North Carolina's NCAA Tournament hopes take hit as Duke completes season sweep

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – If North Carolina men's basketball is going to make the NCAA Tournament, the Tar Heels will need an extended stay at the ACC Tournament in Greensboro. 

Following the Tar Heels’ 62-57 loss to Duke, another missed opportunity for UNC to add a March Madness resume-boosting victory to its profile, Armando Bacot kept it simple. 

“The ACC Tournament is definitely huge for us,” said Bacot, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds against the surging Blue Devils (23-8). “We’re just going in there with the mindset: We just gotta go win, really. That’s all we can do.”

Bacot later reemphasized the point, saying: “It’s just something we gotta do. We don’t really got a choice.” 

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Ahead of Saturday’s game, according to a crowd of predictions, UNC (19-12) was among the first four teams projected to be left out of March Madness. With another late collapse in a high-profile game against Duke, the climb to get on the right side of the bubble will be steeper. 

UNC, the No. 7 seed in the ACC Tournament, is scheduled to play Wednesday at 7 p.m. against No. 10 Boston College or No. 15 Louisville. If the Tar Heels want to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, they’ll have to win four games in four days. 

The path to the title would include a game against No. 2 seed Virginia on Thursday and a possible rematch with No. 3 Clemson or No. 6 NC State on Friday. Top-seeded Miami and No. 4 Duke are the top seeds in the other half of the bracket.

“We gotta have a really, really, really good week next week,” forward Pete Nance said. 

Nance went on to discuss the latest “frustrating” and “upsetting” loss to Duke, but reaffirmed that UNC coach Hubert Davis hasn’t lost faith in the Tar Heels. 

“He always talks about time and opportunities,” Nance said. “He said we got a little bit longer together. We got limited opportunities to do what we want to do this year. Everything’s still possible and we can’t hang our heads. We gotta keep playing.” 

Despite the conversations about UNC needing to make a deep run at the ACC Tournament, Davis said his “full attention” is on Wednesday. 

“I’m not adopting the narrative that we have to win four games,” Davis said. 

As for Hubert Davis’ message to the team, RJ Davis said the second-year coach still believes in this group's ability to make some noise in the postseason.

“The main message is: He’s not gonna lose confidence in us right now,” RJ Davis said. “Right now, we’re all hurting, but we got next week to kind of change things around and make a run in the ACC Tournament.”   

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on Twitter.