The top-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels opened their 2024 NCAA Tournament with a 90-62 win over 16th seeded Wagner. Four Tar Heel players scored in double digits, with RJ Davis leading the way with 22, followed by Armando Bacot who finished with 20.
It wasn’t the early dominating performance many expected from the Tar Heels, with the Seahawks sticking around in the 2nd half – trailing by 12 with 10:43 remaining in the contest – but UNC outscored short-handed Wagner 30-14 in the last ten minutes, leading to the 28 point win.
“It’s a lot of the new players’ first time playing in the NCAA Tournament, so there was kinda a lot of jitters and nervousness,” RJ Davis said after the win. “But I think we were able to find our groove, get to playing our basketball and settle down in the 2nd half.”
One player who didn’t have the NCAA Tournament debut he’d like is point guard Elliot Cadeau. Elliot finished the game scoreless with three rebounds, three assists and three turnovers.
“I think I played terribly,” Cadeau said when asked to assess his outing. “I feel like I didn’t help out the team as much as I need to, but we still came up on top and that’s all that matters.”
Guard play is essential during March. It’s typically the catalyst to a long NCAA Tournament run and Cadeau knows that. But despite him being hard on himself, his teammates have no shortage of faith in the freshman.
“It happens,” graduate Armando Bacot said when I asked him about Cadeau’s comments. “The way he’s carried himself all year as a freshman has been amazing. I think all year he’s done a great job of bouncing back from not having his best game and I know he’ll be huge for us versus Michigan State. They’ve got a lot of great experienced guards, so it will be fun to see him out there versus them. But he’s played against great guards all year, so I know he’ll be ready.”
UNC will take on 9th seeded Michigan State Saturday at the Spectrum Center. Game time has yet to be announced.