UNC says March Madness loss resembled early-season struggles

MILWAUKEE --North Carolinaguard Seth Trimble put a towel over his face, covering the tears being shed.

The end of a season always brings out emotions, which flowed after North Carolina's71-64 loss to Ole Miss in the first round of the men's NCAA tournament Friday. Trimble was especially sad to no longer continue with backcourt mate RJ Davis and others.

But the towel also covered frustration that North Carolina's last game resembled so many others, which had put the team in a hole to even make the NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels were a controversial selection, the last team in, weighted down by a 1-12 record against Quadrant 1 opponents.

"We were really lifeless in the first half," Trimble said. "We had no passion; we had no joy. We looked like the group we were a few months ago."

North Carolina fell behind by 18 at halftime, when it had just nine field goals. Ole Miss wasn't just scorching the nets from 3-point range but also outworking the Tar Heels on the glass.

"Every category, every angle, in regards to physicality, they not only won in the first half, they dominated us," North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. "There was only two choices coming out in the second half, either to respond with that same type of fight or get embarrassed."

Davis hadn't seen North Carolina perform like it did in the first half since a 20-point loss atClemsonon Feb. 10. The Tar Heels' only losses from then on came against archrivalDuke, the nation's No. 2 team and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

"I was really proud of how our guys fought back competitively and got back into the game," Davis said. "But just the whole game, that wasn't us the last two months. That was us the first four months."

North Carolina trailed by as many as 22 before cutting the deficit to two points on RJ Davis' three-point play with 1:09 left. The Tar Heels picked up the pace offensively and started stifling Ole Miss on the defensive end.

"We checked ourselves," Trimble said. "We got checked."

But Ole Miss answered in the final minute with a Sean Pedulla 3-pointer and sealed the win.

"It just describes our whole season, from being up-and-down year, being a difficult year, and persevering," RJ Davis said.

Since reaching the 2022 national championship game in Hubert Davis' first season as coach, North Carolina has advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament just once, last year.

Davis believed his team had turned a corner after its midseason slump. After an impressive win against San Diego State in the First Four, North Carolina had a chance to continue its tournament success -- until bad habits resurfaced.

"I felt like on both ends of the floor, we were going off script," Davis said. "The inconsistencies of the discipline and details that you have to have over the last two months, we've been sharp with it. As a result, we've played our best basketball. But that first half just reminded me a lot of earlier in the season."br/]