March Madness scores: UNC routs Marquette, but can Tar Heels upset Baylor next?

UNC basketball made a statement to open up March Madness against Marquette but, as a date with No. 1-seed Baylor looms, is an upset brewing?

Despite the blue-blood pedigree of UNC basketball, a substandard performance this season against the best opponents on their schedule led to Hubert Davis’ Tar Heels getting just a No. 8 seed entering March Madness.

That 8-9 line and those games can be tricky, something that North Carolina can attest to having been on the wrong end of those matchups in recent years. So the fans in Chapel Hill were a bit nervous entering a matchup against a hot-and-cold Marquette team.

As it turns out, there was no reason to be nervous.

Did UNC basketball win today? Tar Heels blow out Marquette, 95-63

The Tar Heels were in a dreaded 8-9 matchup to start off their March Madness run and many expected the contest against Marquette to be a close one. Instead, it was anything but.

Thanks to some hot shooting from beyond the arc, North Carolina jumped out to big lead that ballooned to 34-14 with just over six minutes left in the first half. From there, the Tar Heels never looked back en route to a 32-point victory that set the tone for their NCAA Tournament.

In the win, grad transfer Brady Manek set a career-high with 28 points and 11 rebounds while Caleb Love was impressive with six 3-point makes to end up with 23 points. R.J. Davis dished out 12 assists while Armando Bacot “quietly” notched yet another double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to move UNC to the Round of 32 and a date with the defending national champions and No. 1 seed Baylor.

Can UNC basketball upset Baylor in the Second Round?

Despite the matchup between Baylor and UNC being a 1-seed taking on a No. 8 seed, the fact of the matter is that the Tar Heels are much better than their seed line.

Early in the season, North Carolina struggled to find their way under new head coach Hubert Davis with inconsistent guard play, an unsettled rotation of big men, poor defense, and really just a multitude of problems. Down the stretch, however — the ACC Tournament loss to eventual conference champions Virginia Tech aside — things have turned around.

The guard combo of Love and Davis have started to gel better than they have over the past 1.5 seasons in Chapel Hill as of late while the emergence of Manek as a true inside-out threat offensively have opened things up. And when you have the steady presence of Bacot on the interior to complement that, you’re looking at a complete UNC basketball team.

Baylor is obviously an extremely good team with experience and tournament pedigree. However, the absence of L.J. Crier and their injury woes overall open the door for the Tar Heels to make a big upset bid on Saturday. North Carolina has the guards to compete with Baylor’s but might actually have the advantage with their bigs.

UNC has struggled against the best competition on the schedule this season outside of beating Duke in the regular-season finale. When you look at the matchup with Baylor and the way the Heels are trending, though, the chance for an upset is absolutely unavoidable.

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