Over the weekend, a few college basketball teams successfully defended their #1 seeds in their conference championships and punched their tickets to the NCAA Tournament. Several more teams emerged victorious in key rivalry games.
And North Carolina was one of those states.
On Saturday night, the Tar Heels achieved a two-for-one special when they defeated their bitter rival Duke, 84-79, inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, and won their first ACC regular-season championship since 2016.
Right now, UNC is playing some of its greatest basketball. Although players and coaches are probably thinking about winning the ACC Tournament, North Carolina has bigger goals in mind.
The Tar Heels were crowned USA Today’s best Weekend Winner following their decisive victory on Saturday.
“UNC led wire-to-wire and thwarted Duke’s late rally, capping the night by waving goodbye to the Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd,” USA TODAY journalist Eddie Timanis wrote. “This will go down in the annals of the rivalry as the Cormac Ryan game.” Ryan scored a career-high 31 points in the game, driving the Tar Heels’ comeback with a flurry of three-pointers in the first half and securing the victory with the game-winning free throws in the closing seconds. With the major conference tournaments taking place this week, the Tar Heels remain in the running for the top NCAA regional seed after their greatest victory of the weekend.
We don’t often discuss North Carolina’s increased chances of earning a top-4 NCAA Tournament seed. UNC’s chances of receiving a first seed will probably be strengthened if they win the ACC Tournament.
