NCAA Basketball: San Diego State, Baylor exposed and more takeaways

5) UNC will make a long run in the ACC Tournament

Another team on a *relatively* unexpected surge is North Carolina who, now finally healthy, won three games in a row prior to losing at Duke on Saturday (which, again, can’t dock them for losing in Cameron Indoor).

Led by newfound offense spearheaded by Cole Anthony and Garrison Brooks, the Tar Heels knocked off NC State, Syracuse, and Wake Forest while averaging 90 points per game – up drastically from their 72.5 season average. That stretch had Anthony and the Tar Heels feeling confident, as he explained following the win over the Demon Deacons.

The thing is…Anthony’s right. Yes, we can make all the jokes about UNC having faux confidence given their 13-18 record and position at the bottom of the ACC standings. But let’s go through the bracket, shall we?

Virginia Tech is 3-11 in their last 14 games and, while they beat UNC, the Heels didn’t have Anthony and it came in double overtime in Blacksburg. Should they win that game against a struggling Hokies team, they’ll face a Syracuse team they just beat handily. Then would come a date with Louisville, who is 3-4 in their last seven games. Win that and they’d likely face a Virginia team with their own offensive struggles, which would put them in a championship game.

Personally, I see the Tar Heels getting into the semis before losing to Virginia, but that’s not the point of this exercise. There are so many flawed teams in the ACC that a team with UNC’s talent level has the potential to run through several higher seeds.

They may not win the tournament – winning five games in five days is a bit much – but they will absolutely make things interesting.