UNC Basketball: Can Tar Heels be a threat in 2021 NCAA Tournament?

Claim: UNC will get a win in the tournament

Coach Williams became the head coach of the Tar Heels to start the 2003-04 season and since then, the Tar Heels have failed to reach the tournament just once. The Deon Thompson led Tar Heels managed to tally up a 5-11 ACC record that left them on the outside looking in come tournament time. The 6-14 conference record that the Tar Heels put together last season would have marked the second time in Coach Williams’ tenure at Chapel Hill that North Carolina would have missed the tournament if circumstances would have allowed for it.

After a disappointing season, the Tar Heels saw forty-eight percent of their scoring not return, including leading scorer point guard Cole Anthony (18.5 ppg, 4 apg) who was drafted with the No. 15 selection in the NBA Draft.

With the absence of a dominant scorer this season, the Tar Heels have maintained their fourth-highest scoring average in ACC play while increasing their points per game by one additional point to 74 per game. The Tar Heels have done so by having four players that average between ten and twelve points.

As of this writing, the Tar Heels’ record sits at 12-6 (7-4). Their 2-5 record versus Quad 1 opponents has them placed at No. 50 in the NET. The high profiled losses to Iowa, Texas, and Florida State has them sitting at No. 33  on Pomeroy as their best victories are against Duke and Stanford. Realistically those current rankings have the Tar Heels looking at a twelve seed, but with some games remaining they will put themselves in a position for an upset win in the first round.