‘We’ve got 5 games left’: UNC wears out Wagner, but Michigan State looms on Saturday
The 100th men’s NCAA Tournament game ever played in Charlotte tipped off Thursday afternoon, with a national TV audience, 18,223 fans and all the attendant hoopla of March Madness.
And then ... it was sort of boring.
That, of course, suited UNC fans perfectly. The Tar Heels, one of the four No. 1 seeds in this year’s 68-team bracket, throttled an undermanned Wagner team, 90-62.
In those 100 games, Charlotte has hosted all sorts of basketball spectaculars, including the 1994 men’s Final Four and No. 16 UMBC’s upset of No. 1 Virginia in 2018 — the first “16 over 1” men’s upset ever.
This was another “16 vs. 1” matchup, but it never looked to have a chance of being another UMBC. Wagner, down to only seven scholarship players and limited to scrimmaging its own coaches in practice, also had a height disadvantage of 4-6 inches at nearly every position. The Seahawks never held the lead, although they fought gamely and tied the game a few times early.
But this was a mismatch from the outset, and UNC’s RJ Davis (22 points), Armando Bacot (20 points, 15 rebounds) and Charlotte product Jae’Lyn Withers (16 points, 10 rebounds) made sure it remained that way.
“We’ve got five games left,” said UNC’s Harrison Ingram, thinking positively. Five games, of course, would put UNC in the national final.
The first of those games will come at 5:30 p.m. Saturday (CBS) at the Spectrum Center against a much better opponent. Michigan State is only a No. 9 seed, but every Spartan team is big and tough and physical and this one is no exception. Michigan State and Mississippi State opened the four-game feast of NCAA Tournament basketball in Charlotte Thursday. It was supposed to be a relatively even game, but instead the Spartans dominated, 69-51.
“Tom Izzo had the team very prepared to win and the Spartan defense was on point,” Magic Johnson, a pretty well-known Michigan State alum, said on X.
He did, and they were.
UNC, meanwhile, also looked good — especially in the second half. But the Tar Heels — now 33-2 in round of 64 NCAA games since the tournament expanded in 1985 — will need to be better.
UNC actually had more turnovers than Wagner (9-8) and didn’t run away with it until midway through the second half, despite a clear size and talent advantage that allowed UNC to outscore Wagner in the paint, 48-20.
However, UNC had zero fast-break points in the first half. Starting UNC point guard Elliot Cadeau had, by his own admission, a “terrible” game that included zero points, three assists and four turnovers.
“Terrible,” in fact, was a word that a couple of Tar Heels used to describe aspects of a 28-point win, which gives you an idea of the Carolina blue standard this season. Last year’s disjointed squad would have been happy to make the NCAA tournament at all, much less win a game in it. Not this one.
Said Bacot of his post defense against Wagner: “I would give myself probably an ‘F’ for the day. I think I was terrible defensively today. ... I just thought it was unacceptable and kind of leaked into the other guys. But I’ll be better.”
Bacot has a tattoo on his left hand that reads “Loser,” although it has nothing to do with basketball. It was instead an idea he got from the movie “It.”
He’s certainly not been a loser at UNC. Bacot surpassed Phil Ford to become the Tar Heels’ second-leading all-time scorer Thursday (albeit in five years and an ACC-record 168 games; Ford played four years for UNC). Bacot is already the Tar Heels’ all-time leading rebounder. The player he won’t catch in scoring — Tyler Hansbrough — was in Spectrum Center on Thursday, as was former coach Roy Williams, former UNC and Charlotte Hornets player Marvin Williams and a number of other Tar Heels. It was a home game, really, and Saturday against Michigan State will be one, too.
UNC will need to play better than this to win, though. Michigan State will be used to the atmosphere and will have the needed size. The Tar Heels? They’ve checked off one of six boxes. No. 2 will be a lot tougher.
This story was originally published March 21, 2024 at 12:00 AM.
