No. 8 UNC, No. 9 NC State, No. 16 Duke vying to give state’s ‘Triangle’ region 3 NCAA host sites

By Canadian Press on February 26, 2025.

Kara Lawson is focused on the immediate challenge, the task of preparing her 16th-ranked Duke team to host eighth-ranked North Carolina. Yet a win would reach beyond merely taking a backyard scrap with the Blue Devils’ nearby rival.

These days, that’s true of every Atlantic Coast Conference game in the 919 area code, for that matter.

The Blue Devils, Tar Heels and No. 9 N.C. State — all located within a 30-minute drive of one another in North Carolina’s “Triangle” region — have made their home state the only one in the country with three different programs cracking the top 10 of the AP Top 25 this season. That has them all within reach of being seeded highly enough in the NCAA Tournament to host opening-weekend games together for the first time in more than a quarter-century.

“I think that’s just what makes this area unlike any place in the country,” Lawson said. “You think about Power Four schools within a 30-minute radius of one another and how much this area loves basketball — the environments in each of those venues on the men’s and women’s sides are great. College basketball is not like this anywhere else. It’s just not.”

They all made the cut when the committee that selects the NCAA field released its preliminary top-16 seeds on Feb. 16. The committee updates that list again Thursday night, shortly before the Blue Devils and Tar Heels tip off in Durham.

The three schools have hosted in the same year only once since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994. That came in 1998, when the Wolfpack made the Final Four under late Hall of Famer Kay Yow, while the Tar Heels and Blue Devils each reached a regional final.

It could happen again depending on how things fall in the final week of the regular season and next week at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Greensboro. In the committee’s previous reveal, N.C. State was a regional 2-seed, while Duke and UNC were both 3-seeds.

As of Wednesday, the Tar Heels are the nation’s only unbeaten team on the road at 9-0. The Blue Devils are the highest ranked of the trio (ninth) in the NET rankings used by the committee as it sorts through bid candidates. Then there’s the Wolfpack with six Quadrant 1 wins that top a postseason resume; only No. 1 Texas (11), No. 2 UCLA (10), No. 4 USC (nine) and No. 6 South Carolina (11) have more.

N.C. State (22-5, 14-2 ACC) is coming off Sunday’s win against then-No. 1 Notre Dame in a double-overtime classic, a game with 21 lead changes, elite guard play and a few highlight-reel plays to double as a showcase moment for the entire sport.

It also came in front of a packed Reynolds Coliseum, where fans lined up for hours to get in — prompting the Wolfpack team to bring them doughnuts — with ESPN’s “College GameDay” broadcasting on site.

“If we can play here at home in the first and second round, we’ve got a pretty nice homecourt advantage,” Wolfpack coach Wes Moore said afterward.

Yet only a week earlier, the surging Wolfpack lost for only the second time since November. That came in Chapel Hill to the Tar Heels (25-4, 13-3), who survived losing fifth-year forward Alyssa Ustby early to injury and won on two clutch free throws by Grace Townsend in front of a sellout crowd.

It wasn’t long after that win, which pushed UNC into the top 10 a day later, that sixth-year coach Courtney Banghart pointed to that buzz in the building to weigh in on the hosting question.

UNC — which is still awaiting Ustby’s return — hasn’t hosted NCAA games since 2015, while N.C. State (four) and Duke (twice) have done it multiple times since.

“This is a place where basketball is adored,” Banghart said. “I don’t care that we’re all so close. If the teams are good enough to host they should host. If we’re all trying to save money, great, ESPN can just send one crew down and they can do all the games.”

Now it’s Duke’s turn to make its own statement.

The Blue Devils (21-7, 12-4) have had two separate stints inside the top 10 this year. They’ve lost two of three going back to a road loss to the then-No. 1 Fighting Irish before last week’s home loss to Louisville, and they’ve lost both road meetings against their Triangle neighbors.

This is the only time one of those teams visit Cameron Indoor Stadium, and Duke is battling to stay in the mix for a top-four seed in the ACC Tournament and the double-round bye that goes with it.

Do that, and Duke could be in good shape, too.

“You want to get as high in the standings as you can,” Lawson said. “You want to get as high in the NCAA Tournament committee’s rankings as you can. And that that puts you in a good position to have homecourt.

“If they’re going to be giving it to 16 teams, why not be one of the teams that that tries to go after it?”

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Aaron Beard, The Associated Press

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