Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Baylor (NCAA Tournament - 2nd Round)

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 93-86 overtime victory over Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Mar 20, 2022 2:28 AM EDT

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 93-86 overtime victory over Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

If you don’t think this team can fight after what you saw this weekend, you haven’t been paying attention. Slowly, but surely, over the course of the season, this team came to inhabit the grit with which their head coach wanted them to compete. That toughness was never seen in more full relief than this weekend in Dickies Arena. The result of all that hard work? The Tar Heels are advancing to their 30^th Sweet 16 appearance, the most all time.
Three times now in modern NCAA Tournament history, Carolina has upset a one seed as an eight seed.

I was very curious to see what kind of energy the building had given the 11:10am local tip time. It was electric. There was a good mixture of Carolina and Baylor fans, mixed with a large contingent of Kansas Jayhawks, and a small (but vocal!) pocket of Creighton fans. Particularly as Baylor made their run, the volume level kept rising.
To summarize the flow of this game succinctly, I’ll cede the floor to my young son: “Daddy, the team played really well, then they didn’t play very well, then they played really well again.” Enough said, right?
I do not mind admitting, I thought the Tar Heels were done when the game went to overtime. Baylor had all the momentum, Carolina was fighting a war of attrition personnel-wise, and the game was being played 91 miles from Baylor’s basketball arena (Ferrell Center). But then up stepped Dontrez Styles and nailed just his third three of the season to kick off the scoring in the extra period. North Carolina never trailed in overtime. The basketball gods are funny.

The (controversial) story of the game was Brady Manek’s flagrant-2 foul and resulting ejection. At the 10:47 mark of the second half, Manek nailed a three, giving himself 26 points, giving his team a 25-point lead, and I began checking for the largest margins of victory in NCAA Tournament history for an eight-over-one seed upset. However, 39 game-seconds later he was gone. Manek was assessed a flagrant-2 for an elbow to Jeremy Sochan’s head (I’ll leave it up to rules experts to discuss the merits of this being a flagrant-1 or -2). Over the next three minutes, Baylor uncorked an 11-0 run to get the lead down to 16. That ejection changed the entire tenor of the game. If Manek isn’t ejected, it’s not a bold claim to say that Carolina wins the game handily in regulation.
Before fouling out, Manek amassed 26 points, four threes, five rebounds, two assists, and no turnovers. There’s no telling how many points he would have racked up if not for the ejection. He was on absolute fire at the time of his ejection and was just five points off his career high. And by the way, per the UNC men’s basketball official stats account on Twitter, Manek became just the fifth Tar Heel to score 26 or more in back-to-back NCAA Tournament games. You might have heard of one or two of these other names: Lenny Rosenbluth, Phil Ford, JR Reid, and Michael Jordan.
Manek wasn’t the only Tar Heel filling it up. RJ Davis went off, scoring a career high 30 points, including five threes and a 9-10 mark from the free throw line. Davis also contributed six assists and just three turnovers.
Armando Bacot has become so consistent doing what he does that he dropped 15 points and 16 rebounds today and nobody batted an eye. He now has 27 double-doubles this season and 45 in his career. He also dished out four assists today.
Who else dished out assists? Everybody. All weekend. Carolina assisted on 29 of their 34 made baskets on Thursday (85.3%). The trend continued on Saturday, helping out on 22 of the 28 made baskets (78.6%). That means for the two games in Ft. Worth, Carolina assisted on 51-62 field goals (82.3%). For reference, UNC had assisted on 53.6% of made baskets coming into the NCAA Tournament.
In fact, Leaky Black and RJ Davis both tallied their highest career two-game stretch of assists. Black had 14 and Davis had 18. This willingness to share is what will make UNC dangerous as long as they can stay in the field.
The Hubert Davis effect is very real – For the first time in Carolina history, three Tar Heel teammates each have at least 60 made threes. Brady Manek has 85, Caleb Love 81, and RJ Davis 63.
The crazy thing about the comeback-that-wasn’t for Baylor is that it would have been the largest collapse ever for a Carolina team, regular or postseason. The largest comeback from any point in the game is 24, by FSU on 1/22/04. The largest second-half comeback is 22 by Maryland on 1/78/97.
But the Tar Heels ultimately won so we don’t have to worry about the comeback. Another streak that was in jeopardy: Carolina had won 44 straight NCAA Tournament games in which they led by double-digits at the half. Thankfully, the trend just carries on and is now up to 45 games.
The game was marked by foul troubles all around. Matthew Mayer picked up three in the first half. Baylor put Carolina in the bonus early in the second half. Caleb Love eventually fouled out. By the time it was all said and done, Flo Thamba and James Akinjo had joined Mayer and Love on the bench. Suffice it to say that for my money's worth, the referees lost control of the game in the final 10 minutes of regulation. As proof, the teams were whistled for a combined 53 fouls while making just 56 field goals.
On the other side of fouls are the free throws that come along with them. Carolina has been phenomenal from the line all season, but their inefficiency there today almost cost them a victory. The chief culprit was unfortunately Armando Bacot who made just seven of his 15 attempts. Had Bacot hit even two more of those, overtime would not have been necessary.
This won’t come as a shock, having seen UNC’s trouble with Baylor’s pressure and the absence of Caleb Love, but the Heels committed a season high 21 turnovers.
Perhaps the first three of Davis’ 30 points were the most important of the day. Baylor jumped out to a quick 4-0 start, including a live ball turnover from Caleb Love. On the next possession the Bears had the Tar Heels on the ropes, but RJ Davis hit a late shot clock three, then wound up reeling off eight straight points in total. 8-4 Heels early.
Once again, Dontrez Styles was the first player off the bench and given the attrition Carolina faced, ended up playing almost 25:00. He made four of his seven shots (including that huge three at the beginning of overtime). He competed on the glass. He had a steal and putback. Styles is definitely growing.
Also, despite the need for bodies in the second half, neither Kerwin Walton nor D’Marco Dunn saw the court.
Carolina was almost Virginia-like in its deliberate handling of the offense down the stretch. It almost felt like Coach Davis knew his differing personnel and that it wouldn’t hold up to the constant pressure, so was trying to shorten the game. His team was almost able to stretch it out long enough, but fell just short of securing a regulation win.
Was great to see Garrison Brooks in attendance today. It's always nice when the older players come back for games, but had to have been especially meaningful for the current players to have one of their peers, who just finished playing at a different university, come and support them.
After a physically and mentally exhausting game, the Tar Heels thankfully have an extended period before taking the court again. They played the first game on Saturday and don’t play next weekend ‘til Friday.

Box Score

Postgame press conference

Coach Hubert Davis, Armando Bacot, RJ Davis, Dontrez Styles, Leaky Black, Justin McKoy

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament against UCLA on Saturday, March 25. Tip time and TV TBA.