Top Update: Tar Heel Sends Off Three Top Key Players On Suspension Regarding Crisis….

ACC regular-season champion North Carolina produced the league’s top player and coach this men’s basketball season. UNC’s Hubert Davis was the overwhelming choice for coach of the year, while senior guard RJ Davis is the player of the year, in voting announced Monday. Hubert Davis led the Tar Heels (25-6, 17-3 ACC) back to the top of the conference one year after UNC began the season ranked No. 1 but finished 20-13 and failed to even make the NCAA Tournament. Davis added transfers Cormac Ryan and Harrison Ingram to the roster while also seeing freshman guard Elliot Cadeau reclassify to enroll a year ahead of schedule.

Things got testy on more than one occasion Saturday night when No. 7 North Carolina visited No. 9 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the final game of the regular season, and college basketball fans had plenty to say online in reaction. One of the more controversial moments came came at the six-minute mark in the first half. After Duke came up with a loose ball and started heading the other way in transition, Blue Devils center Kyle Filipowski and UNC forward Harrison Ingram got tangled up, and both fell to the hardwood. Ingram made it off the ground first and began sprinting back to play defense, but Filipowski, who was still on the ground, appeared to stick his leg out on purpose to trip Ingram. Filipowski then played off the incident as if he were injured on the play. Kyle Filipowski sticks his leg out and trips Harrison Ingram, then pretends to stomp his shoes and walk it off like he’s injured pic.twitter.com/PooO0rQF0c — Kyle Boone (@kyletheboone) March 10, 2024 The Tar Heels went on to win 84–79 to clinch the ACC regular-season title outright. While celebrating in front of the Blue Devils student section, the Cameron Crazies threw drinks at UNC players. All in all, it was just another intense episode of the most storied rivalry in college basketball.

With the men’s college hoops regular season now over, it’s time to turn our attention to conference tournament action. Before that, though, here are three takeaways from the weekend that was.

North Carolina is just a little bit better than Duke

We start with the biggest game of the weekend. Cameron Indoor Stadium was jumping on Saturday night, as Duke had a chance to split the ACC regular-season title with North Carolina — and exact revenge for its 93-84 loss in Chapel Hill on Feb. 3 — in a titanic Tobacco Road showdown between the conference’s two best teams.

But the Tar Heels, much like the first meeting, proved that they are simply the superior team, jumping out to a 15-4 lead and holding on late for an 84-79 victory. The Blue Devils, led by Kyle Filipowski (23 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) and Jared McCain (19 points, eight boards), battled throughout, even cutting the North Carolina lead to one early in the second half.

Yet the visitors simply would not be denied, as Cormac Ryan (31 points and 6-of-8 from three) was a flamethrower all evening long.

The win clinched the Tar Heels’ first outright ACC regular-season title since 2017 — the year they, coincidentally, last won the national title — and proves that, even if the two meet in the ACC Tournament title game in Washington, D.C., this Saturday, there is a clear top dog in the conference this year.

Houston is the current the No. 1 overall seed

Is it possible that the Cougars are flying under the radar? That might be slight hyperbole, but given that the other national title contenders feature Purdue (and the soon-to-be two-time National Player of the Year, Zach Edey), defending champion UConn, Tennessee (and its own superstar, SEC Player of the Year Dalton Knecht) and perennial powers in North Carolina, Arizona, Kentucky and Duke, Houston may not be the sexy pick with less than a week to go before Selection Sunday, with after a dominant home win over Kansas on Saturday, a 28-3 season (15-3 in the Big 12) in the best conference in the country must be rewarded.

How so? Well, the metrics don’t lie; Houston is first in KenPom, Bart Torvik and the NET Ranking, while sitting second (to Purdue) in KPI. Things could change based on what the Cougars, Boilermakers and Huskies do in the Big 12, Big Ten and Big East Tournaments, respectively.

Right now, though, it’s fairly clear that the top No. 1 seed hails from the Lone Star State.

Kentucky has put it together

Well, well, well, if it isn’t John Calipari and the Wildcats peaking at the right time. With its 85-81 road win over the SEC regular-season champion Volunteers on Saturday, Kentucky heads into the conference tournament in Nashville on a roll — Calipari and company have won seven of eight, with the lone loss coming at the buzzer to LSU on the road.

The Wildcats offense (sixth nationally in adjusted efficiency, per KenPom) has remained stellar; with perimeter scorers like Antonio Reeves, Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham, it’s hard not to.