North Carolina’s NCAA tournament starts at Syracuse.
If the Tar Heels want to keep a sliver of hope of making the NCAA tournament, they must start with a win against a mediocre Orange team.
Hubert Davis’ squad is in this position because it gave away games down the stretch like Christmas gifts. ACC losses to Stanford, Wake, and Pitt were winnable games, but their lack of execution killed them.
Add that to the winnable neutral site loss to Michigan State, and the Heels are in a position they shouldn’t be in.
North Carolina needs to run off a six-game winning streak.
Is it doable? Yes.
It would take road wins at Syracuse, Florida State, and Virginia Tech and home wins against NC State, Virginia, and Miami.
That would get North Carolina to 20 wins before their home game against Duke.
Even though 20 wins don’t mean what they used to, they are in a position to need three wins in the ACC tournament to have a legitimate chance of making the tournament.
If they don’t, this might be one of the most underachieving North Carolina teams in recent history, and it would be the second time Davis failed to lead the Tar Heels to the NCAA tournament.
