North Carolina Basketball: Have the Tar Heels Done Enough to Earn a No. 1 Seed?

With the basketball regular season rapidly drawing to a close, the jockeying for a position in the upcoming NCAA tournament is in full swing.

The Tar Heels are a mortal lock to gain entry into the tournament field, but the question on the minds of Heels fans everywhere is where the team will be seeded, and what region they will be in.

As of today, three of the No. 1 seeds in March Madness are pretty well locked up: Syracuse in the East region, Missouri in the Midwest and probable overall No. 1 seed in the tournament Kentucky in the South region.

That leaves the West region up for grabs, with many bracket projections placing Duke in that spot. And that is the spot that Tar Heels fans would most like to see their team win. The West region starts in Greensboro for the first two rounds, and would be virtual home games for Carolina, with the added benefit of denying Duke a chance to be a No. 1.

The question right now is simple: Have the Heels done enough at this point to earn the No. 1 seed in the West?

A compelling case can be made for Carolina in this regard with a 22-4 record, wins against Michigan State, Wisconsin and Texas and a fairly strong RPI. Further, if there is any such thing as a "good" loss, the losses against Kentucky at Rupp Arena and to UNLV at a "neutral site" game in Las Vegas weren't so bad.

The shellacking by Florida State at Tallahassee is about the worst loss I've seen a Carolina team suffer in a long time, but it is mitigated in some ways by the fact that Duke, Carolina's biggest rival for the last No. 1 seed, also lost to the Seminoles.

But in spite of all that, I have to say at this moment Carolina isn't more deserving of the No. 1 seed than the guys down in Durham. The teams are so close in RPI and in a dead heat in the ACC that it's tough to make a case that Carolina is more deserving than the Blue Devils.

Duke has a better RPI, a stronger schedule strength and although they have arguably worse losses to Temple and Miami, their quality wins match up well with Carolina's. And they have the head-to-head win that effectively gives them a leg up on the race for the top spot in the West region.

All is not lost for the Heels, however. They have to handle their upcoming business with home games against Clemson and Maryland, a tough couple of road contests at Virginia and N.C. State, before getting a chance at some "get back" against Duke in the season finale.

If they can run the table and have a pretty good showing in the ACC Tournament, the No. 1 seed is still within their grasp.

Now we have to see if the Heels have the fortitude to do what is necessary to grab that final top seed in March Madness. The opportunity is there, this team just needs to take advantage of it.