Carolina might be home-schooled

Rank has its privileges. And for North Carolina, the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the main benefit is staying close to home.

The Tar Heels (32-2) will play the first weekend in Raleigh. If they win two games, they’ll be in the regional semifinal and perhaps the final in Charlotte.

North Carolina is 21-1 in NCAA games in North Carolina. The only loss was to Penn in 1979 in Raleigh.

Tar Heels fans are no doubt ecstatic that their team is staying in-state. North Carolina coach Roy Williams is a bit more skeptical.

“Those people that are shaking those Carolina blue pompoms,” he said, “I’ve never had one of them make a jump shot for us.”

Ironically, North Carolina’s only losses this season came in Chapel Hill.

And Williams points out that North Carolina’s 2005 national championship team advanced to the Final Four out of the regional held in Syracuse.

“Do you know where Syracuse is? It’s damn near the end of the world,” Williams joked. “But for me, it’s one of the greatest places in the world now because we won there and went to the Final Four.”

North Carolina would appear to have a team that is capable of matching the achievement of the 2005 team.

The return of sophomore point guard Ty Lawson from an ankle injury has the Tar Heels intact. Junior forward Tyler Hansbrough is a consistent scorer and rebounder, and he’s surrounded with capable scorers.

Tennessee, which entered the Southeastern Conference tournament in position to grab a No. 1 seed, wound up as the No. 2 in this regional. That, plus being in the same region as the overall No. 1 seed, should put a chip on the shoulder of Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl.

Tennessee would appear to have a difficult draw. In the second round, the Vols could face either Butler or South Alabama — with the Mobile-based Jaguars playing in Birmingham.

No. 3 seed Louisville and No. 5 seed Notre Dame survived the rugged Big East Conference and could be difficult teams to beat.