First to qualify: UNC was a very very good team this year.

That said...UNC was largely considered the team to beat at the beginning of this year. That perception continued despite several close calls through the course of the season (and, of course, two notable home losses). The excuse given to Carolina was injuries, and, of course, there was some validity to that. However, Carolina was healthy when they escaped Duke in Cameron and Va Tech in the ACC tourney.

Stepping back, UNC's season through the end of the ACC tourney looked a lot like Duke's. UNC had two regular season ACC losses. Duke had three. UNC was taken to overtime or to the wire several times in the ACC season...if even one of those games that they won had gone against them, their regular season would have been a near perfect mirror of Duke's. UNC barely escaped losing in the ACC tournament semis while Duke lost (to a better team) in that same round.

Carolina got the Raleigh/Charlotte path by squeaking out several close calls. One or two more losses (or a couple more Duke wins) and they would not have had the Charlotte region. And we saw what happened to them as soon as they stepped away from Dean Dome II...er...Bobcat's Arena.

So was Carolina's perceived status as the "prohibitive favorite" more hype than reality all along?