UNC has little choice but to win today’s game on the road at NC State if they wish to play in the NCAA Tournament next month. NC State would love to crush those dreams by handing a big L to a team that roughed them up in Chapel Hill a few weeks back. There’s a lot on the line.
The Tar Heels have managed to cling onto the bubble despite inexplicable losses and wildly up and down play. The opportunities to pick up big wins are limited to basically finding a way to win on the road at Duke to close out the regular season, but they cannot afford to overlook State or Syracuse on the way there in a way that would have them dropping another bad game so late in the season.