The North Carolina baseball team is No. 1 in the nation, first in the hearts of its fans ... but ... ugh ... second in the final standings of the Atlantic Coast Conference's Coastal Division. And that makes the Tar Heels the No. 3 seed in this week's ACC Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla.

This is not the new math we've been hearing about for the last 40 years. It's college baseball.

It gets crazier, too.

The Tar Heels just concluded their regular season by winning two of three games at the home field of the Coastal Division winner and top seed in the ACC Tournament: Miami.

Did anyone mention that Hurricanes were the nation's No. 1 team at the time?

Here is an explanation of how it all turned out so wacky.

Miami had the best winning percentage all along, although UNC had one heck of a year. And the two just happened to have the final series of the season scheduled in Coral Gables, Fla. When Miami won the first game of the three on Thursday, 12-4, the Hurricanes clinched the Coastal Division title.

Miami finished the regular season 23-5 in the league. The Hurricanes are 43-8 overall.

Carolina came back to win the final two games at Miami, and thus finished the year having won at least two games in every three-game series it played this season.

The Tar Heels were No. 2 in the country heading into Miami, so when UNC won 12-11 on Sunday on the back of a 10-6 victory in Saturday's game, Carolina leapfrogged Miami into the top spot in the nation's polls.

But not the ACC Tournament.

Clear?

"Maybe we made a statement; I don't know," coach Mike Fox said. "We didn't lose a series all year. So I tip my hat to my players and what a great regular-season we've had."

They did, too. But even with a 2-1 record in a three-game series against Florida State, the Tar Heels could not jump FSU in the seeding for this week's conference tournament.

Florida State finished with a 24-6 conference record (46-9 overall) and earned the second seed as the winner of the Atlantic Division.

UNC finished the regular season 22-7 in the league (one more loss than FSU and two more than Miami).

But one thing is for sure: Fox is not worried about any of this. His team has given him all it could give so far, and that has turned out just fine. Carolina will host a regional in the NCAA Tournament, and if the Tar Heels win that, they will almost assuredly hold the super regional, a best-of-three series to determine which team advances to the College World Series.

Carolina has played in the final three-game series for the national championship the last two years, losing to Oregon State each time.

But all the experience has paid great dividends. When Miami hammered the Tar Heels on Thursday, Carolina came right back and took a 9-0 lead to start the next game.

Fox said that it didn't take any great speeches or yelling or screaming to get it done, either.

"I basically told them I didn't need to say much to them for the rest of the year," Fox said. "We have a veteran team. When you have Chad Flack on your team, Tim Federowicz on your team, you've got Seth Williams, guys who have been in the big games for us. They know what is at stake. They talk to each other.

"They know how they need to play and how they need to respond. We may emphasize a few things that may help, such as on the bases or a certain pitch, but otherwise I don't see the need in trying to motivate them or get them to play harder. I don't see the need in that this point, especially with this team."

None of this means UNC will win its second straight ACC title this week in Florida. The Tar Heels, Hurricanes and Seminoles are ranked in the top four of the national polls. N.C. State is not far behind, while Virginia has won 36 games overall this year and Georgia Tech 38.

This is the same league that put four of the eight teams in the College World Series two years ago.

Nonetheless, after finishing this regular season in the style that it did, Carolina is headed to the postseason with plenty of confidence.

"We proved we're a better team, and we can keep with (the Hurricane) offensively," said Federowicz, catcher and relief pitcher. "A lot of people had doubts that we would be able to keep up with them offensively, but we were able to do that by getting ahead with our 12 runs early."

On Monday, the Tar Heels added some individual awards. Sophomore right-hander Alex White was named the ACC pitcher of the year. He finished with an 8-3 record. Outfielder Tim Fedroff was named first-team All-ACC.

Federowicz and relief pitcher Rob Wooten made the second team. The fact that Dustin Ackley and Kyle Seager could do no better than the second team goes to show just how strong and deep this league is. Ackley is hitting .395, which is third-best in the ACC. Fedroff is sixth at .383 and Seager is seventh at .382.

Seager is fifth with a slugging percentage of .655. He is second behind Florida State catcher and ACC Player of the Year Buster Posey in runs batten in with 67, compared to Posey's 68. The next closest is 62.

This should be an interesting ACC Tournament.