North Carolina dropped the ball over and over again, repeatedly blowing away the opportunity to prove it belongs to the NCAA Tournament.
Still, the Select Committee gave the Tar Heels another mulligan.
Despite the disastrous 1-12 marks in the quad one game, North Carolina is given the final massive invitation to Big Dance as the program's lowest 11 seed in NCAA Tournament history, and is set to meet the first four San Diego states in Dayton on Tuesday.
Basketball Blueblood's controversial choice has been under more scrutiny since North Carolina athletic director Baba Cunningham served as chairman of the committee.
However, Cunningham had to leave the room amid all the discussions, including tar heels.
“As Vice-Chairman, I managed all the conversations about North Carolina. There were quite a few,” said Keith Gill, the Sun Belt Conference commissioner. “Our policy requires ads for rooms to reject themselves and actually leave the room for those discussions and not allow them to participate in the final vote.”
North Carolina (22-13) ranked ninth in the season, closing with eight wins in their last 10 games, but there was no one against the participants in the NCAA Tournament.
Three losses to non-tournament teams weren't enough to keep Tar Heels out of the dance for the first time in three years.
Texas (19-15) was also nominated as one of the final choices, despite tying the most losses by a large team in the history of the NCAA Tournament, solidifying the case with seven quad one wins.
In this post, it is covered with a printable NCAA bracket with a 68-team March Madness 2025 field.
The inconsistent metrics produced no greater anger than West Virginia (19-13), Indiana (19-13), Boise (24-10), and Ohio (17-15).
According to Cunningham, the climber with six quad 1s to win six was the first team.
“They had an outstanding year, but unfortunately I know Tucker Devries is hurt. The player availability is pretty much to talk about,” said the North Carolina athletic director.
The problem with that reasoning is that senior West Virginia security guards have not played since December.
Without him, the climbers would have won in 3-seeded Iowa and 7-seeded Kansas, with previous victories in 8-seeded Gonzaga and 4-seeded Arizona.
The edge in North Carolina's analysis – 15 spots higher than the net's West Virginia, and 20 spots higher on kenpom.com – could have pushed the tar heel over the finish line.
Cunningham could not be confirmed.
He was not in the room.
