Link Jarrett defends North Carolina as a top four team

The North Carolina Tar Heels are getting ready to host an NCAA Regional. Still, they were outside of the top four seeds overall, coming in fifth. That’s a ranking that caught plenty of people’s attention around the country, including Link Jarrett, the head coach of the Florida State Seminoles.

Jarrett’s opinion is one that comes from experience too. Florida State and North Carolina have played some competitive games this season, giving him a good look at what the Tar Heels have to offer.

“I think UNC is one of the top four teams,” Link Jarrett said. “I do, I think their pitching is really good. Their use of the secondary pitches, I thought, was phenomenal. Offensively, they have a timeliness about them. When you look at the statistics, sometimes that’s not reflected, but when you play them four times in that little flurry that we played them, you do sense that any chink in the armor that you provide them, they took advantage. I do think they’re a top four team.”

The top four ranked teams all come from the SEC. Auburn is the team coming in ranked fourth, which is the slot most are pointing to for North Carolina given their similar resumes. The Tar Heels had the better record and won their conference tournament. Then, by RPI rankings, Auburn is third in the country while North Carolina finished sixth.

“Now, I’m not on the committee this year. So, it’s the first time in a long time I haven’t had to dive in and asses this thing deeper,” Jarrett said. “But playing them, I felt like they definitely were and I’ve seen those teams before and I’ve been one of those teams before, and I thought they were in that bucket.”

This season, North Carolina and Florida State met four times, including in the ACC Tournament. The Tar Heels walked away from that season series with a 3-1 record. That includes their series in the regular season being played in Tallahassee.

For his part, North Carolina head coach Scott Forbes has avoided being overly critical of the seeding. Instead, he’s tried to look at the positives.

“I’ll let you guys write about that,” Forbes said. “I think it’s perfect for this team, to be honest with you. This team has reminded me of the ’18 team. That team had the no meat, not enough meat — whatever, shirts made. This team, we use that the right way. But at the end of the day, we’re a national seed and we know we’re gonna play home, as long as we win. That’s what we’re most excited about. The goal still, it doesn’t matter what your national seed is, is to be the number one overall team when it all ends.”

Link Jarrett and Florida State, for their part, ended as the ninth-seed nationally. It was a bit of a snub in its own right. It’s also a meaningful one because while the Seminoles will host a Regional, they are now not guaranteed to host a Super Regional if they advance. North Carolina, for its part, will get to host a Super Regional if they advance.