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LOS ANGELES — Two late shots that didn’t fall will be painful memories that will gnaw on North Carolina for years to come. They’ll make the Tar Heels wonder if they could have avoided the cruelty of March had one of them fallen. Armando Bacot and Jae’Lyn Withers expressed only emotional regrets and painful reflections after Carolina’s season-ending 89–87 loss Thursday to Alabama in a West Regional semifinal at Crypto.com Arena.
LOS ANGELES — March sometimes produces unexpected outcomes and always leads to tears. RJ Davis produced both Thursday night.
LOS ANGELES — UNC coach Hubert Davis, Armando Bacot, Cormac Ryan and RJ Davis met with the media after the Tar Heels’ season-ending loss to Alabama.
LOS ANGELES — Another NCAA tournament game, another prolific scorer to stop. Against Michigan State, Tyson Walker’s point output was limited by Carolina guards Seth Trimble and RJ Davis over large stretches. The target for Thursday night’s 9:39 regional semifinal (CBS) in Crypto.com Arena will be 6–1 Alabama senior guard Mark Sears.
LOS ANGELES — Everything is going well for Caleb Love at Arizona, where he has the No. 9-ranked Wildcats in the Sweet 16 and riding high. That came after some tough times last season for Carolina when the Tar Heels didn’t make the NCAA tournament and he dealt with a torrent of criticism.
Why didn’t the ACC get those bids? National media bias could be part of the issue. I also don’t see much clear evidence that the NCAA Selection Committee has a nuanced, consistent and defensible method of picking its final at-large teams. But there are things the ACC could do better, too.
Caleb Love is the last former Carolina player still playing in the postseason after Kennedy Todd-Williams and Ole Miss lost on Monday. Love is one win away from possibly facing the Tar Heels in the West Regional final.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tough defense drove success for North Carolina this season, but the Tar Heels had no answers for No. 1 South Carolina’s relentless attack. After the Gamecocks only beat UNC by seven in the first meeting in Chapel Hill, they dominated a Tar Heels team with a much more depleted backcourt.
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.
CHARLOTTE — The return of Harrison Ingram’s sweet jumper has No. 5 North Carolina returning to the Sweet 16. Ingram scored 17 points and five 3-pointers as the No. 1 seed Tar Heels pulled away to win 85–69 in the second round of the NCAA tournament against No. 9 seed Michigan State in the Spectrum Center.
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