RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s Tar Heels, to a man, left Charlotte and the ACC Tournament believing they should and would be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA selection committee has made the call, and has included the Tar Heels. UNC (22-13) will face San Diego State (21-9) in a First Four game Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, with winner advancing as a No. 11 seed to play No. 6 seed Mississippi (22-11) in Milwaukee on Friday.

The Aztecs, coached by Brian Dutcher, will be playing in their fifth straight NCAA Tournament. San Diego State was beaten 62-52 by Boise State in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham is the chairman of the 2025 men’s selection committee, but had to recuse himself on discussions about the Tar Heels.

He also recused himself from explaining how UNC made it into the field.

Sun Belt Conference commissioner Keith Gill, the committee vice-chair, took that question on the CBS Selection Show and said there were “quite a few discussions” on UNC. He said a final vote of the committee was taken Saturday night, and it voted in four teams, but that there was a contingency vote on the last team to be added to the field..

Gill said the vote was based on Memphis and UAB playing for the AAC Tournament title, saying if Memphis won that game it would free up a spot in the tournament and it would be UNC. If UAB had won, Gill said, Memphis would have been in the tournament and UNC would have been the first team out.

Memphis beat UAB, 84-72, to win the AAC Tournament, adding to its regular-season title., to be the league’s automatic qualifier.

So it’s on to Dayton for the Tar Heels.

“I think we’ve shown we can play with anybody in the country,” UNC guard Elliot Cadeau said Friday.

Here’s some UNC criteria that had to be considered:

That Quad-1 problem

The Tar Heels, as of Sunday, were No. 36 in the NET rankings. But what pops off the page is their 1-12 record against Quad-1 opponents. They’re 8-0 against Quad-2 opponents, but that 1-12 mark might be too much to overcome.

In 2023, when the Heels were left out of the NCAA field, UNC was No. 46 in the NET and had a 1-9 Quad-1 record, but also were 6-4 against Quad-2 teams. The Heels were the defending NCAA champions — and the preseason No. 1 pick — but were not in the NCAA field and then declined to compete in the NIT.

The schedule

This ties to the Quad-1 problem. The Heels’ nonconference lineup of opponents was imposing: Auburn, Kansas, Michigan State, Florida, Alabama, UCLA. UNC was competitive in those games but lost all but the UCLA game in New York.

The KenPom rankings, which has UNC at No. 33, has the Heels’ nonconference schedule ranked as the seventh toughest in Division I. No other team in the top 50 had a tougher one.

In 2019, N.C. State was No. 33 in the NET but left out of the NCAA field, in large part, because its nonconference schedule was judged to be too easy. UNC might miss, in the end, because it was too loaded.

The past 10 games

Remember when the NCAA committee used that as a key metric? It’s still relevant, a gauge to how a team is playing at the most important time of the season.

The Heels were 8-2 over the last 10, with the two losses to Duke. They whipped Notre Dame by 20 in their ACC Tournament opener and then outfought Wake Forest — and it was a fight — in the quarterfinals. Then, the huge second-half comeback and close loss to Duke ...

“We’ve been playing our best,” UNC’s Ven-Allen Lubin said. “We’ve learned a lot and we’ve grown a lot. I really think we can play against anybody.”

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