UNC men’s basketball earns No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament

Wayne Ellington #22 of the North Carolina Tar Heels celebrates with fans as he run off the court after the Tar Heels 89-72 win against the Michigan State Spartans during the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship game at Ford Field on April 6, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan.

North Carolina excelled at home with a 16-0 record this season, but the Tar Heels struggled away from home this season. “They worked their way up”. The highest seed among them is Butler. How fun is it to go back and forth with them?

The sixth Tar Heel on this roster who saw significant playing time in last year’s NCAA Tournament is senior guard Nate Britt. Instead, tradition-rich state powers Duke and UNC start play Friday in Greenville, South Carolina.

Someday, a No. 16 seed is eventually going to upset a No. 1 regional seed in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. The Tigers are seeking their first NCAA Tournament victory in seven tries. Kevin Scott is grabbing 4.9 rebounds and Jalan McCloud is dishing 1.2 assists.

As reputation continues to precede the program, Kentucky’s top four leaders in minutes per game consist of one sophomore and three freshman.

Justin Jackson’s emergence as the ACC Player of the Year was one of the key factors for UNC as it tried to replace Brice Johnson and Marcus Paige this season. Unlike a year ago, UNC isn’t trying to keep the momentum going after winning an ACC tournament championship.

The 3-pointer is firmly embedded in college basketball now, but it wasn’t that way until the 1986-87 season, when the NCAA put the arc in place for all games, including the NCAA Tournament. He became the 38th player in Butler history to score 1,000 career points during the season. He has 153 assists and only 39 turnovers. Those veterans led Middle Tennessee to a stunning upset over No. 2 Michigan State a year ago. They will face Northern Kentucky. Carolina has advanced to the Final Four nine times as a No. 1 seed (1982, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2016) and is 55-11 as a top-seeded team. The problem, however, is that neither of those outcomes really would be an upset, especially in the case of Wichita State, which opened as a 6-point favorite over Dayton, according to OddsShark.com. This is about as bad of a match-up as possible for the Tigers, who earned their way into the field by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.

No. 13 Winthrop vs. I don’t know. We’ll see. The Greenville site wasn’t originally slated to be on the NCAA Tournament list this year. However, the Bulldogs have faltered against lesser competition in St. Johns and Georgetown and are coming into the tournament with back-to-back losses.

Despite the loss to Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament, the simulation engine loves the Bruins’ statistical resume heading into the tournament.

Kentucky dominated a mediocre conference (that still inexplicably got five bids) and probably deserved a No. 3 seed.

And prepare for the possible return of Butler guard Avery Woodson, the former U of M player whose presence in this season’s Tiger lineup would have made Tubby Smith’s first season as coach a bit more enjoyable.

The Cavaliers are one of the top defensive teams in the country.