North Carolina won twice on Saturday. First was the 85-67 victory at Pittsburgh, which guaranteed the Tar Heels a double-bye in ACC tournament. Then, about four hours later, the Tar Heels won again when Miami defeated Duke.
The Hurricanes’ victory knocked Duke out of contention in the race for the ACC regular-season championship, and it ensured that UNC will enter the ACC tournament as the No. 1 seed. The Tar Heels will play on noon on Thursday, March 9, at the Barclays Center.
UNC will play either the tournament’s No. 8 seed or the No. 9 seed. Those two teams – they’d be Virginia and Virginia Tech if the tournament was played today, though the standings will change – will play each other on Wednesday.
Florida State, Louisville and Notre Dame could all still tie UNC in the ACC standings, if those teams win their remaining regular season games and if the Tar Heels lose theirs. The Tar Heels, though, defeated all of those teams, and thus own the tiebreaker against them all.
This is the eighth time in Roy Williams’ 14 seasons that UNC has won the ACC’s regular-season championship. During the same span, no other coach has won more than three ACC regular-season championships.
Andrew Carter: 919-829-8944, @_andrewcarter
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