By R.L. Bynum

Carolina fans know how stressful it was to watch the Tar Heels blow a 25-point lead to Baylor in the last 10 minutes of regulation on Saturday.

Imagine how it felt in a Dickies Arena dressing room for Brady Manek, who couldn’t watch the television feed for the game.

Instead, there was a TV showing the video feed from the arena’s scoreboard rather than the broadcast feed. That meant that he was often watching a replay while live action was going on. But he often couldn’t see what was happening live and had to wait for another replay to figure out what loud cheers meant.

“Yeah, it was pretty stressful,” Manek said at a press availability on Tuesday ahead of No. 8-seed UNC’s East Regional semifinal at around 9:40 Friday against No. 4-seed UCLA at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center (CBS). “So when the play was still happening, we were watching the replay of the play before so we didn’t know what was going on. We could hear the crowd. It was stressful all the way around.”

At least he had Eric Hoots, the basketball program’s director of operations, keeping him company and going through the same frustrations of trying to figure out what was going on.

“We had the lead, we should have beat them by a whole lot more,” Manek said of UNC’s 93-86 overtime victory over Baylor. “And then that happens and the whole game shifts and it was just a crazy, crazy thing to go through. Wouldn’t want to do that again.”

At least for fans, they are used to watching the Tar Heels and knowing that they really can’t do anything to affect the outcome of the game. That was not the case for Manek, who had scored 28 points before the flagrant-two foul led to his ejection.

He said that there have been few times in his athletic career that led to more stress.

“Yeah, definitely up there,” Manek said. “You know, especially the lead we had and not being able to have anything to do with holding that lead and finishing the game.”

He could only watch and hope that the foul wasn’t the last act of his college career, and that made it a huge relief when his teammates joined him in the locker room after the victory.

“It was unbelievable,” Manek said. “It wasn’t unbelievable with the with the loss of the lead, but it was unbelievable how they played in overtime and stepped up and hit big shots.”

When the whistle blew on the play, he knew that his high elbow could be trouble for him.

“I think anytime something like that happens, especially above the shoulders, it gives you that stress, right then and there,” Manek said. “It was one of those things.”

One of Manek’s hopes, when he decided to transfer to Carolina from Oklahoma, was that he could finally play during the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, so he’s thrilled to be about to experience Sweet 16 action.

“It’s special,” Manek said. “We’ve got a really good chance on Friday. We’re playing really well. A lot of the guys have their confidence up and we fought through that last game, so I feel like we can fight through anything.”

And he hopes to be on the court at the end of Friday’s game instead of having to follow an arena video feed.

NCAA Sweet 16

East Regional
At Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
Friday’s regional semifinals
No. 3 Purdue (29–7) vs. No. 15 St. Peter’s (21–11), 7:09 p.m.
No. 4 UCLA (27–7) vs. No. 8 North Carolina (26–9), 9:39 p.m.
Sunday’s regional final
UCLA-North Carolina winner vs. Purdue-St. Peter’s winner, TBA
South Regional
At AT&T Center, San Antonio
Thursday’s regional semifinals
No. 2 Villanova (28–7) vs. No. 11 Michigan (19–14), 7:29 p.m.
No. 1 Arizona (33–3) vs. No. 5 Houston (31–5), 9:59 p.m.
Saturday’s regional final
Arizona-Houston winner vs. Villanova-Michigan winner, TBA
Midwest Regional
At United Center, Chicago
Friday’s regional semifinals
No. 1 Kansas (30–6) vs. No. 4 Providence (27–5), 7:29 p.m.
No. 10 Miami (25–10) vs. No. 11 Iowa State (22–12), 9:59 p.m.
Sunday’s regional final
Kansas-Providence winner vs. Miami-Iowa St. winner, TBA
West Regional
At Chase Center, San Francisco
Thursday’s regional semifinals
No. 1 Gonzaga (28–3) vs. No. 4 Arkansas (27–8), 7:09 p.m.
No. 2 Duke (30–6) vs. No. 3 Texas Tech (27–9), 9:39 p.m.
Saturday’s regional final
Gonzaga-Arkansas winner vs. Duke-Texas Tech winner, TBA
Final Four
At Superdome, New Orleans
Saturday, April 2 national semifinals
West winner vs. East winner
South winner vs. Midwest winner
Monday, April 4 final
Semifinal winners, TBA

Date	Score, record/ time, day, TV	Location	Opponent (current rank)
	November (4–2)
5	83–55 exhibition win	Home	Elizabeth City State
9	83–67 win, 1–0	Home	Loyola Maryland
12	94–87 win, 2–0	Home	Brown
16	94–83 win, 3–0	Road	College of Charleston
20	93–84 loss, 3–1	Uncasville, Conn.	Y — No. 10 Purdue
21	89–72 loss, 3–2	Uncasville, Conn.	Y — No. 5 Tennessee
23	72–53 win, 4–2	Home	UNC Asheville
	December (5–1, 1–0 ACC)
1	72–51 win, 5–2	Home	X — Michigan
5	79–62 win, 6–2, 1-0 ACC	Road	Georgia Tech
11	80–63 win, 7–2 ACC	Home	Elon
14	74–61 win, 8–2 ACC	Home	Furman
18	98–69 loss, 8–3 ACC	Las Vegas	Z — No. 7 Kentucky
21	70–50 win, 9–3 ACC	Home	Appalachian State
	January (6–3, 6–3 ACC)
2	91–65 win, 10–3, 2-0 ACC	Road	Boston College
5	78–73 loss, 10–4, 2-1 ACC	Road	Notre Dame
8	74–58 win, 11–4, 3–1 ACC	Home	Virginia
15	88–65 win, 12–4, 4–1 ACC	Home	Georgia Tech
18	85–57 loss, 12–5, 4–2 ACC	Road	Miami
22	98–76 loss, 12–6, 4–3 ACC	Road	Wake Forest
24	78–68 win, 13–6, 5–3 ACC	Home	Virginia Tech
26	58–47 win, 14–6, 6–3 ACC	Home	Boston College
29	100–80 win, 15–6, 7–3 ACC	Home	N.C. State
	February (7–2, 7–2 ACC)
1	90–82 OT win, 16–6, 8–3 ACC	Road	Louisville
5	87–67 loss, 16–7, 8–4 ACC	Home	No. 9 Duke
8	79–77 win, 17–7, 9–4 ACC	Road	Clemson
12	94–74 win, 18–7, 10–4 ACC	Home	Florida State
16	76–67 loss, 18–8, 10–5 ACC	Home	Pittsburgh
19	65–57 win, 19–8, 11–5 ACC	Road	Virginia Tech
21	70–63 win, 20–8, 12–5 ACC	Home	Louisville
26	84–74 win, 21–8, 13–5 ACC	Road	N.C. State
28	88–79 OT win, 22–8, 14–5 ACC	Home	Syracuse
	March (4–1)
5	94–81 win, 23–8, 15–5 ACC	Road	No. 9 Duke
	— ACC Tournament —
10	63–43 win, 24–8	Brooklyn	Virginia
11	72–59 loss, 24–9	Brooklyn	Virginia Tech
	— NCAA tournament —
17	95–63 win, 25–9	Fort Worth, Texas	Marquette
19	93–86 OT win, 26–9	Fort Worth, Texas	Baylor
25	9:40 Friday, CBS	Philadelphia	No. 11 UCLA