Selection Sunday came and went by, bringing with it a list of doubts to accompany the clarity. While it was made clear which teams would face whom during the highly anticipated March Madness tournament, the placement in itself raised queries over whether a team deserved to hold that particular spot or hold a spot at all! Amongst the latter was the North Carolina (UNC) Tar Heels, who got the final bid of the tournament despite a poor season that included a 1-12 record vs. Quad 1. Aka the worst for any at-large NCAA tournament team in the NET era. However, with the NCAA tournament now underway, Jay Bilas wants the past to be in the past.
The renowned ESPN college basketball analyst recently appeared as a guest on ‘The Rich Eisen Show’. During the conversation, he touched base on the reported inaccuracies that people have accused the Selection Committee of making recently. However, Bilas did not wanted to add to it. Instead, he said “Every year, it’s the same thing. There’s one or two, you’re going ‘What?’, and there’s a part of me, Rich, that is thinking ‘why do we constantly argue over who’s the 45th best team in the country?’ I mean, you never hear football arguing over ‘who’s the 20th?’. It just doesn’t make any sense, like we waste time talking about that, instead of talking about the best teams”.
Despite his plea to let things rest, Bilas did add “But, you know North Carolina’s inclusion was curious, because we’ve always been told the standard is ‘who did you play’ and ‘who did you beat’, and Carolina played a great schedule, they just didn’t win against it. And, you know, that’s not to say that because they didn’t win a certain amount of game they shouldn’t be in. It’s comparing them against the other teams at the end of the line”.
College Football does not have an event like March Madness. Sure, they have their playoffs, but the same has 12 teams selected to the Playoff field, not 68! 5 of the highest-ranked conference champions earn automatic bids. The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded 1-4 and each will receive a first-round bye. Teams seeded 5-12 will play each other in the first round on the home field of the higher-ranked team. The limited number of teams does not leave any reason for an argument about unfair selections. However, in college basketball, there are reportedly 352 schools that are full members of 31 Division I basketball conferences. On top of that, 8 more are in transition from NCAA Division II, and one from NCAA Division III. To align them into the top 68 teams for March Madness might lead to some unfortunate mistakes.
Syndication: The Montgomery Advertiser Jay Bilas during ESPN College GameDay broadcast before Auburn Tigers men s basketball takes on Texas A&M Aggies at Auburn Arena in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. Montgomery AL , EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xJakexCrandallx 17896656
The inclusion of UNC Tar Heels isn’t solely why the Selection Committee has drawn criticism in the last few days. The Michigan Wolverines, the 3rd seed in the Big 10, were declared the 5th seed in the overall standings. The team had defeated Purdue, Maryland, and Wisconsin during the Big Ten tournament. It had defeated the Wisconsin Badgers to become the Conference tournament champions for the first time since 2018. Despite this, it got seeded behind Purdue, Maryland, and Wisconsin! If that wasn’t enough, a No. 1 seed like Auburn found themselves in a de facto road game against a No. 8 seed! In light of this, knowing that no further changes will take place by highlighting the mistakes, what can one do but stay silent?
As for the Tar Heels, the fact that a team, none of whose eight victories since February 15th have come against a team ranked in the top 65 of the NCAA’s NET rankings, was selected is astonishing in itself. Fortunately, the team recently caught a break thanks to their ability to surprise people.
UNC’s Seth Trimble declares “We deserve to be here” after win in March Madness first-round
After Selection Sunday, some people might have thought, ‘Well, if the UNC Tar Heels are so bad, maybe they will get out in the first round itself’. Well, it’s a good thing if one added that ‘maybe’. After all, Hubert Davis’s team left the UD Arena in Dayton triumphant! It defeated the San Diego State Aztecs by a 95-68 score. Very few were pleased with the win more than 20-year-old Seth Trimble. He recorded 16 points, 3 rebounds, and 0 assists to the overall total. On top of that, he scored 10 of his 16 points in the first half to help UNC take a 24-point halftime lead.
“We know we deserve to be here. We’re not looking to send a message to anybody else,” said Trimble, “We’re just looking to compete as a team and be the team that we know we’re capable of being. I think we did that (against San Diego State). We’re gonna do that when we get to Milwaukee and go from there. We hear what people say. We didn’t really care about it. It is what it is, we’re focused on us.”
Seth Trimble : 16 points on 5-10 shooting, 6-6 from the FT line & 3 rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench pic.twitter.com/P6wfiEjOXj
— Lee Harvey (@MusikFan4Life) March 19, 2025
How far do you think the UNC Tar Heels can go, even amidst the criticism? Let us know in the comments.
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