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Joe Lunardi says bubble hopes may have burst for Texas, North Carolina
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Joe Lunardi said on ESPN’s SportsCenter Saturday morning that both Texas and North Carolina are “on the wrong side” of the NCAA Tournament bubble after picking up losses in their respective conference tournaments on Friday.
Texas lost to Tennessee, 83-72, in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament Friday afternoon. That dropped the Longhorns to 19-15 on the year. North Carolina (22-13) lost to a Cooper Flagg-less Duke team in the ACC Tournament semifinals by 3 points.
“We had a bid-stealer overnight,” Lunardi said, referencing Boise State’s 72-69 win over top-seeded New Mexico in the Mountain West Tournament. The Broncos (24-9) will face Colorado State in the MWC Tournament title game on Saturday. “That game may be a play-in … but in the short run, it puts Carolina and Texas — just too many losses for each of them — on the wrong side.”
Lunardi’s most recent bracket projections have Boise State as the last team into the field while North Carolina and Texas (in that order) are the first 2 teams to miss the cut. A loss to Colorado State in the Mountain West title game would “probably” move Boise State out, according to Lunardi.
“And that assuming — a huge assumption — that we have no other bid stealers Saturday,” Lunardi added. “This day last year, we had 5.”
A win over Texas A&M in the quarterfinals on Thursday gave Texas a seventh Quad 1 victory this season. While the Longhorns went 6-12 in SEC play, their sheer quantity of résumé-building wins overwhelms North Carolina.
The Tar Heels went 1-12 in Q1 games this season. North Carolina was 8-0 in Q2 games while Texas was 3-5, but Carolina also had a Q3 loss while Texas went 9-0 against Q3 and Q4 teams.
Carolina (36th) sits 3 spots higher than Texas (39th) in the latest NET rankings. The overall strength of schedule favors Texas (16th compared to 42nd) but the out-of-conference schedules aren’t comparable. Carolina’s nonconference schedule ranked as the fifth-toughest in the country. Texas ranked 285th.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
