The lack of elite wins, in fact, was the primary knock against UNC’s NCAA Tournament resume (for seeding purposes, of course; the Tar Heels have been an at-large lock for some time). So much for that.

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Friday’s 71-67 win against Virginia, the No. 3 team in today’s RPI (and No. 3 in both the AP poll and Pomeroy ratings), was the Tar Heels’s second win against an elite team in as many days. Justin Jackson led the way with 22 points — on 8-of-10 shooting — Marcus Paige had 14 points and five assists and Brice Johnson had 13 points and six rebounds.

“We’re getting warmer. We’re starting to figure it out,” UNC guard Marcus Paige said. “Justin’s playing way more confident, being the guy we knew he was capable of being. I’m healthy, feeling better and being more aggressive and attacking. Kennedy (Meeks is) feeling better off the sickness. Brice had a fantastic game yesterday and was productive today. So everyone’s hitting their stride. We’re getting warmer.”

This win came on the heels of their comeback Thursday, when they roared back from a double-digit first-half deficit to knock off Louisville, 80-70, for the second time this season. The Cardinals are No. 17 in the RPI. 

The Virginia win was North Carolina’s best game of the season.

The Tar Heels built their lead as high as 13 points in the second half, then held on as the Cavaliers, who had only lost two games all season, came rushing back to get within a point in the final minutes. 

“Justin Anderson actually came up to me and told me when they were down 11, ‘We’re gonna come back,’” Paige said. “And I was like, ‘Hey, you guys are the second-best team in the country, and we expect that it’s going to be a battle.’ Me and him are friends, we go back a while.”

North Carolina, though, had enough answers. 

And Virginia left the game with questions about its eventual seed. The Cavaliers had been securely on the No. 1 seed line in bracket projections for months, but suddenly they’ve lost two of three games and that spot is far from secure. 

Anderson, who was playing just his second game after missing an extended stretch with a broken finger and an emergency appendectomy, was asked if he felt his team deserved a No. 1 seed. 

“Do I think so? Yes,” he replied. “Is that relevant to us? Not at all.”

The loss left the Cavaliers, who were on the top seed line in Friday morning’s Field of 68 update, with a 29-3 record on the season. They still have five RPI top 25 wins, tied with Villanova and more than fellow No. 1 seed contenders Arizona or Wisconsin.

And they don’t have any remotely bad losses on their resume (the three have come to teams ranked No. 3, 12 and 19 in the RPI). Arizona has three losses to teams with an RPI of 100 or higher, and Wisconsin lost to a very bad Rutgers team. 

Their case for a No. 1 seed remains solid. Just not as solid as it would have been with a second win against North Carolina.