Kansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Oregon claimed the No. 1 seeds in the four regions of the NCAA tournament bracket for this year, with the Jayhawks headlining the South, the Tar Heels the top school in the East, the Cavaliers getting the nod in the Midwest, and the Ducks atop the heap in the West. Oregon, though, isn’t among the top four tournament favourites.
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The victor of the North Carolina-Virginia ACC tournament championship was all but guaranteed to be one of the No. 1 seeds when the NCAA tournament field comes out Sunday night.
On Saturday night at the Verizon Center, North Carolina’s senior guard could hardly quit smiling as he wore part of the net used in the ACC championship game.
The last time the Tar Heels entered the season ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, as they did this year, they went on to win their sixth NCAA national championship in 2008-09. Finishing just shy of a 30-win season (28-6), the Tar Heels are a force to reckon with, winning five in a row as they marched through the ACC Tournament.
Should the Heels draw Florida Gulf Coast after the First Four, you wonder if the Eagles – three years removed from “Dunk City” hysteria – might give a helpful scouting report to their coach from 2013, Andy Enfield, whose Southern Cal team could await UNC in the second round. Defensively, North Carolina yields 69.9 points against the opposing teams.
This season, Johnson has shown tremendous improvement and has cemented himself as one of the more dominant players in the nation.
Will this defensive identity stick around for the NCAA tournament though?
DUKE’S DEPTH: Duke’s thin rotation finally appeared to catch up to it in the quarterfinals, where a 16-point lead turned into an overtime loss to Notre Dame. “We still got stuff to accomplish”.
“There’s no special feeling about being a No. 1 seed because when you get there, you’ve got to play”. We had the game where I think we needed it to be to have a chance to be successful. Syracuse has a matchup with Dayton, which was the last team the Orange played in NCAA Tournament action two years ago. “Playing Virginia, we knew it was going to be a battle all the way down to the end”.
North Carolina last lost, 79-74, at Virginia on February 27. The next two years it will be played in Brooklyn before returning home to Charlotte in 2019 and then Greensboro in 2020.
Bonzie Colson led Notre Dame with 15 points.
North Carolina: This was the Tar Heels’ 34th appearance in an ACC final, most in conference history….
The Tar Heels (28-6) trailed by four with 9:48 remaining when Berry took over, making two free throws, a midrange jumper and a 3-point basket off a feed from big man Kennedy Meeks to key a 13-2 spurt that opened up a 53-46 advantage.
Because as good as North Carolina looked in disposing of Notre Dame, Virginia looked almost as good staving off Miami.
“Koenen’s got the total package”, said Matt Nilsen, head coach at Edina High.
“To win playing their game in the 50s and 60s (in scoring), we talk about being able to win in the 90s – and being able to win in the 50s, we were able to do that (Saturday) by gritting it out”, UNC guard Marcus Paige said.
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Virginia, a team that prides itself on squeezing the life out of the ball for its opponents, saw the Heels turn the tables on them.
