Off the cuff: UNC coach Hubert Davis might want to tone down that talk about fighting back when a team is physical. While it worked out well against a physical Marquette team, this time UNC's Brady Manek may have been a little overzealous and it wound up getting him ejected from the game. The high elbow was uncalled for but in years past, that would not have led to an ejection. The wusification of sports has led to rules that don't much allow for boys to be boys. Yes, it should have been a foul, maybe a tech but that was not something that should lead to ejection. Of course, Dean Smith was ejected for less in an NCAA tourney game so you have to be careful. The calls didn't go Carolina's way after the ejection. There were several instances of officials going to the monitor after that and it never seemed to help the Heels. I don't know how many times officials adjusted the time to give more and more time for Baylor to catch up but it was like watching the USA-Soviet Union basketball ending from 1972 over and over again. Nothing went right for the Heels during the last 10 minutes of regulation. Yes, they brought some of it on themselves but now look back at how many things that had to go Baylor's way for them to erase a 25-point deficit in 10 minutes. One advantage I thought the Heels had going into the tournament was their free throw shooting. But the Heels missed 11 of them in this one, with Bacot, usually reliable, missing eight of them. Free throw shooting alone should have kept Carolina from having to win in overtime. But win in overtime they did with two rarely used players on the court. Dontrez Styles hit a key three to start the OT scoring and Justin McKoy hit two free throws at the end to quell any chance of a second Baylor comeback. The game shows what Carolina can do at full strength and it also shows how tenuous things can be when someone gets in foul trouble, gets injured or is ejected. Considering the way the season has gone, though, the Tar Heels, by unexpectedly making the Sweet 16, is playing with house money. |
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