UNC Basketball: Burning Questions for Tar Heels' Postseason

Thanks to a nice run through the ACC tournament, the North Carolina Tar Heels were given a reasonable seed in the NCAA tournament. A No. 4 seed in the West Region, UNC will be matched up against the Harvard Crimson in its first postseason game.

Looking ahead, if the Heels advance, the West holds national powers Wisconsin and Arizona as its top two seeds, as well as a number of double-digit seeds with upset potential, including perhaps Harvard.

That's where things get started in some burning questions for North Carolina's postseason.

Can UNC be bounced in the round of 64?

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While technically "anything is possible," the real answer here is "no." Harvard has the pedigree and reputation of being a tournament Cinderella capable of vanquishing favored foes, but this is a very bad matchup for the Crimson. 

Both UNC and Harvard rely on inside scoring and paint execution to succeed; UNC is just better at it.

If Carolina was facing a deep gunning team capable of launching 30 threes, fans could be a bit worried. Harvard, though, is actually one of the very few teams down at North Carolina's level here, ranking outside of the top 300 nationally in threes per game.

Which Marcus Paige will show up from here on out?

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Paige is still UNC's best player despite the domination of the Heels' forwards in the paint this season. However, his game log reads like a seismograph.

In just the past month-plus alone, since the start of February, Paige's shooting has been bouncing up and down. He started February with back-to-back games shooting at least 50 percent. Those were immediately followed by two straight shooting under 28 percent.

After that was a game over 60 percent, then a game under 40 percent. Just this final week of the season, Paige shot 33.3 percent in the win over Virginia and then 50 percent in the loss to Notre Dame.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason for his performances, with bad ones coming against bad defenses and good ones against good defenses.

This team's ceiling is only reached when Paige is on and lethal from the outside. Otherwise, it is too one-dimensional to take down the heavy hitters in this tournament.

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How will the West Region break?

The West is loaded with star power thanks in part to these Heels.

Outside of UNC, though, the following game-changing players are all battling for that Final Four berth: Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky, Oklahoma State's Le'Bryan Nash, Arkansas' Bobby Portis, BYU's Tyler Haws, Baylor's Rico Gathers, Georgia State's R.J. Hunter (and Ryan Harrow if healthy), Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell and Arizona's Stanley Johnson.

There are obviously a number of other impactful players in this region, but that list of leaders is enough to rival the group from any other region.

Because of the way these teams are constructed, for the most part, a team's success is contingent on its best player leading the charge. For example, it's unlikely BYU or Ohio State win even a single game if their best player isn't playing well.

Perhaps only Arizona and Stanley Johnson are a major exception from the list above because the Wildcats win with their defense first.

Projecting a win for North Carolina, this means it will likely face Arkansas followed by Wisconsin if the Heels win through. And lucky for UNC, this team has the bodies to halt each of the Razorbacks' and Badgers' best players.

Both Portis and Kaminsky are skilled post players capable of stepping out and hitting shots from deep. But Carolina has a solid rotation in the frontcourt, which includes athletes at power forward who can guard 25 feet from the basket.

If the West does actually come down to every team's top dog enforcing his will, North Carolina has as good of a chance as anybody to thwart those strengths.

Can UNC hang with Arizona?

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Arizona has perhaps the best non-Kentucky or Virginia defense in the country. 'Zona can get after people. It also has a quality rotation of players who know and execute their roles from dueling 7-footers Kaleb Tarczewski and Dusan Ristic to perhaps the team MVP, 6'1" T.J. McConnell.

With that said, North Carolina has a performance in it that can vanquish the all-around excellence of Arizona. If they're gobbling up misses on the offensive boards, stay out of foul trouble and get two or three guys nailing some shots from behind the arc, the Tar Heels are very hard to top.

So, to answer the final question in regards to UNC in the West region...

Is UNC good enough to win the regional title?

Yes, on its best day. Of course, the excitement of March Madness rests in the fact that the Heels could also be eliminated by this weekend.