Bracketology 2022: Baylor, Memphis, North Carolina among latest winners

North Carolina

We could talk about North Carolina (and the ACC as a whole) and how they’ve underachieved; they did lose to Pittsburgh three weeks ago, but we’ll focus on the good instead. Obviously, the headline is Saturday’s enormous 13-point win at Duke, spoiling Coach K’s final home game coaching the Blue Devils. In recent weeks, the Tar Heels have also secured wins over Virginia Tech, Louisville, and Syracuse on their current five-game winning streak.

North Carolina finished the regular season not only with 23 wins but with an impressive 15-5 mark in conference play. Yes, the ACC is not great, and the Tar Heels have some rough losses on their resume, but this win at Duke all but cements that the Tar Heels will dance this season. At this point, their performance in the ACC Tournament will be more about what seed this program is going to receive; perhaps even working their way up to a single-digit seed in the process.

Virginia

The national champions in 2019 have won a slew of ACC titles and been one of the most impressive programs in recent memory, but this has been a down year for Tony Bennett’s squad. The Cavaliers have struggled to play consistently, and their defense hasn’t played at the elite level we’re used to seeing. Still, a double-digit road win over Louisville this weekend helped them finish off the regular season on a positive note.

Virginia is a bubble team that needs a good performance in the ACC Tournament, but they do have some impressive wins on the resume, including road wins over Duke and Miami in recent weeks. That upset of the Blue Devils is going to be fuel to get the Cavaliers into the NCAA Tournament if they can put together a few more good halves during their conference tournaments.