To be fair, the North Carolina Tar Heels did earn a fairly convincing 95-68 victory over the San Diego State Aztecs last night in the program's First Four matchup. But, that doesn't change the fact that it made little to no sense that the Tar Heels made the NCAA Tournament in the first place.
Sure, the Heels could win a game or two and "prove they belonged" in the big dance, but the reality is the club should've never been there in the first place.
After the Heels earned their at-large bid to the big dance, Bubba Cunningham, who served as the chairperson on this year's 12-person selection committee and who also happens to be the athletic director at the University of North Carolina, took questions on the Heels bid along with vice chair Keith Gill. Cunningham confirmed he was not present for any conversations regarding UNC and their tournament resume.
"I was not in the room for any of that," Cunningham told CBS Sports.
But interestingly, it's known that Cunningham received a $68,000 check from the University of North Carolina because the Tar Heels earned an NCAA Tournament berth. He received one-twelfth of his annual base salary for the school getting a bid to the big dance.
Now, Cunningham probably had nothing to do with the decision, and the wild choice to put UNC in the tournament had nothing to do with him, but this is still an interesting development.
North Carolina making the tournament was probably the biggest shock of any bid on Selection Sunday. UNC was 1-12 in Quadrant 1 games entering Selection Sunday and had a Quadrant 3 loss on its resume. Teams like Indiana and West Virginia, who were left out of the tournament in favor of the Tar Heels, had four and six Quad 1 wins respectively, and neither school had a loss outside of Quad 2. It just didn't add up.
CBS Sports analyst Jon Rothstein expressed his shock after UNC got a bid to the tournament, wondering "how in the world" it was selected over the Mountaineers and the Hoosiers.
Regardless, it's an interesting development that Cunningham earned this raise, and now UNC will look to make a deep tournament run and prove that it could turn its season around.