DAYTON, Ohio — From the moment North Carolina lost to Duke in Friday’s ACC tournament semifinal, anxiety began to build, just as it would for any NCAA tournament bubble team.
Would the Tar Heels make the field or fall short, as many bracketologists had predicted?
“From Friday night after Duke to Sunday around 6 o’clock, we just had no idea,” North Carolina guard Seth Trimble said.
The answer came Sunday. North Carolina, despite a 1-12 record against Quadrant 1 opponents, was in the tournament, the last team to get a berth. The Tar Heels were an unpopular selection, and the criticism around their inclusion reached some of the players.
But the two days that followed the selections carried different emotions than the two days that preceded them.
“As soon as we saw Sunday evening that we were the 11th seed in Dayton, we knew it was go time,” Trimble said. “So we dropped it right away. We were able to drop our nerves and jitters and able to play a good game as a team.”
North Carolina didn’t merely play a good game but a historic and dominant one, crushing San Diego State 95-68 at UD Arena. The Tar Heels advanced in the South Region, where they will face No. 6 seed Ole Miss on Friday afternoon in Milwaukee.
They left nothing to chance, pulling away with an early 20-2 run and more than doubling the Aztecs’ point total at halftime (47-23). North Carolina hit 14 3-pointers, its most in an NCAA tournament game since the 3-point line became official in 1986-87.
Senior guard RJ Davis became the first Tar Heels player to go 6-of-6 on 3-pointers in an NCAA tournament game, surpassing the record of 5-for-5 set by former North Carolina star and current coach Hubert Davis against Eastern Michigan in 1991. Sophomore guard Elliot Cadeau’s 12 assists tied Davis and Kenny Smith for second most by a North Carolina player in an NCAA tournament game since assists became official in 1984.
“It’s a surreal moment,” said RJ Davis, who became the first player to shoot 6-of-6 or better on 3-pointers in the Big Dance since Michigan’s Nik Stauskas in the 2013 Sweet Sixteen against Florida. “It’s amazing just to break records, set new records, especially for me as a kid. You grew up watching North Carolina, you watch all the players that have played here, and you are actually that person now. You’re in their shoes.
“For me to set my own legacy and set my own type of records, it’s one thing in high school, but in college, that’s like a different level.”
North Carolina led by as many as 40 points against a San Diego State team that made the NCAA championship game in 2023 and the Sweet Sixteen last year and had not trailed by 40 since at least the 2018-19 campaign. The Aztecs had not allowed more than 80 points in a game this season before Tuesday.
If not for a late San Diego State surge, North Carolina would have recorded the largest margin of victory in the First Four, which drew a large contingent of fans wearing Tar Heels blue.
“We know we deserved to be here,” said Trimble, who had 16 points and made all six of his free throw attempts during North Carolina’s blistering first half. “We’re not looking to send a message to anybody else. We’re just looking to compete as a team and be the team that we know we’re capable of being.”
It will take more than Tuesday’s performance for the Tar Heels to become that type of team. North Carolina’s woeful Quadrant 1 record didn’t budge, as the San Diego State result qualified as a Quadrant 2 win, improving the Heels’ mark to 9-0 in those contests.
The Tar Heels are seeded three spots lower than they have ever been since seeding began in 1979. Their selection had drawn heavy criticism, especially for North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham, the NCAA tournament selection committee chair, who watched Tuesday’s win from press row next to ACC commissioner Jim Phillips.
“I’m sure there’s still doubt from the outside,” Trimble said. “I’m sure there’s still hate.”
But North Carolina has a different belief within, which wasn’t always there during rough stretches in November and January. But Hubert Davis has seen improvement with the team, both in performance and leadership.
“It doesn’t surprise me that they played one of their better games today,” he said. “It’s been a real focused group. I talked earlier in the year about how quiet this team was, and the volume of the voices is exactly where it needs to be, whether it’s in the huddle, on the bus, on the floor. Just a real connected group right now.”
The group will march on to Milwaukee, near Trimble’s hometown of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
Some teams that succeed in the First Four have used it as a springboard to deep tournament runs, including VCU in 2011 and UCLA in 2021, both of which went all the way to the Final Four.
Could North Carolina be the next?
“We know we’re not going to go far if we try and play for just our number and our name on the back,” Trimble said. “You’ve got to play for the name on the front of the jersey and just play for each other, and we’ll see how far it goes.”
