The NCAA Tournament is already underway, and for those who missed it last night, the North Carolina Tar Heels stomped the San Diego State Aztecs by 27 points in their First Four matchup in Dayton. The performance was an emphatic rebuttal to all who have said that the Heels didn’t belong in the tournament, and it called to mind the 2022 tournament when Carolina got in as an 8-seed and then went on a run all the way to the national championship game.
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That tournament run started in much the same way this one did, except in 2022 the Heels beat Marquette by 32 to kick the tournament off. Carolina was so impressive last night that the narrative has quickly shifted from people asking how a team that went 1-12 in Quad 1 games got in to those same people wondering just how far Hubert Davis’ team could go.
ESPN’s Seth Greenberg appeared on Get Up this morning to rave about Carolina’s play, which included 26 points from RJ Davis on a perfect 6-6 shooting night from the 3-point line. Greenberg even mentioned that he received a text from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo that predicted big things for the Heels going forward.
“It’s all about matchups, and the matchups for this North Carolina team are good.”
Greenberg predicted a Sweet 16 run for the Heels because they can take advantage of Ole Miss’ lack of size in their next game, and they could face an Iowa State team that is missing 6-foot-4 senior guard Keshon Gilbert, the Cyclones’ leading assist man, in the second round.
Interestingly enough, that could very well lead to a matchup with Izzo and his Spartans. Michigan State is the No. 2 seed in the South region and would have to get past Bryant and either Marquette or New Mexico to reach the Sweet 16.
Whether the Tar Heels deserve to be here or not, they’re going to be a problem
Despite being a longtime Carolina fan, Shannon Sharpe was one of the national voices that was extremely critical of UNC getting the final bid to the tournament. “It either took an act of Congress or something from God,” Sharpe said on his Nightcap podcast. “Because I can’t explain how they were able to make the field.”
None of that matters now, even if West Virginia governor Pat Morrisey blasted the NCAA Tournament selection committee for what he called “a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest level” after the WVU Mountaineers were left out of the field in favor of the Tar Heels.
Carolina has underperformed after being ranked No. 9 in the preseason AP poll, but they have been playing well for over a month. Only No. 1 seed Duke has beaten UNC since mid-February, and the Blue Devils are all the way on the other side of the bracket.
RJ Davis was on that team that beat Duke in the Final Four in 2022 and came within a minute of winning a national championship, and if he’s able to play as well as he did last night, the Tar Heels are a threat to make another unlikely run.
Carolina will face Ole Miss on Friday at 4:05 p.m. ET.
