Q: Will UNC Get Into the NCAA Tournament? A: Not this year

Not a question Tar Heel baseball has really face much during the Mike Fox tenure. The last time UNC missed the NCAA Tournament was in 2001. Since then going into the NCAA postseason and even hosting a regional were often givens. That wasn't the case last season and in 2015, UNC runs the risk of missing the NCAA Tournament altogether.

The last official RPI released by the NCAA on May 23rd placed UNC at 24th up four spots after beating Clemson and finishing the ACC Tournament 2-2. Warren Nolan, which is live updated has the Tar Heels at 28th and an SOS of seven. UNC has 23 wins over top 100 teams this season.

From an RPI standpoint UNC is in decent shape but from an eye test perspective not to much. The late season swoon that saw UNC lose six of its final seven games and swept in ACC play on back-to-back weekends damaged the Tar Heels' NCAA chances. UNC went from possibly fighting for a regional host to potentially being out of the tournament completely. The Tar Heels did get two wins in the ACC Tournament but over Virginia Tech which isn't an NCAA Tournament team and fellow bubble dweller Clemson. The two losses came at the hands of Louisville and FSU who are in contention for national seeds.

Complicating matters for UNC is the suspension of Landon Lassiter. Mike Fox announced prior to UNC's game against Clemson on Friday the junior outfielder and team's leading batter was suspended for "conduct detrimental to the team." Fox has said that suspension will carry forward into the NCAA Tournament. If that's the case, does the NCAA selection committee knock UNC down in the pecking order? If so, it doesn't bode well for the Tar Heels continuing its NCAA Tournament streak.

As far as projections go, Baseball America has UNC in the field as the #3 seed in the College Station Regional with the #4 overall seed Texas A&M. D1 Baseball has UNC as one of the first five out. UNC will learn its fate at noon when the bracket is revealed.

UPDATE:

Carolina did not get into the tournament, it appears that their late season swoon cost the Heels dearly.