Bracketology 2024: Houston at Baylor highlights big power-conference games on Saturday

No. 10 North Carolina (20-6, 12-3 in ACC) at Virginia (20-7, 11-5 in ACC), Saturday, February 24, 4:00 PM ET, ESPN

One of the first surprises during the bracket reveal this past Saturday was seeing North Carolina as the top two seed and No. 5 overall seed. While it is a reasonable position to take, it was somewhat surprising given their recent struggles against both Clemson and Syracuse with a three-point win over free-falling Miami sandwiched in between.

After getting back on the winning track against Virginia Tech last Saturday, they hit the road to face a surging Virginia team that enters the game having won nine of their last 11. UNC is on the brink of being a No. 1 seed according to the committee should Arizona falter down the stretch and winning quad 1 road games like this one would do nothing but bolster a resume that has six road wins.

Virginia, like seemingly every other team in or around the cutline has been taking one step forward and two steps back. They took two big steps back on Monday night thanks to a 34-point loss to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Prior to that, they had won nine of ten and had climbed to a No. 8 seed in my field before Monday's action. The Cavaliers had quietly been climbing over the last month, but this loss heading into a game with the conference as well as a trip to Cameron Indoor could put Virginia in a precarious position heading into the ACC Tournament.

Virginia's resume could use a signature win, especially this late in the year as their best win outside of a one-point win over Clemson is over Florida which came in the first week of the season. Virginia now needs to right its ship or that ship could end up sinking quickly.