Baylor basketball

UNC Thrills, Teeters and Triumphs to Deliver First Knockout of a No. 1 Seed

The defending men’s champs are out after a bizarre game saw Baylor nearly finish off a monumental comeback.

After fifty-three fouls, thirty-two turnovers and nearly three hours of real time, the first No. 1 seed finally went down: there will be no title defense for the Baylor Bears. In the end, maybe that wasn’t all that surprising: they’d led the game for just two minutes and 34 seconds and at one point had trailed North Carolina by 25, but here they were in overtime anyway, having clawed all the way back through a cavalcade of physical play, Tar Heels user error and inconsistent officiating.

It was No. 8 seed Carolina that ultimately sealed a memorable 93–86 win, doing its best to topple Baylor with hot shooting early before pivoting directly into disarray. With 10 minutes left in the second half, the result certainly hadn’t seemed in danger, not even when Tar Heels forward Brady Manek—who had 26 points alone—was ejected, after his left elbow caught Jeremy Sochan’s face with dubious intent on a box-out. UNC was up by 25 points then, bolstered by hot shooting from RJ Davis (who finished with 30 points) and playing better team basketball in all facets. Baylor’s seventh team foul put Carolina in the bonus with 13:53 left in the second half. The Bears hadn’t been scoring or defending or doing much of anything with any consistency.

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It’s near-impossible to account for every single thing that happened from there, but just know that the 67–42 Tar Heels lead turned into an 80–80 tie at the end of regulation. Baylor ratcheted up the pressure and turned things physical, anchored by the 18-year-old Sochan, whose expert work in the ethical grey areas of interior entanglement turned the game into something … other than what Dr. Naismith may have envisioned. Sochan, likely on his way to the NBA in a few months, would not stick around long enough to become the villain.