Archdeacon: Amid backlash and threats, North Carolina steps onto the First Four stage

And the optics became even worse when people started focusing on the fact that Cunningham — as would be the case with almost all athletics directors of college programs — would get a sizeable bonus if North Carolina made the NCAA Tournament.

According to 247Sports, Cunningham will receive a $104,000 bonus for the Tar Heels inclusion into the field of 68 and, should the team make the Sweet 16, he’ll get another $50,000, After that the incentives go up for getting to the Final Four and then winning a national title.

When those numbers became public, the sports talk babblers had plenty of fodder for debate and some anonymous online creeps took it much farther and death threats were made.

They are being taken seriously enough that Dayton police have someone assigned to Cunningham’s protection 24/7 until he leaves town.

In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, police there posted a patrol car in front of Cuningham’s home.

Cunningham was at UD Arena late Monday afternoon and into the evening, and although he didn’t want to talk on the record about the threats, he did say the past two days have been difficult:

“While it’s certainly an honor to be on the committee, it’s been a real challenge, quite honestly, (since the field was announced.) You try to do everything appropriately, but sometimes things happen that make a big stir, and this is one of those.”

The situation hasn’t been helped by West Virginia governor Patrick Morrisey, who put on a grandstanding performance at a press conference he held Monday behind a podium that read National Corrupt Athletic Association.

The West Virginia Mountaineers were one of four notable teams that just missed the tournament field even though they had a better Quad I record than North Carolina.

For analytical purposes, opponents on a team’s schedule fall into four different quads. Quad 1 contains the best teams, while Quad 4 is the weakest.

While North Carolina was 1-11 in Quad 1 games, West Virginia was 6-10 and that includes victories over Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas and Iowa State, each of them seeded No. 8 or better in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Playing especially to his base, Morrisey said he was launching an investigation into the NCAA and the Selection Committee. He claimed this was “a miscarriage of justice” and “a robbery at the highest level.”

He said he wanted to see if there were any “backroom deals, corruption, bribes, or any nefarious actions done.”

Although this might all well be blustery talk on his part, it should be noted when he was his state’s attorney general in 2023, he and other states’ AGs sued the NCAA over transfer eligibility ... and won.

Other teams that just missed the NCAA Tournament field this year but had better Quad 1 records than North Carolina included Indiana, Boise State and Ohio State.

The Hoosiers were 4-13 versus Quad 1 teams and that included wins over Purdue and Michigan State.

Boise State (24-10) was 3-6 against Quad 1 opponents with victories \against Clemson and Saint Mary’s.

And Ohio State (17-15) was 6-11 versus top-tier teams, defeating Texas, Kentucky and Purdue.

Even the Dayton Flyers (22-10) had a better Quad 1 record than the Tar Heels. UD was 3-3 in Quad 1 games, beating UConn, Marquette and VCU.

The Tar Heels did edge them though and the Flyers’ biggest downfall came with Quad 2 games, where they were 2-6. North Carolina was 8-0 in Quad 2.

On the tournament bubble Sunday, North Carolina ended up being the last team added to the field.

Per NCAA rules, Cunningham — like anyone on the 12-member committee when their team is discussed — was required to leave the room and abstain from voting and he said he did that.

Keith Gill, the committee chair who’s also the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference and a Duke grad, said all the procedures were followed.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Those assertions did little to defuse the debate.

Cunningham — who five seasons ago won the Athletic Director of the Year Award from the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics — has been pilloried plenty since the brackets were announced Sunday evening and 24 hours later, he seemed wearied by all the blowback.

The team that many say doesn’t belong in the tournament got one more karmic reminder of that Monday afternoon at the Raleigh Durham International Airport. Although the players were all assembled for the flight, there was no plane there for them.

The charter arranged by the NCAA Tournament got to the airport late and the North Carolina team landed in Dayton at 6:29 p.m., some 2 ½ hours behind schedule.

That caused the Tar Heels to miss their previously arranged press conference and practice time at UD Arena.

When they finally did step onto the First Four stage, guard Seth Trimble spoke for all his teammates when he said:

“We’ve all kind of felt the hate, the disagreement coming from everybody outside of the Carolina family and fan base. We’re running with it. We definitely feel like we have something to prove. We wanted to be better this year, but we’re dealing with the cards at hand.”

The Tar Heels finally stepped into the UD Arena floor for practice at 8:11 p.m.

By then, most of the early crowd that had come to watch the workouts had left.

The police officer watching over Bubba Cunningham had not.