The College of North Carolina’s males’s basketball group spent a part of December being crushed by Kentucky. January introduced humiliations at Miami and Wake Forest. February included being embarrassed on its dwelling court docket by Duke and Pittsburgh and requiring additional time to beat a woeful Syracuse.
Then got here March. The Tar Heels went over to Duke and spoiled Mike Krzyzewski’s closing sport at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 5. Then, in additional time on Saturday in Fort Value, they upset Baylor, the No. 1 seed within the East area and the reigning nationwide champion, to advance to the spherical of 16 within the N.C.A.A. event.
Every signature victory is of the stripe that may redeem any misbegotten season. However each? As Roy Williams, who retired as North Carolina’s coach final yr however was within the stands on Saturday, would possibly say: “Daggum.”
The eighth-seeded Tar Heels, who blew a 25-point lead with lower than 11 minutes remaining in regulation earlier than recovering, will meet both St. Mary’s or U.C.L.A. on Friday in Philadelphia.
They — and every other group remaining on this yr’s males’s event — is perhaps hard-pressed, although, to writer a larger work of suspense than their 93-86 downing of Baylor, the primary No. 1 seed to lose this yr.
Sure, Baylor received the tipoff, and with Kendall Brown’s dunk off a quick break, constructed a 4-0 lead in all of 68 seconds. Then U.N.C. seized it and didn’t even permit the sport to be tied till there have been 15.8 seconds remaining and Baylor had improbably erased a efficiency by the Tar Heels that had appeared extra prone to wind up within the document books than in additional time.
Freshman Dontrez Kinds opened additional time with a 3-pointer and U.N.C. managed — this time — to carry on.
“It was simply one thing,” mentioned Armando Bacot, one among North Carolina’s star gamers. “It was worrying, for positive.”
Within the first half — after which the Tar Heels led by 13 — Baylor struggled mightily behind the arc and its turnovers fueled Carolina’s rise and accounted for 15 of the Tar Heels’ 42 factors earlier than the intermission.
So did R.J. Davis, a sophomore from White Plains, N.Y., who scored 30 factors to steer U.N.C. by day’s finish.
The chaos of Saturday’s sport was, in lots of respects, a becoming mark in North Carolina’s topsy-turvy debut marketing campaign beneath Hubert Davis, who succeeded Williams.
The Tar Heels began to rise after the 9-point loss to Pittsburgh on Feb. 16 and have misplaced solely as soon as since, to Virginia Tech within the Atlantic Coast Convention event. Krzyzewski marveled over them this month, as soon as his personal group, then ranked fourth within the nation, was finished in by gamers like Bacot, a 6-foot-10 junior who collects rebounds with the zeal of an Inside Income Service agent, and Brady Manek, who transferred from Oklahoma and got here into Saturday’s sport main North Carolina in 3-pointers.
Dive Deeper Into the N.C.A.A. Tournaments
“We knew the potential of this group coming into this season, and we simply needed to show it round,” R.J. Davis mentioned on Friday. “We knew after the loss to Pitt, that wasn’t the best way we needed to play. So from that time on, I feel we simply turned it round and began to compete. And everybody purchased into their roles and that’s sort of what we’ve been shopping for into.”
Helped alongside by a flagrant foul, Baylor bought round to purchasing into the majesty of being a No. 1 seed. There may be solely a lot a group can do, although, on a day when it trailed by 25.
Waco-based Baylor, a minimum of, prevented the overlapping indignities of an extended journey dwelling after a depressing loss, and, due to a victory over Norfolk State on Thursday, the ignominy of being the earliest exiting departing champion in event historical past.
Little or no else went fairly because the Bears hoped.
Baylor couldn’t handle a basket for a stretch of near 4 minutes within the second half. U.N.C. took that interlude and scored 13, constructing a lead of 24.
A lot of that got here from Manek, whose 9 factors within the first half got here to really feel small by the tip of the second, when he had 17. It’s just about sure that he would have completed with greater than 26 factors, however he was ejected with simply greater than 10 minutes to play after a flagrant foul.
