By R.L. Bynum

CHARLOTTE — Assistant Coach Pat Sullivan has always been the one to stay on Harrison Ingram and demand maximum effort from the Stanford transfer.

The first few minutes of No. 5 North Carolina’s 85–69 win Saturday at the Spectrum Center over Michigan State had not gone well. While Coach Hubert Davis later lit into the Tar Heels during the time out with eight minutes left in the first half, Sullivan was all over Ingram as he walked to the huddle before the first timeout with UNC trailing 8–5.

Ingram expected to come out, as usual, in favor of Jae’Lyn Withers four minutes into the game, but he got more than he expected.

“Coach Sully walks up to me and he’s like, ‘What the f are you doing,’ ” Ingram said. “After he said that, that’s all I need to hear. I ramped up the energy, tried to get deflections, tried to bring energy to the team.”

Did he ever.

Ingram not only played well on defense and under the boards, he tied his career-high with five 3-pointers and finished with 17 points.

“That’s my guy,” Ingram said of Sullivan. “He’s always texting me; he’s in my corner. We’re training and [he’s] giving me tips on defense; [he’s] our defensive coach. He’s hard on me. And that’s what I asked him to do. I asked him to be on me, not be nice to me and treat me like any other player. That’s what I do. And I love it.”

Ingram follows Coach Roy Williams’s philosophy of ignoring the score until late, which seemed to help his mentality when the Tar Heels fell behind by 12 points just over 10 minutes into the game.

“I try not to pay attention to the score until the last five minutes,” Ingram said. “I try to play freely and just play. I feel like I look at the score too much and think too much, ‘Oh, that’s a good shot, that’s a bad shot.’

“So, for me, we’re going on a run, you just feel the energy in the crowd,” Ingram said. “Our crowd did a great job of bringing us energy. Coaches brought us energy, and it was just fun out there.”

Ingram was as nice to the Michigan State players as Sullivan is to him amid plenty of trash-talking from the Spartans. The talk started early.

“It was chippy,” said Ingram, who wouldn’t get specific about what they were saying. “A lot of, excuse my language, shit-talking from the start, even before the game during the stretching.”

He eventually shut that down with his play as they got quieter as the game got out of their reach.

“It feels amazing,” Ingram said. “You can imagine how it is when people are talking junk and all that stuff. We’re a humble team. Like to stay humble. You never know what will happen. You never know. You can lose a game. You never know if it’s not your night. They were talking and it feels good in the moment.”

Ingram thrives on the sort of physical game that it became. Michigan State bullied its way inside and got whatever it wanted around the basket early until Carolina matched that.

“I think a lot of teams try to bring that mentality to beat us, and they think that you can bully us because we’re a smaller team,” Ingram said. “We’re North Carolina, quote, unquote pretty boys. But we love those type of games, and we were ready.”

Ingram is known to talk a lot of junk on the court himself, but he more than backed it up while helping to send the Spartans home with their sixth NCAA tournament loss in as many games to the Tar Heels.

He had struggled in recent games, but his five 3-pointers equaled his output from the previous three games.

“That’s basketball,” Ingram said. “You’re never gonna have a good shooting night every night. This is a ridiculous shooting night for me. I just trust my work, we get back to the gym, do the same routine, didn’t change anything up and just trusting my work and kept shooting the open shots.”

If Ingram ever falls short of the standard Sullivan expects from him, Ingram will hear about it, and his opponent will suffer the repercussions.

South Regional

Tuesday’s First Four results
No. 16 Alabama St. 70, No. 16 St. Francis 68
No. 11 North Carolina 95, No. 11 San Diego State 68
First round
Thursday’s results
Lexington, Ky.
No. 1 Auburn 83, No. 16 Alabama State 63
No. 9 Creighton 89, No. 8 Louisville 75
Denver
No. 4 Texas A&M 80, No. 13 Yale 71
No. 5 Michigan 68, No. 12 UC San Diego 65
Friday’s games
Milwaukee
No. 3 Iowa St. 82, No. 14 Lipscomb 55
No. 8 Ole Miss 71, No. 11 North Carolina 64
Cleveland
No. 10 New Mexico 75, No. 7 Marquette 55
No. 2 Michigan St. 87, No. 15 Bryant 62
Second round
Saturday’s results
Lexington, Ky.
No. 5 Michigan 91, No. 4 Texas A&M 79
No. 1 Auburn 81,. No. 9 Creighton 70
Sunday’s results
Milwaukee
No. 8 Ole Miss 91, No. 3 Iowa State 78
Cleveland
No. 2 Michigan St. 71, No. 10 New Mexico 63
Regional semifinals
Atlanta
Friday’s games
No. 8 Ole Miss (24-11) vs. No. 2 Michigan St. (29–6), 7:09, CBS
No. 5 Michigan (27-9) vs. No. 1 Auburn (20–5), 9:39, CBS
Sunday’s regional final
Atlanta
Sweet 16 winners

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 9 BYU in SLC	Exhib.
29	Wednesday	W, 95–53	vs. Winston-Salem St.	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 94–54	vs. Central Arkansas	1–0
7	Friday	W, 87–74	vs. No. 21 Kansas	2–0
11	Tuesday	W, 89–74	vs. Radford	3–0
14	Friday	W, 97–53	vs. N.C. Central	4–0
18	Tuesday	W, 73–61	vs. Navy	5–0
			Fort Myers Tip-Off
25	Tuesday	W, 85–70	vs. St. Bonaventure	6–0
27	Thursday	L, 74–58	vs. No. 7 Michigan State	6–1
	December		ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
2	Tuesday	W, 67–64	at No. 18 Kentucky	7–1
			—————————
7	Sunday	5 p.m.	vs. Georgetown	ESPN
13	Saturday	2 p.m.	vs. USC Upstate	The CW
16	Tuesday	8 p.m.	vs. East Tennessee State	ACCN
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	3 p.m.	vs. Ohio State	CBS
			—————————
22	Monday	8 p.m.	vs. East Carolina	ACCN
30	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ESPN2
	January
3	Saturday	2:15	at SMU	The CW
10	Saturday	6 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
14	Wednesday	9 p.m.	at Stanford	ACCN
17	Saturday	4 p.m.	at California	ACCN
21	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Notre Dame	ESPN2
24	Saturday	2 or 2:30	at Virginia	ESPN or ESPNU
31	Saturday	2 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 4 Duke	ESPN
10	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
14	Saturday	2 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh	ESPN
17	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN or ESPN2
21	Saturday	1 p.m.	at Syracuse	ABC
23	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 6 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 4 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte