North Carolina gets fresh start in First Four after two days in selection-show purgatory

North Carolina spent 45 hours in purgatory, give or take a minute or two of unrelenting agony, from the most famous lane violation in ACC history to the swift reveal of an at-large selection that made a governor so mad he called a press conference.

By the time the Tar Heels arrived, belatedly, in Dayton on Monday night, the uncertainty was all wiped clean, the same way their season starts anew now. But they spent the better part of two days in suspended animation, their fate out of their hands, careers and legacies dangling at the whim of 14 men and women sequestered in a hotel ballroom in suburban Indianapolis.

From the moment North Carolina lost to Duke in Charlotte on Friday night, when the Tar Heels fought back from 24 points down only for Jae’Lyn Withers’ foot to cross the line and wipe out a Ven-Allen Lubin free throw that would have tied the score, they knew nothing.

“It was very nerve-wracking,” Lubin said. “A lot of uncertainty in the air, and we just wanted to be ready for whatever.”

And then, all at once, they knew.

“It was a lot of anxiety,” Withers said. “And then it carried over into being grateful for another chance. Just the thought that it could be over, would be the one negative one. There was a lot of optimism going into the next couple days.”

The Tar Heels tried to act as if there was no doubt they were in the field, even as the bracketologist hive mind pronounced them out. They practiced like normal at 4 p.m. Sunday before gathering to watch the selection show, assuming the next game was the one they wanted to play. (Unlike in 2023, North Carolina would have accepted an NIT bid.)

The attempt at normalcy helped calm nerves still raw from the way things ended Friday, when the Tar Heels had a guarantee that they’d make the field in their grasp only to let it slip way in a most bizarre fashion. They felt like, since the loss at Clemson, they had played like an NCAA tournament team, pieces falling into place with Withers and Lubin at forward, losing only to Duke, the second by the narrowest of margins.

“Yes, we were mad about the game, but at the same time, we still had to prep, and we knew or we understood that we could possibly be playing Tuesday,” North Carolina guard R.J. Davis said. “It was kind of just like, deal with your emotions now but then be ready and be prepared to play Tuesday. That was really just everything that happened within the next 36, 48 hours.”

But whether they were an NCAA tournament team wasn’t up to them.

North Carolina’s controversial selection as the final team in the field sparked immediate controversy because UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham was the chairman of the selection committee. While he was out of the room for all of the discussions and votes on the final few teams, and Cunningham deferred to vice chairman Keith Gill, the Sun Belt commissioner, both publicly and privately, conspiracies still abounded.

CBS reporter Jon Rothstein, working the sidelines of Tuesday’s First Four game against San Diego State, called it a “miscarriage of justice.” ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, a noted college basketball expert, said it was “disgraceful.” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morissey, playing to his base after the Mountaineers were left out, threatened to sue the NCAA.

The simple explanation was that the committee had leaned more heavily on advanced metrics, which favored North Carolina, than in the past. But that didn’t stop Cunningham from receiving death threats, which led to the Chapel Hill Police stationing a cruiser outside his house, even though he had been in Indiana all week.

That will boil over, especially if North Carolina makes any kind of run this week, or maybe even if the Tar Heels can avoid a performance like Virginia’s Dayton debacle last year. The reasoning makes sense; it just caught quadrant-focused bracketeers off guard.

North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said he didn’t hear any of it. His players certainly did.

“We’ve all kind of felt the hate, the disagreement, all that, from everybody outside of the Carolina family and fan base,” North Carolina guard Seth Trimble said. “We’re just running with it. We definitely feel like we’ve got something to prove. We wanted to be better this year, but we deal with the cards at hand.”

They have nothing to lose now, nothing hanging over their heads. No regrets. They wondered what was next for them. This is it.

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This story was originally published March 17, 2025 at 9:38 PM with the headline "North Carolina gets fresh start in First Four after two days in selection-show purgatory."

Luke DeCock

The News & Observer

Luke DeCock is a former journalist for the News & Observer.