North Carolina players discuss how last year's first-round exit impacts this year's matchup

The North Carolina Tar Heels haven’t forgotten about their sudden exit from the NCAA Tournament last season.

No. 9 Wisconsin breezed past No. 8 UNC 85-62 in the first round of the South Region in 2021 and two of UNC’s star players were asked about that loss specifically as they prepare to play Marquette to kick off the opening round of March Madness.

“Yeah, I mean, I would say that left a bad taste in all of our mouths. And it’s something that Coach Davis emphasized earlier on in the week, and just telling us that it won’t go down like that,” North Carolina All-ACC big man Armando Bacot said. ” I mean, I would say for all of us, we packed four or five outfits. So we don’t plan on going home early.”

UNC began to mesh as the season progressed and ultimately earned a No. 8 seed. The Tar Heels closed out the regular season with a massive upset over Duke to spoil Coach K’s final home game.

Still, Rj Davis feels like the NCAA Tournament opener could be a chance for redemption and the beginning of a special journey.

“Yeah, I would like to say I plan to stay till Saturday,” Davis said. “I know last year wasn’t the way I wanted to go out, especially the first round, first game. So this is more, like, a redemption. You know, just being able to — different team, different mindset. And we all have a mentality of just to win, play together, toughness. So I refuse to have the same outcome as last year.”

Jim Boeheim offers surprising take on North Carolina upsetting Duke

Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse Orange won’t be one of the ACC teams competing in the NCAA Tournament. Still, the longtime ‘Cuse basketball coach has plenty of experience with the conference this season and recently gave a take that may surprise college basketball fans regarding the Duke Blue Devils‘ blunders in their final two contests before the official start of March Madness.

On Tuesday morning, Boeheim joined ESPN’s First Take and Stepehen A. Smith asked him if he was surprised by Duke’s surprising upset loss vs. North Carolina to spoil Coach K’s final game at Cameron Indoor.

“I am not surprised, they are very good – but you have to understand, their three best players are all freshmen,” the Syracuse front man said of the Blue Devils falling to UNC.

Boeheim — who has a longstanding close friendship with Mike Krzyzewski, who is prepping the No. 2 seeded Blue Devils for his final run at a national title — noted that Duke is loaded with talent but lacks the one thing that often separates championship-caliber teams in March.

“They are all freshmen,” Boeheim said of the 2022 Duke roster.

The Orange head coach is referring to the trio of starters — Paolo Banchero, AJ Griffin and Trevor Keels — while starting point guard Jeremy Roach is just a sophomore. Wendell Moore Jr. (junior) is the most-experienced member of the go-to starting lineup. Mark Williams (sophomore) started the final 11 games for Duke and the only senior on the team is Joey Baker, who appeared in 23 of the 24 regular season games but started just once.