After a season that saw UNC men’s basketball return to the NCAA Tournament after earning a regular season ACC title, Carolina fell short against Alabama on Thursday, losing 89-87 and seeing their year come to an end.
The Tar Heels failed to keep a lead in the final minutes, with the Crimson Tide surging ahead on the back of a 7-0 run in the final two minutes before UNC scored a layup in the last two seconds. Carolina finishes the season 29-8.
With the loss, many UNC fans took to social media to share their reactions to the thrilling Sweet 16 game and to mourn the end of the Tar Heels’ season.
💔
— UNC Tar Heels (@GoHeels) March 29, 2024
Hate this ending, but grateful I got to watch this team this season. Thank you, seniors. Thank you, Coach Davis. Thank you, Heels.🩵🩵🩵 https://t.co/KmGn2glyqX
— Kristen Smith Young (@kcs_tarheel) March 29, 2024
Numb😞
Disappointment 😞😞
Sadness 😞😞😞
Heartbroken 😞😞😞😞
Dejected 🥺🥺🥺😞😞😞😞😞😞🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺— Jon Robinson (@jonrob11011965) March 29, 2024
What a great season. Thank you so much, Heels. You make this beautiful, hard world brighter.
— Jennifer (Jenn) Weaver (@Jenn_E_Weaver) March 29, 2024
What a disappointing end to a great season. Proud of this team and what they accomplished and so sad that we won’t see Armando Bacot in a Carolina uniform anymore. 💔💔💔
— Amy Can’t Cook (@amynoelle24) March 29, 2024
Painful nail biter 😭 let me go listen to the new Beyonce album https://t.co/b2IaHpotIu
— carolina girl in bull city (@carolina27712) March 29, 2024
Plenty of former Carolina men’s basketball players also hopped online to share disappointment about the Tar Heels’ run ending with a tough loss.
Great season boys… goodnight 😔
— Brice Johnson (@bjohnson_23) March 29, 2024
— Kenny Williams III (@KWill_24) March 29, 2024
I love those guys 🩵
— Jackson Watkins (@jwatkins_30) March 29, 2024
Withers bought in all year , that split second of being undisciplined cost the Heels. That’s how the game goes !
Good year for the boys … 🙌🏽 !!! We’ll be back!!!— John Henson (@Johnhenson31) March 29, 2024
If he would’ve made the three yall would be elated and in his dms telling how good he is so I don’t wanna hear it!
— Kennedy Meeks (@Asapmeeks03) March 29, 2024
My heart breaks for this team and Armando especially. I’ve been in locker rooms after NCAAT losses and I guarantee all of the players are hurting worse than we are as fans. It is true pain.
Congrats on the ACC regular season title and on a hard fought season. Onward and upward.
— Spenser Dalton (@sjdalton24) March 29, 2024
Thursday’s game represented the last for fifth-year star Armando Bacot, who will leave UNC as one of the most decorated players in program history. Many people posted their thanks and farewells to the center — who contributed 19 points and 12 rebounds against Alabama — and also star R.J. Davis, although the guard could return for a fifth season due to playing his freshman year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What a college career it's been for Armando Bacot 👏
Forever a Tar Heel 💪 pic.twitter.com/Evwx16p7oD
— ESPN (@espn) March 29, 2024
Thank you for being a Tar Heel, we’re so fortunate that you chose to wear Carolina blue. 🏀🐏 pic.twitter.com/SqMYJD3jLv
— Great Day Tar Heel (@GreatDayTarHeel) March 29, 2024
You gave us everything. We will never forget. 🩵🐏🩵 pic.twitter.com/Y3KTz6YXeI
— Jen (@garro1510) March 29, 2024
Thank you, 4 & 5. @ariidavis_ @iget_buckets35 pic.twitter.com/EUMdNl7DpT
— Jacob Rhymer (@Rhymetime05) March 29, 2024
So much love and appreciation to the whole UNC team, but especially @iget_buckets35 and @ariidavis_ Y’all stuck through thick and thin, and we appreciate you forever.
— Caitlin Legacki 🤦🏼♀️ (@caitleg) March 29, 2024
What a ride this Bacot/Davis/Love era has been at Carolina. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
Three Carolina legends.
— (This Space For Rent) (@bluestdeuce) March 29, 2024
I’ll say more later, but none of y’all will hurt the way @iget_buckets35 will hurt that his #UNC career is over. Full stop.
— Joey Powell (@Joey_Powell) March 29, 2024
thank you for everything, @iget_buckets35. you deserved a ring.
— Jordan (@heelsrule1988) March 29, 2024
Thank you @ariidavis_ pic.twitter.com/UpK6GEM5hk
— Mary Mercer (she/her) (@NCBaseballChic) March 29, 2024
Here are some of the other highlights from the post-game reaction to UNC’s final game of the 2023-24 season:
Yes Carolina repeatedly stepped on rakes in 2H. Missed dunks, missed layups, the Withers shot, and letting Great Value Adam Morrison torch them.
OTOH UNC shot 25% in 2H, 13% from 3. The ACCPOY was 4-20, 0-9 from 3 *AND STILL ONLY LOST BY 2 POINTS*
But bathe me in your taeks… pic.twitter.com/n2yCJWLQtE
— Doc Kennedy (@DocHeelfire) March 29, 2024
UConn's title to lose anyway but surely not the way Carolina wanted to go out. Add RJ Davis to a list of really good UNC players that inexplicably could not hit the broad side of a barn in a postseason loss
— Lauren Brownlow (@lebrownlow) March 29, 2024
That was the only game this season RJ Davis did not make a 3-pt FG.
North Carolina lost by 2.
— Bryan Ives (@awaytoworthy) March 29, 2024
And for all the talk about Caleb Love vs R.J. Davis in the Elite Eight neither will make it with both going 0-9 from three in their respective losses.
— Brian Barbour (@briancbarbour) March 29, 2024
Instead of matching each other bucket for bucket on Saturday night, they matched each other brick for brick on Thursday. Sports, man. https://t.co/NrayHp6QLT
— Saturday Road (@SaturdayRoad) March 29, 2024
I hope our fans do not trash our own players.
They had a very good season still. And they did not plan to play badly or making a mistake. It's life. But i know not everyone understands it.
— Myroslav Holodynskyi (@MyrOsLove) March 29, 2024
We had an Awesome season and I am still very proud of our team. They were a lot of fun to watch this year! 🩵 https://t.co/RUwqD3zK2f
— 🩵 Helen & Biscuit 🩵 (@TarheelBlueGal) March 29, 2024
Featured photo by Todd Melet/WCHL & Chapelboro.
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