His dismissal proved the catalyst for the sort of Baylor onslaught that, lower than two hours earlier, would have appeared like a surefire route for them to Philadelphia.
One shot after one other, one alternative after one other exploited, the Bears appeared just like the group most anticipated to swagger via Dickies Area and advance.
“We knew that as a group we weren’t going to surrender, and we determined to use strain much more and be assertive on the market,” mentioned Adam Flagler, a Baylor guard. “So as soon as we bought into these diamonds and traps, we have been capable of get some stops and get some straightforward seems to be, and due to this fact bought the run going.”
Baylor’s late success in urgent North Carolina, Hubert Davis mentioned, had two penalties: It pressured the Tar Heels to hurry up and led to turnovers.
“They didn’t need to go dwelling,” he mentioned of Baylor.
Ultimately, with lower than 16 seconds left, the Bears tied the sport at 80, the place the rating would keep till additional time.
The three-pointer by Kinds to start additional time let U.N.C. regain management. Bacot made a free throw. Baylor successfully hung round till 78 ticks remained, with the Tar Heels up by 6 after a flurry of free throws and layups from each groups.
Then, although, time ebbed additional, and the rating didn’t change a lot, with Baylor, which earned a share of the Large 12 Convention’s regular-season title, squandering possibilities that might have drawn it nearer to salvaging a day and a season.
“On the finish of the day, it’s onerous making pictures in that second sport, and each of us don’t have deep benches and often the numbers will most likely again that up,” mentioned Scott Drew, Baylor’s coach. “However that they had two guys that got here out of the gate capturing it properly.”
Drew mentioned he thought his group had displayed “the center of a champion” by staging the comeback it did.
However North Carolina, a group possibly to neglect not way back, grew to become this system to play on in March.
Kansas, one other No. 1, bought via a scare from Creighton.
Quickly after Baylor was ousted from the event, Kansas prevented being one other No. 1 seed from the Large 12 Convention to exit in comparable style.
Kansas fended off No. 9 seed Creighton, 79-72, within the Midwest area in Fort Value, Texas. The Jayhawks, an skilled group that options seven seniors, advance to face the winner between No. 4 Windfall and No. 13 Richmond. Kansas had misplaced its final two spherical of 32 video games, however superior to the ultimate 16 for the third time in 5 years and the twenty fourth time general.
With the victory, Kansas (30-6) tied Kentucky for probably the most males’s Division 1 victories all time at 2,352. No. 2 seed Kentucky was shocked within the first spherical by No. 15 seed St. Peter’s on Thursday, so the Jayhawks can surpass the Wildcats on this event.
North Carolina ranks third with 2,320 victories.
After Kansas led by as many as 9 factors, Creighton freshman Trey Alexander (14 factors) hit an extended 3-pointer over Remy Martin to chop the deficit to 73-70. Creighton large man KeyShawn Feazell scored on a layup off a dribble penetration cross from Alex O’Connell (16 factors), to slice it to 73-72.
After an errant cross by Alexander, Kansas’ Ochai Agbaji stole the ball and scored on a wide-open dunk in transition to provide Kansas a 75-72 edge. Agbaji, the Large 12 Convention Participant of the Yr and a projected N.B.A. lottery decide, completed with 15 factors and eight rebounds.
Kansas large man David McCormack then swatted an tried layup by Alexander beneath the basket, and Kansas bought the ball again.
Martin (20 factors, seven rebounds) prolonged the lead with two free throws and Jalen Wilson hit two extra to make it 79-72. He completed with 14 factors and 14 rebounds. Kansas went 19 of 20 from the foul line.
Creighton freshman Arthur Kaluma placed on a powerful efficiency by posting 24 factors and 12 rebounds, the best scoring output for a Creighton freshman ever within the N.C.A.A. event.
Creighton (23-12) performed with out its defensive anchor, the 7-foot-1 sophomore middle Ryan Kalkbrenner, who injured his left knee through the group’s first-round victory Thursday in opposition to San Diego State. Kalkbrenner averages 13.1 factors, 7.7 rebounds and a pair of.9 blocks. Happily for Kalkbrenner, his damage didn’t seem like a torn ligament.
