over Indiana?)
“Bubba Cunningham gets a contract bonus for North Carolina getting in the tournament!”
(That’s a typical feature of AD contracts, and I’m not sure less than $70,000 is enough to pay off the rest of the committee. Also, have you seen how much athletic directors get paid these days?)
There was a Nashville sports talk radio segment this week suggesting that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is subtly threatening to break off and form a tournament separate from this one, which is why the committee felt compelled to give him 14 bids and “overseed” his teams. It gets dumb out here really fast.
The North Carolina complaints, the ones grounded in reality and basketball discourse, have been fair because of the Tar Heels’ lack of quality wins. West Virginia, Texas and Boise State have more of them, and that should have mattered. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi made the point that you can’t have Texas and North Carolina in the field at the same time because that sends a conflicting message about what the committee values.
But that’s the thing: Every year we wonder what the committee is trying to say, and they’re not saying anything collectively. They’re voting subjectively, person by person, team by team, with no thematic guidance.
North Carolina was a mistake. Not necessarily an egregious one, as the action on the court Tuesday conveyed. But that doesn’t do much for West Virginia, the bigger mistake, the team with no coach in a state with a personal injury lawyer for a governor.
(Photo of RJ Davis: Rick Osentoski / Imagn Images)
