The North Carolina Tar Heels entered Friday’s ACC Event sport towards arch-rival Duke very a lot on the bubble for the NCAA Event.
A win over the No. 1 workforce within the nation, even when it was taking part in with out its greatest participant — Cooper Flagg — would have gone a great distance towards strengthening its questionable resume and giving it a signature win towards an elite workforce.
Regardless of an unimaginable second half comeback try that noticed them almost erase a 24-point deficit, the Tar Heels fell simply brief, 74-71, due to an improbable sequence of events in the closing seconds.
With an opportunity to take the lead on a pair of foul pictures with 4 seconds to play, a missed free throw adopted by a lane violation just about ended the comeback effort.
It additionally could have ended the Tar Heels’ season. At the least so far as the Huge Dance is anxious.
Merely put, the Tar Heels wanted that win.
Badly.
From an enormous image perspective, there isn’t any disgrace in shedding to the highest workforce within the nation on a impartial ground. It occurs. A wholesome Duke workforce is a legit nationwide championship contender, has solely misplaced three video games all season and just one in ACC play.
However this was not a wholesome Duke workforce.
The Blue Devils suffered two accidents on Thursday when Flagg and Maliq Brown left their sport towards Georgia Tech with accidents, leaving them shorthanded for Friday’s convention semifinal sport.
That ought to have modified the expectations for the Tar Heels and put the sport very a lot inside attain. Particularly given how determined they need to have been for a win.
As a substitute, the Tar Heels had a horrible first half and trailed by greater than 20 factors at halftime. They deserve credit score for crawling again into the sport and placing themselves in place to return again late within the second half, however is that sufficient?
Is barely shedding to a prime workforce with out its greatest participant going to impress the choice committee?
Particularly when it’s a workforce that’s now 22-13 and has misplaced eight video games in a convention that isn’t particularly sturdy or deep.
Or when it’s a workforce that’s now 1-12 towards Quad 1 opponents this season.
Take away the title. Take away the North Carolina model and its historical past. If another mid-level program had that kind of resume going into choice weekend, what kind of likelihood would they need to get into the match?
In all probability none.
If the choice committee is being trustworthy and goal with itself, that ought to in all probability be the identical case for this North Carolina workforce.
