Let’s look at the bad and the good about UNC losing to N.C. State Saturday night.
The bad is pretty obvious. Carolina’s ACC tournament championship drought is now eight years or since 2016, surpassing Dean Smith’s longest drought from 1983 through 1988 and Roy Williams’ from 2009-2015 (ironically, still an ACC-record 36th time UNC played in the tournament championship game).
The victor is N.C. State, which last won the ACC tourney in 1987 (also a major upset over a Carolina team in Landover, Maryland, that went undefeated in the regular season) and has been the Tar Heels’ punching bag for the last 20 years (39-6). This will be a reason for some rare ranting by State fans who crave that opportunity.
And, third, the Wolfpack played the kind of defense that will be a blueprint for UNC’s upcoming opponents in the NCAA tournament. The Heels shot 37 percent from the floor and 27 percent from the 3-point line while allowing State to hit 55 percent for the game, including 43 percent outside.
They will be a quick out if they can’t play better defense, and they know it.
The good news is Carolina will still be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed when the NCAA tournament pairings are announced Sunday evening, very likely playing first- and second-round games in Charlotte since six other teams contending for top seeds also lost on championship weekend (No. 1-ranked Houston, No. 3 Purdue, No. 5 Tennessee, No. 6 Arizona, No. 9 Kentucky and Duke).
Surely, head coach Hubert Davis will have his team’s closest attention this week when preparing for those first two rounds. His third UNC team, which had its highest moment just one week earlier at Duke, could not close the deal on winning both ACC championships due to a sizzling and little-to-lose Wolfpack — that only two weeks ago had led the Tar Heels by 10 points in the second half before losing.
UNC’s Armando Bacot looks to the referee after getting tangled up with N.C. State players during the ACC Championship game on March 16, 2024. (Photo by Todd Melet/WCHL & Chapelboro.)
The Heels were clearly out of sync getting the ball where they wanted it, which resulted in R.J. Davis taking 17 shots in the second half and making only 1 of 7 from the arc, several forced in the panicky last few minutes of the game. The rest of the perimeter players combined to shoot only 7 for 29, which offset Davis’ 30 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 seals and just one turnover for the ACC Player of the Year and first-team All-American.
And, for the cynics out there, State coach Kevin Keatts — who was on the ropes for most of the season — will not lose his job after qualifying for the Wolfpack’s second NCAA tournament in seven years. UNC fans loved their school’s record of 11-3 against Keatts coming into the weekend and don’t want another coach in Raleigh.
State set an ACC record by winning five games in five days, matching a feat only UConn of three-time national champion coach Jim Calhoun pulled off in the 2011 Big East tournament. That was after conferences had expanded to so many schools that there could be five games to play in their tourneys.
“Too much is made of five games in five days,” said Davis, the newly minted ACC Coach of the Year after his team snapped an eight-game winning streak over the last two weeks. “Growing up, we played three games in one day. Getting an opportunity to play at this level in this tournament for a championship, it doesn’t matter how many games you play in a row. We knew they would play with great energy and they did from the start and throughout the entire game.”
The top-seeded Tar Heels swept the Wolfpack in their home-and-home series this season and were expected to make it three in a row against the 10th-seeded Wolfpack that had defeated Louisville, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia and now Carolina by a combined 50 points in the magical run.
State turned in far better-balanced scoring from its starting lineup, which had 78 of the final 84 points behind the two D.J.’s – Burns and Horne, who waxed the Heels with a combined 49 points on 18 of 27 shooting despite occasional double teams and full-court presses by the Tar Heels.
Burns, the tourney MVP, was almost matched by Armando Bacot’s 85th career double-double of 18 and 12, but the 275-pound Wolfpack wonder hit 9 of 12, including the first and only three-pointer of his college career along with his left-handed bank shots and soft jumpers.
To demonstrate how much teams can change over the course of a season, the Pack’s third most consequential player was Mohamed Diarra, who had his second double-double of the tournament with 11 points and 14 rebounds (plus 3 blocks and 3 steals) after netting 11 points, 10 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal in the two prior UNC games. Diarra wound up with 60 rebounds in the tournament.
By comparison, the Tar Heels weren’t getting that many good looks against State’s suffocating defense and when they did find open shots kept badly misfiring as the game pressure switched to them.
R.J. Davis pulls up for a three-pointer against N.C. State in the ACC Tournament title game. Davis led the way for the Tar Heels with 30 points, but most other players struggled to score on Saturday. (Photo by Todd Melet/WCHL & Chapelboro.)
Carolina fell behind in the first half by nine points for the second straight night and, just like against Pitt, rallied to take the lead. But unlike how they outlasted the Panthers, the Heels found a scolding hot foe that finished them and the job.
The Pack continued its great shooting in the second half and authored some indelible memories by making its hated and favored arch rival look disorganized and frantic on offense and vulnerable on defense.
Carolina won the rebounding battle, 38-33, had 13 assists on 28 made field goals, committed only 10 turnovers and blocked four shots. The Heels won fast break and second-chance points by a 32-5 margin.
Regardless of stats, records and rankings, the better team won on this night in the Nation’s Capital, and 27-7 Carolina must regroup with the realization that its next loss will be the end for the ACC regular season champion and tournament also-ran for the 21st time in this century, losing six other final games.
The Heels had manned up against tougher-looking Pitt, but this time a one-point halftime lead disappeared and State looked fresher, quicker and more exuberant on the floor while regaining the advantage and building it back to 10 against the top defense in the ACC and one of the best in the country.
State’s automatic bid will give the ACC five NCAA entries, including the Virginia bubble team it defeated miraculously in the Friday night semifinals. The Pack had lost four in a row to end the regular season and 7 of its last 9 games before turning it around in the tournament with a historic royal straight flush.
Featured image via AP Photo/Nick Wass.
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It’s been said a zillion time over the years – It’s very difficult to beat any team three times in the same season, and especially difficult to beat a really good team three times. It’s psychological, and it showed form the first minute.
Disappointing, I don’t like losing to any of the in state teams, and we swept them completely in the regular season this year, dook and state twice and the one game against Wake. Let’s get the the FF and we’ll forget about the ACC loss.
If history repeats itself we need to lose in the ACC tourney to win the big one…