3/17/2024 basketball Edit

Tar Heels Are No. 1 Seed in West Region, Open in Charlotte

Andrew Jones • TarHeelIllustrated

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Andrew Jones has covered sports for 26 years, including all major college & professional sports for daily newspapers & national sites. He's done radio and TV & is entering his seventh year at THI.

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The NCAA Revealed the 68-team tournament bracket Sunday evening, and North Carolina is the No. 1 seed in the West Region.

The Tar Heels, who lost to NC State in the ACC Championship game Saturday night in Washington, DC, enter the big dance 27-7 overall. Their eight-game win streak ended against the Wolfpack, but the Heels recognize the more important tournament begins this coming week.

UNC will open play in Charlotte on Thursday against the No. 16 seed winner of the Wagner-Howard matchups. If UNC wins, it will advance to the second round and face the winner between Mississippi State and Michigan State on Saturday.

The last time UNC opened NCAA Tournament play in Charlotte was 2018 when, as a two seed, it beat Lipscomb but was eliminated in the second round by Texas A&M. Yet, four of Carolina’s last five NCAA Tournament championships began with the Tar Heels playing in their home state for the opening weekend of the event.

In 1982, UNC started out in Charlotte and eventually beat Georgetown for the national title. In 1993, the Heels opened play in Winston-Salem and later defeated Michigan for the crown.

In 2005, Carolina started out in Charlotte and less than three weeks later, beat Illinois for the national championship. The 2009 national champs opened play in Greensboro before cutting down the nets after waxing Michigan State. And the 2017 Heels began their run in Greenville, SC, and eventually beat Gonzaga in winning it all.

Greenville hosted after the NCAA moved that site from Greensboro due to the controversial bathroom laws in the state of North Carolina at the time.

If UNC advances to the Sweet 16, it will play in Los Angeles, where it last played in 2015, when the Tar Heels fell to Wisconsin in the Sweet 16.

Also in UNC’s region:

Carolina did not make the NCAA Tournament last season after playing in the national championship game the year before. UNC lost in the opening round in 2021, and there was no tournament in 2020 because of Covid.