The NCAA men’s basketball tournament field is set, and hopefully you have your bracket filled out by now.
But if you’re like a lot of people joining in on the fun without having paid much attention during college basketball’s regular season, then you’ve probably noticed a big omission from the field of 64. A team you’re used to making deep runs. A team you’d probably have pushed through to at least the Sweet 16.
That team is North Carolina, one of men’s college basketball’s true blue bloods. Where in the world are the Tar Heels?
The answer is they simply didn’t do enough to qualify for the tournament. It’s as stunning to the avid college basketball fan as it is to the casual viewer. One year after reaching the national title game, UNC just wasn’t good enough.
It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The Tar Heels started the season as the AP preseason No. 1 team and a lot of people bet on them to make it back to the title game. But a four-game losing streak early in the season knocked them out the poll, and they only returned once in December as the 25th-ranked team before struggles in conference play knocked them out the rankings for good and put them on the tournament bubble.
As a last gasp to make the NCAA tournament, UNC needed to win the ACC tournament or at least add some impressive wins to its resume last week. Instead, the Heels were bounced by Virginia in the quarterfinals. That put the nail in the coffin.
Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams back in the 1980s, UNC is now the first team to miss the Big Dance after being the No. 1 preseason team.
And when the Tar Heels missed the NCAA tournament, they then quickly declined an invitation to the NIT.
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