The last seven days have been a rollercoaster for the North Carolina Tar Heels, who stormed back from 13 down against the Duke Blue Devils last weekend in a 71-68 win at the Dean E. Smith Center. North Carolina followed that up by losing to the Miami Hurricanes 75-66 in a game where the Tar Heels appeared emotionally and physically spent after investing all of their resources against Duke.
Falling to the Hurricanes snapped a five-game winning streak, but that was not the worst news coming out of that game. On Thursday, the university announced that star freshman Caleb Wilson had suffered a fractured hand, which was initially thought to be a sprained wrist.
- “University of North Carolina freshman Caleb Wilson is out with a fracture in his left hand, an injury he suffered in the first half of Tuesday’s game at Miami,” the university reported. “X-rays taken during the game were negative, and he returned to play in the second half vs. the Hurricanes, but additional imaging done in Chapel Hill revealed the fracture. The evaluation process is ongoing to determine the timetable for Wilson’s return.”
On Friday, ESPN’s Bracketologist Joe Lunardi updated his bracket tournaments in his Bracketology exercise, which featured several changes to the field. Where did the Tar Heels slide into after this past week’s results heading into Saturday’s slate of games.
North Carolina Falls
After moving up all the way to a four seed in last week’s projections, the Tar Heels are listed as a six seed in Lunardi’s assessment on Friday. In this version, North Carolina’s path is much more intimidating, as the top three seeds consist of Duke (1), Illinois (2), and Kansas (3). Because the Tar Heels are the six seed, they would play the Jayhawks in the second round, assuming all the favorites win.
Both teams played each other in early November, and North Carolina was victorious, defeating Kansas 87-74 behind Wilson’s 24 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and four steals while shooting 9-of-11 from the field…