Jay Williams believes in North Carolina to make a run in NCAA Tournament

Many, including Jay Williams, said North Carolina should not have made it into the bracket for the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Now that the Tar Heels are there, though, Williams expects them to be in the second weekend. Especially after their performance in the First Four,

Williams put some teams on upset alert this morning on ‘Get Up’ ahead of the tip this afternoon for March Madness. Ole Miss was the first team he did with the Rebels playing a much-improved team over the last month in the Tar Heels. The same was said about their next projected opponent in Iowa State as Williams had UNC in the Sweet 16 and in contention for an appearance in the Elite Eight.

“They can keep going,” Williams said. “I actually think they can get to a Sweet 16, Elite 8.

“Look, do they belong in the tournament? No. I know you guys went through this yesterday. They’re in the tournament. They made so many threes the other day, and RJ Davis gets hot? Ole Miss is a team that likes to play in the halfcourt. But the way North Carolina is shooting right now? They’re a team that not only can beat Ole Miss. I would pick them to beat Iowa State in the next round as well.”

Again, everyone has their opinion on if North Carolina should even be playing in this tournament. It was a controversial seeding by the selection committee considering some aspects of its overall resumé.

That said, that has no effect now on what the Tar Heels can do in the bracket. What does is a 95-68 win over San Diego State on Tuesday in Dayton. UNC exploded offensively, led by RJ Davis (26 points – 66.7% FG, 100% 3PT) against the Aztec defense, with the most points they’d allowed this season by far, by shooting better than 50% both from the floor and from there.

North Carolina has now won nine of its last 11, with the two losses being to none other than Duke. The Tar Heels played the Blue Devils well enough both times in making major comebacks before losing in the regular-season finale in Chapel Hill and in their semifinal in the ACC Tournament.

With that, this pod in Milwaukee is manageable for any of the four teams as part of the 3 vs. 14 and 6 vs. 11 games in the South Region. North Carolina is in a toss-up, if not favored in some cases, against Ole Miss, who finished right in the middle of the SEC. Then, the winner of that is likely to get the Cyclones, who come into this postseason with one of the most notable injuries in the field.

It is what it is now as far as North Carolina being in the NCAA Tournament. They could now bust some bracket because of it – with Williams having them do so in making it to next weekend in Atlanta