Upset Alert - William & Mary vs. North Carolina

What a difference a year makes. Just one season after winning the national title, the North Carolina Tar Heels are participating in the NIT tournament. It was a combination of things that allowed this to happen, but anytime you win a National Championship, you’re going to have guys that parlay that momentum into the NBA entry draft.

That’s in the past though, and they’ll look to get something out of this year with a strong performance in the NIT. Tonight they’ll face a former Cinderella in the National Championship, as they face off against the William & Mary Tribe in first-round action tonight at Carmichael Arena. The fact that William & Mary have to travel to face UNC is a bit of a head scratcher when you consider the season these teams had.

North Carolina (16-16) is a 4 seed playing host to William & Mary (22-11), who is a 5 seed. But looking at the numbers, many people are wondering if it was North Carolina’s clout or inside influence that lead to them being the higher seed.

UNC has an RPI of 92 while W&M has an RPI of 58. UNC won two road games while W&M won 10. UNC was 5-12 against ACC teams including a 21 point loss at Maryland while W&M was 2-0 against the Atlantic Coast Conference including a win versus the Terrapins, the only team to do so this season.

Even looking at the way these two teams finished the season, with the Tar Heels losing in the first round of the ACC Tournament while the Tribe reached the CAA Finals, you have to wonder why it’s not Williams & Mary hosting this matchup.

C.M Newton, chair of the NIT selection committee, stated that this was due to a strength of schedule, which is more or less just a loophole.

“You can make an argument either way,” Newton said. “We can debate it. In the committee’s voting, they thought that North Carolina was a better team than William & Mary. Whether that is accurate or not, I don’t know. But eight people on the committee felt that way. We had considerable discussion.”

The debate could go on for hours on this, but I’m not privy to the inside dealings of the college basketball betting world, I can just assure you that it’s not all legit. So let’s get back to the matter at hand which is the game between North Carolina and William & Mary.

The Tribe are coming off one of its best seasons to date. They posted the third most wins in school history with 22 and you’ll have to go back to the 1949-50 campaign to find a better year. What is most impressive about this year is their success on the road. They set another school-record with 10 victories as the visitor this year, and made their way all the way to the CAA Championship game. That was the second time in three years they’ve found themselves in the CAA finals, and are clearly a program on the rise.

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As for the Tar Heels, after a decent start that saw them in the early season top-25 rankings, UNC began a steady decline that saw them finish with a 5-11 record in the ACC. They were ousted from ACC Tournament in the first round, and are just trying to save face with a few wins in the NIT.