Happy Duke-North Carolina Week, Part 1, for those of you who celebrate.
Duke has been doing a lot of celebrating this season. The Blue Devils are comfortably on their way to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and maybe even the overall No. 1 seed.
It has been a different season for the Tar Heels, however. North Carolina is the first team out of Friday’s bracket projection after losing three of its last four games.
Things do not get any easier for the Tar Heels. Saturday’s game is the second of a difficult five-game stretch in which Carolina will play four of five on the road, and four of those games are against teams in the latest bracket.
Duke vs. North Carolina to feature six potential Round 1 picks; Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel headline NBA talent
Kyle Boone
This first game in this tough stretch was the 73-65 loss at Pitt on Tuesday. After the game at Duke on Saturday, the Tar Heels will get a week off before the rematch with the Panthers at home. That is followed by road games at Clemson and Syracuse. The Orange are having a rough season, but that is a potential letdown game for UNC.
The biggest problem with the Tar Heels’ NCAA Tournament profile is not strength of schedule. North Carolina always schedules up and this season is no exception. The problem is that the Heels can’t seem to win any of those games.
UNC is 1-8 against Quad 1 opposition so far this season. The lone win came against UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic in New York. On top of that, the Heels lost at home to Stanford, which is a Quad 2 loss.
In the NET era, the worst record against Quad 1 opposition for an at-large team was in 2023, when NC State got a bid with a 1-6 Q1 record. The Wolfpack were only the second team since 2015 to get an at-large bid with just one Quad 1 win.
The only Quad 1 opportunity for North Carolina after the road game at Clemson is the home finale against Duke.
The biggest mover at the top of the updated bracket was Kentucky. The Wildcats moved up to a No. 2 seed following their win at Tennessee.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm’s bracket and full field of 68 at the Bracketology hub.
Big chance for Indiana
Another big rivalry game featuring a big-name team struggling to build an NCAA Tournament resume is Indiana facing Purdue Friday night.
The Hoosiers, who are not in the projected field of 68, are 67th in the NET and just 2-7 in Quad 1 games. Their only win against a team that might make the NCAA Tournament is the one at Ohio State two weeks ago.
Indiana has a schedule with even more chances to improve their profile than UNC does. The Hoosiers have eight Quad 1 games out of their ten remaining in the regular season. Their next four games are at Purdue, at Wisconsin, home to Michigan and at Michigan State.
Does college basketball have a rivalry week? Maybe it should.
