One of Tuesday night’s late matchups features a Miami Hurricanes team looking to make a statement and the North Carolina Tar Heels who look to keep rolling at home.
TV Schedule: Tuesday, February 27, 9:00 p.m. ET. ESPN
Arena: Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The Hurricanes are limping through the final portion of conference play, bouncing back from a bad home loss to Syracuse with two close wins against the struggling Notre Dame and Boston College. Now traveling to Chapel Hill to take on the Tar Heels, Miami will need to elevate their play to a whole new level to have a chance in this one.
According to ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi, the Hurricanes are currently a nine seed in the NCAA tournament and trending downward. It would appear that they are a safe at large big regardless of what happens in their remaining games, but it wouldn’t hurt to put up a good fight in North Carolina to really solidify their tournament spot.
The Tar Heels, on the other hand, don’t have quite as much to play for, but certainly don’t want to slip up in their final home game of the season. It will be senior night, which means that among those being honored are standouts Theo Pinson and Joel Berry II, two key pieces of the Tar Heels for the past four seasons. The team certainly won’t want to let these two down and the rest of the seniors on what will be an emotional night.
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North Carolina will also be competing in an effort to work out any kinks they may have prior to their second showdown with Duke this coming Saturday. A home game against Miami is really UNC’s final game without the intense sense of urgency that they will have moving forward into a rivalry game, their conference tournament, and the NCAA tournament.
So it won’t be make or break for either team, as the Tar Heels are most likely looking at either a #2 or #3 seed in the NCAA tournament, and Miami should be safely in but doesn’t have a whole lot to gain, as they remain in the #8 or #9 range.
Mostly, this game is about establishing momentum for both teams, and for North Carolina, sending their seniors out on a winning note. With this in mind, the Tar Heels won’t let this game slip away, even if Miami puts up a more valiant fight than anticipated.
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Prediction: North Carolina 79, Miami 72