Perhaps I don’t understand this whole “(u)NC love” thing. Shouldn’t we be rooting for them to hire someone like Tom Crean or, I don’t know, my cat?
I don't want to root for them to come down to us. I want to root for us to move up to where they normally reside. That is better for us in 2 ways.
First, whether we like it or not conference perceptions rest partly on how well the 'premier' programs in a conference perform. If they underperform then the whole conference underperforms in many people's 'eyes'. And while conference reputation is not supposed to play a role in Tourney slots it is naive to think that it does not.
Second, in basketball how much money you make in the Tournament rests on how well the conference as a whole performs. This was the ACC's worst year in some time in the Tourney and that will have a negative effect on the bottom lines of the various conference members budgets.
That doesn't mean you have to turn into fans of other programs, it just means you need to understand that it is much better to have alot of strong teams, than a lot of mediocre teams in your conference.
if we beat UNC because they are mediocre and we are mediocre, that is not nearly as satisfying as beating them when they are good and we are good.