The North Carolina Tar Heels will open up their exhibition schedule this Friday by taking on USC in Greensboro. It's the first time we will see this version of Michael Malone's team here for the 2025-26 season. And the excitement for a new era of North Carolina basketball will be underway.
As Malone takes over for Hubert Davis following a disappointing year, there are a lot of questions still around the Tar Heels and what they will be like. Missing the NCAA Tournament would be a shocker, especially with the field expanding to 76 teams.
But early on, one bracket expert believes the Tar Heels will be in, but barely.
In Joe Lunardi's updated Bracketology for ESPN, he predicts the field for the NCAA Tournament in early October ahead of the season.
He has North Carolina as one of the "last four byes" which means they are in the tournament but the "last teams to skip the expanded Opening Round."
He projects North Carolina as a No. 9 seed in the Midwest Region, facing off against No. 8 Missouri. The No. 1 seed in the region is Illinois, and if you remember last year, the Tar Heels were in the same region as Illinois.
This seems like a fair ranking for the Tar Heels, seeing that we don't know what we will get from Malone in terms of a coach at this level. Plus, there are questions regarding the roster, including at center. There's not a lot of depth there for the Tar Heels, which is the opposite of the guard spot.
The good news is that there is a lot of time between now and Selection Sunday, so the Tar Heels have a lot of room to improve their resume.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball barely in field of Joe Lunardi's Bracketology
