DAYTON, Ohio — From the moment North Carolina lost to Duke in Friday’s ACC tournament semifinal, anxiety began to build, just as it would for any NCAA tournament bubble team.
Would the Tar Heels make the field or fall short, as many bracketologists had predicted?
“From Friday night after Duke to Sunday around 6 o’clock, we just had no idea,” UNC guard Seth Trimble said.
The answer came Sunday.
North Carolina, despite a 1-12 record against Quadrant 1 opponents, was in the tournament, the last team to get a berth.
The Heels were an unpopular selection, and the criticism around their inclusion reached some of the players.
But the two days that followed the selections carried different emotions than the two days that preceded them.
“As soon as we saw Sunday evening that we were the 11th seed in Dayton, we knew it was go time,” Trimble said.
“So, we dropped it right away. We were able to drop our nerves and jitters and able to play a good game as a team.”
North Carolina didn’t merely play a good game but a historic and dominant