North Carolina will have somewhat of a homecourt advantage
in the opening weekend of the 2026 NCAA Tournament if the Tar Heels can manage
without star freshman Caleb Wilson.
No. 6 seed UNC (24-8) plays No. 11 seed VCU (27-7) at 6:50
p.m. ET Thursday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
The South Region game airs on TNT.
Wilson, an All-ACC first-team selection, is out for the
season after breaking his right thumb. Wilson injured the thumb while working
back from a left hand fracture. Wilson’s last game was on Feb. 20. UNC is 5-3
in eight games without Wilson.
“Our team will move forward,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said of Wilson’s injury on March 7 after the regular-season finale against Duke.
Davis added, “Obviously, there’s tremendous sadness for him. I’ve talked about how special … obviously he’s a special player, but just how remarkable of a kid and a teammate he is and the passion that he has for his teammates, for North Carolina for being on the floor, for playing in games like this. It was a dream for him to play in the ACC [Tournament] and the NCAA Tournament, and my heart is broken that he won’t be able to do that.”
The UNC-VCU winner will play the winner of the Illinois-Penn
game on Saturday in Greenville, South Carolina.
The other teams in the South Region include No. 1 seed
Florida, No. 2 seed Houston, No. 4 seed Nebraska, No. 5 seed Vanderbilt, No. 7
seed Saint Mary’s, No. 8 seed Clemson, No. 9 seed Iowa, No. 10 seed Texas
A&M, No. 12 seed McNeese, No. 13 seed Troy, No. 15 seed, Idaho, No. 16 seed
Lehigh and No. 16 seed Prairie View A&M.
UNC enters the NCAA Tournament on a two-game losing streak.
Thursday marks the Tar Heels’ 55th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the
second most all-time.
It is the fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in five seasons
under head coach Hubert Davis, who has led the Tar Heels to an 8-3 record in
the NCAA Tournament.
The Tar Heels fell to Duke in the regular-season finale
and lost
80-79 to Clemson in the ACC quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, the Rams have won 16 of their last 17 games. It
includes a three-game sweep of Duquesne, Saint Joseph’s and Dayton to win the
A-10 title this past weekend in Pittsburgh.
NCAA selection committee chair Keith Gill said the committee
discussed Wilson’s injury and how it treated UNC.
“We spent a lot of time obviously talking about Caleb
Wilson, and that obviously impacted the way we talked about North
Carolina,” Gill said.
UNC and VCU have never played before.
North Carolina has the second-best NCAA Tournament winning
percentage among schools that have played at least 20 games. The Tar Heels hold
a 134-51 record in the NCAA Tournament.
