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.

West Regional

March 19 First Four result
No. 16 Wagner 71, No. 16 Howard 68
First-round results
Thursday, March 21
No. 9 Michigan State 69, No. 8 Mississippi State 51
No. 1 North Carolina 90, Wagner 62
No. 2 Arizona 85, No. 15 Long Beach State 65
No. 7 Dayton 63, No. 10 Nevada 60
Friday, March 22
No. 4 Alabama 109, No. 13 College of Charleston 96
No. 12 Grand Canyon 75, No. 5 St. Mary’s 66
No. 3 Baylor 92, No. 14 Colgate 67
No. 6 Clemson 77, No. 11 New Mexico 56
Last Saturday’s second-round results
Arizona 78, Dayton 68
North Carolina 85, Michigan State 69
Sunday’s second-round results
Clemson 72, Baylor 64
Alabama 72, Grand Canyon 61
Thursday’s regional semifinals
Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles
Clemson 77, Arizona 72
Alabama 98, North Carolina 87
Saturday’s regional final
Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles
Alabama 89, Clemson 82

Date	Month/day	Score	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
27	Friday	W, 117–53	vs. St. Augustine’s	Exhibition
	November
6	Monday	W, 86–70	vs. Radford	1–0
12	Sunday	W, 90–68	vs. Lehigh	2–0
17	Friday	W, 77–52	vs. UC Riverside	3–0
			Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas
22	Wednesday	W, 91–69	Northern Iowa	4–0
23	Thursday	L, 83–81, OT	Villanova	4–1
24	Friday	W, 87–72	Arkansas	5–1
			ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
29	Wednesday	W, 100–92	vs. No. 6 Tennessee	6–1
	December
2	Saturday	W, 78–70	vs. Florida State	7–1, 1–0 ACC
			Jimmy V Classic in New York
5	Tuesday	L, 87–67	No. `1` Connecticut	7–2
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
16	Saturday	L, 87–83	No. 12 Kentucky	7–3
			Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte
20	Wednesday	W, 81–69	Oklahoma	8–3
			—————————
29	Friday	W, 105–60	vs. Charleston Southern	9–3
	January
2	Tuesday	W, 70–57	at Pittsburgh	10–3, 2–0 ACC
6	Saturday	W, 65–55	at Clemson	11–3, 3–0 ACC
10	Wednesday	W, 67–54	at N.C. State	12–3, 4–0 ACC
13	Saturday	W, 103–67	vs. Syracuse	13–3, 5–0 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 86–70	vs. Louisville	14–3, 6–0 ACC
20	Saturday	W, 76–66	vs. Boston College	15–3, 7–0 ACC
22	Monday	W, 85–64	vs. Wake Forest	16–3, 8–0 ACC
27	Saturday	W, 75–68	at Florida State	17–3, 9–0 ACC
30	Tuesday	L, 74–73	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 9–1 ACC
	February
3	Saturday	W, 93–84	vs. No. 13 Duke	18–4, 10–1 ACC
6	Tuesday	L, 80–76	vs. Clemson	18–5, 10–2 ACC
10	Saturday	W, 75–72	at Miami	19–5, 11–2 ACC
13	Tuesday	L, 86–79	at Syracuse	19–6, 11–3 ACC
17	Saturday	W, 96–81	vs. Virginia Tech	20–6, 12–3 ACC
24	Saturday	W, 54–44	at Virginia	21–6, 13–3 ACC
26	Monday	W, 75–71	vs. Miami	22–6, 14–3 ACC
	March
2	Saturday	W, 79–70	vs. N.C. State	23–6, 15–3 ACC
5	Tuesday	W, 84–51	vs. Notre Dame	24–6, 16–3 ACC
9	Saturday	W, 84–79	at No. 13 Duke	25–6, 17–3 ACC
			ACC tournament Washington
14	Thursday	W, 92–67	Quarterfinals: Florida State	26–6
15	Friday	W, 72–65	Semifinals: Pittsburgh	27–6
16	Saturday	L, 84–76	Final: N.C. State	27–7
			NCAA tournament
21	Thursday	W, 90–62	First round in Charlotte: Wagner	28–7
23	Saturday	W, 85–69	Second round in Charlotte: Michigan State	29–7
28	Thursday	L, 89–87	Sweet 16 in Los Angeles: No. 19 Alabama	29–8