CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina has one more chance to either impress the NCAA Selection Committee or give them no choice but to place it into the field of 68 bracket next Sunday by winning the ACC Tournament this week in Charlotte.
Sitting at 20-12 overall, No. 40 in the NET, and owning a paltry 1-11 record in Quad 1 games, the Tar Heels have some work to do. The obvious question is if they can get into the big dance without cutting down the nets at Spectrum Center, or is Carolina’s only way into the NCAAs by winning the ACC championship?
For the Tar Heels, however, they’re leaving all that speculation and banter to fans and media. They aren’t thinking numbers, well with the exception of one, as in the next game is all that matters.
"I think we feel great,” freshman wing Ian Jackson said. “(We’re), 0-0 and it's a chance for a new start. And I think as a team, we're not worried about the spot that we were in the beginning of the season, and we showed that a little bit tonight, and we're going to continue to grow and get better as the tournament goes on."
The Heels started the campaign ranked tenth in the nation and run the risk in failing to make the NCAAs for the second time in three years when starting among the top ten teams in the nation. The Heels were actually No. 1 prior to the 2022-23 season.
The Heels may need some help but say they’re not paying attention to other games. Their initial task at hand is Wednesday when they face the winner between Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, which play Tuesday at Spectrum Center.
Carolina is coming off an 82-69 loss to Duke at home in which it showed some promising signs somewhat validating the six-game win streak it took into the contest. But the Heels were also outscored 33-13 to close the game and fall to 13-7 in ACC play.
If UNC advances Wednesday, it will face Wake Forest on Thursday. A win there likely means a meeting with Duke in the semifinals Friday night. But again, the theme around the team is to stay where they are in the moment.
"I think it's most important to focus on what's real. What is real is the game in front of you and we play on Wednesday and our job and our responsibility is whomever we play, to be prepared to play our best game on Wednesday,” UNC Coach Hubert Davis said. “And if we play well enough, we get to play on Thursday and our preparation would shift to that.
“You can control what you can control and what we can control is our play and our preparation for (this) week on Wednesday in the ACC tournament."
Yet, UNC led Duke 56-49 with 15:44 remaining in the contest and appeared positioned to take the game down to the wire. But it got away, and the Heels that finished it out looked more like the club that wobbled to a 14-11 mark prior to their late win streak.
So, with human nature suggesting that rests in the recesses of their minds, how do they march forward creating a clean mental slate?
"Continue to stay together, to continue to fight,” junior forward Ven-Allen Lubin said following the loss to Duke. “We showed some toughness tonight, some physicality in order. It just shows on a defensive end where we get some stops, that we can go out and run, that we get whatever we want.. and I think that's something that we want to take over to Charlotte…
“We're just keeping the mentality of one game at a time, you know, just focusing on what's the next point in front of us and just take it from there."
There is Spectrum Center on Wednesday, and it will either start something special that hoists the Heels into the big dance or it won’t. For them, it’s the only day that matters for now.
