Miami is essentially a lock for the NCAA tournament. The real question now is how high the Hurricanes can climb once the ACC tournament starts in Charlotte.
Entering the week, the consensus bracketology has Miami on the No. 6-8 seed lines.
Miami would rise in NCAA tournament seeding with ACC tournament run
The Hurricanes finished the regular season 24-7 and 13-5 in ACC play, good for the No. 3 seed and a double bye into Thursday's ACC quarterfinals. Miami also climbed to No. 22 in the latest AP Top 25 and No. 23 in the USA Today Coaches Poll earlier this week.
The Hurricanes sit at No. 32 in NET with a 5-5 record in Quad 1, 6-2 in Quad 2, 3-0 in Quad 3 and 10-0 in Quad 4.
Miami opens Thursday against Louisville, SMU or Syracuse. On the current NET board, Louisville is No. 13 and SMU is No. 38 (neutral-court Quad 1 games include opponents ranked 1-50). That means a quarterfinal against either Louisville or SMU would give Miami another high-value opportunity. If the Hurricanes advance, a possible semifinal against Virginia, No. 14 in NET, or NC State, No. 35 in NET, would offer another strong resume game.
One good win could strengthen the case for the 6-7 line. A deeper run could start a real push toward a 5 seed considering some of the heavyweights within the ACC.
Per Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology, Miami is an 8 seed. That is drop from from the 6-7 range they were thought to be at before their loss to Louisville on Saturday. Duke is the top overall seed in the NCAA, per Lunardi.
Other ACC teams in Lunardi's latest bracketology: No. 4 Virginia (no change), No. 6 North Carolina (down from 5 seed), No. 10 NC State (down from No. 9 seed), No. 8 Clemson (no change), and No. 6 Louisville (no change). SMU is No. 11 (last four in). Virginia Tech is in the first four out group while Stanford and Cal are in the next four out.