The North Carolina Tar Heels looked like anything but the 1-seed in the Midwest Region as Auburn dismantled them. What went wrong for Roy Williams’ team?
In a Second Round victory over Washington, the North Carolina Tar Heels looked to be hitting their stride at the right time in the NCAA Tournament. Advancing to the Sweet 16 off a 22-point win and eyeing a date with the Auburn Tigers in the Sweet 16, there was good reason to believe that Roy Williams’ club was a favorite to cut down the nets in Minneapolis.
Instead, the win last weekend proved to be fool’s gold for North Carolina. On Friday night, they went into the Sprint Center to take on Auburn and were completely run off the floor, particularly in the second half. And when the dust settled, the Tigers had dismantled the Tar Heels, bouncing them out of March Madness to the tune of a 97-80 final score.
While the first half was a back-and-forth affair between UNC and Auburn, it became clear early on that the Tar Heels weren’t playing their best brand of basketball. Yes, Coby White and Cameron Johnson were pushing the pace, their favorite way to play in Chapel Hill, but their shot selection in transition and in sets was questionable at best. On top of that, they weren’t even getting attempts up at times, struggling with turnovers. Still, they trailed by only two points going into halftime.
Coming out of the locker room, though, the North Carolina struggles continued in every fashion. Not only could they still not maintain possession, but they continued to force up tough (or just downright bad) shots. To worsen the matter, though, the Tar Heels defense was also sloppy and slow, not hedging and helping properly and leaving a sweet-shooting Tigers offense with a ton of open looks.
In the first 2.5 minutes of the second half, Auburn put an 11-2 run on the Tar Heels that had Williams’ team on their heels and they had no answer. When White would push the issue, he forced it far too much. Nassir Little was consistently squandering solid looks around the rim with poor court awareness. Luke Maye was a ghost at times. And this was all in addition to more bad shots getting put up.
The shot selection, defense and turnovers were all killers for North Carolina on Friday night in the Sweet 16. However, what may have been the ultimate death blow was the fact that the Tar Heels, one of the best rebounding teams in the country, couldn’t control the glass in the way that they normally do. They couldn’t end Auburn possessions and give themselves extra possessions at the rate they normally do, and it showed in a massive way.
Given all of this sloppy play from North Carolina, it’s no surprise that Auburn was both able to get out to the big lead early in the second half and even less shocking that the Tar Heels had no chance of climbing back into things. As a result, the Tigers are moving on to the Elite Eight while UNC will be heading back to Chapel Hill to watch from home.