Today's Take: The Seed Possibilities

Every weekday, Inside Carolina senior reporter Greg Barnes weighs in with his thoughts on the latest in Tar Heel sports. Barnes has been the preeminent reporter and expert analyst on UNC athletics for two decades. Watch his full daily thoughts above.

Greg’s Daily Take:
“A win doesn’t guarantee a double bye because of Miami, which plays at SMU Wednesday night, and then they’ve got Louisville at home on Saturday. So the way the seeding works, if Clemson wins at the end of the week, if State beats Stanford, and if Carolina loses at Duke, then you’ve got this weird setup where if Miami loses both of its games, Carolina would potentially fall to the five seed.

“I contacted the ACC office to make sure I understood the tie breaker scenarios. And that is true, it’s not guaranteed that Carolina will be the four seed. And the reason why that is, and it speaks to the new setup with the ACC and the unbalanced schedules – if Carolina, Clemson and Miami tie at 12-6, they went one and one against each other. The next tiebreaker would be how do they fare against the top teams in the ACC? Carolina beat Duke, but Miami didn’t play Duke, so no common opponent there. Same with Clemson not playing Virginia, so it’s not a common opponent for these three teams, that’s off the table. 

“So now you have to go down to the sixth spot, and depending on how some of these games play out, there is a scenario where Miami has the edge, and then Clemson would have an edge as well, based on how they played against some of those lower teams, and Carolina can end up with the five. So if Carolina wins this game Tuesday night, they are very likely going to be at least the four seed, but it’s not guaranteed.”

“As for the NCAA, Carolina is pretty locked in on the five seed line. If you beat Duke in Cameron, well that opens up a possibility for a four. Beating Clemson limits the floor there. We just have no clue to what extent the NCAA Tournament selection committee will take into account Caleb Wilson’s absence. Certainly, the games without Veesaar and Wilson are going to be something that committee looks at, but with some of the wins, they won without them so no big deal? Or do they believe it’s significant they won without them so therefore they are playing at a higher level? We have to wait to find out.