North Carolina's season will continue. So will N.C. State's.
Despite a disappointing 16-16 record, the defending national champion Tar Heels earned a surprisingly high No. 4 seed in the NIT - and will host a game against William & Mary at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. N.C. State earned a No. 6 seed and will play at South Florida at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Both teams are in the same quadrant of the bracket, meaning if they each win two games they would match up in the quarterfinals for the right to advance to the semifinals at Madison Square Garden.
UNC will play its opening game at Carmichael Arena because of renovations to the Smith Center offices. Entering the selection show, earning a high enough seed to host seemed like a stretch, considering the Tar Heels' .500 record, the 32-point loss to Duke in the regular-season finale and a first-round exit from the ACC tournament.
But C.M. Newton, selection committee chairman, insisted Sunday night that the decision to invite the Tar Heels, and give them a home game in the 32-team field, had nothing to do with potential ticket sales or the fact that they are a "name" program.
"Their schedule was the determining factor," Newton said, referring to nonconference matchups that included Syracuse, Michigan State, Texas and Kentucky.
This will mark UNC's sixth NIT appearance and the first since 2003. Playing William & Mary will mean seeing a couple of former Tar Heels. The Tribe (22-10) is coached by Tony Shaver, who played guard at UNC from 1972 to 1975. Assistant coach Jonathan Holmes also played four seasons at UNC, graduating in 2003. If UNC wins, it would likely play at No. 1 seed Mississippi State, which faces Jackson State in its opening game.
N.C. State (19-15) won its invitation to the NIT by winning three of its last four regular-season games and two more in the ACC tournament before falling to Georgia Tech in the semifinals.
"They played their way, frankly, from a team we didn't have on our radar to a team that came into our tournament by the way they played - particularly in the ACC tournament, and the way they played late in the year," Newton said.
This will mark State's 11th NIT bid. It last played in the NIT in 2007.
If the Wolfpack beats USF (20-12), it will play either UAB or Coastal Carolina in the second round.
Newton said the committee thought about separating the Tar Heels and State into different quadrants of the bracket so they wouldn't match up again unless they advanced to New York. But the committee tries to keep teams closer to home.
"We looked at that and thought, 'Should we send North Carolina or North Carolina State out West to avoid this?' " Newton said. "And we made the judgment that it wouldn't be what they wanted, or what their fans wanted."
