Redemption: Tar Heels take title over Gonzaga in ugly game

By EDDIE PELLS
Associated Press

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) It's OK, Carolina, you can open your eyes.

An unwatchable game turned into a beautiful night for the Tar Heels, who turned a free-throw contest into a championship they've been waiting an entire year to celebrate.

Justin Jackson delivered the go-ahead 3-point play with 1:40 left Monday and North Carolina pulled away for a 71-65 win over Gonzaga that washed away a year's worth of heartache.

It was, in North Carolina's words, a redemption tour - filled with extra time on the practice court and the weight room, all fueled by a devastating loss in last year's title game on Kris Jenkins' 3-point dagger at the buzzer for Villanova.

"Just unreal that we get a second chance at this," junior Theo Pinson said, recounting a pre-game conversation with teammate Joel Berry II. "Not a lot of people can say they can do that. I told him, `We're about to take this thing. I'm about to give everything I got.' I knew he would, too, We just didn't want to come up short again."

But to say everything went right for Roy Williams' team at this Final Four would be less than the truth.

The Tar Heels (33-7) followed a terrible-shooting night in the semifinal with an equally ice-cold performance in the final - going 4 for 27 from 3-point land and 26 for 73 overall.

Gonzaga, helped by 8 straight points from Nigel Williams-Goss, took a 2-point lead with 1:52 left, but the next possession was the game-changer.

Jackson took a zinger of a pass under the basket from Pinson and converted the shot, then the ensuing free throw to take the lead for good. Moments later, Williams-Goss twisted an ankle and could not elevate for a jumper that would've given the Bulldogs the lead.

Isaiah Hicks made a basket to push the lead to 3, then Kennedy Meeks, in foul trouble all night (who wasn't?), blocked Williams-Goss' shot and Jackson got a slam on the other end to put some icing on title No. 6 for the Tar Heels.

Williams got his third championship, putting him one ahead of his mentor, Dean Smith, and now behind only John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski and Adolph Rupp.

"I think of Coach Smith, there's no question," Williams said. "I don't think I should be mentioned in the same sentence with him. But we got three because I've got these guys with me and that's all I care about right now - my guys."

Berry recovered from ankle injuries to lead the Tar Heels, but needed 19 shots for his 22 points. Jackson had 16 but went 0 for 9 from 3. Overall, the Tar Heels actually shot a percentage point worse than they did in Saturday night's win over Oregon.

Thank goodness for free throws.

They went 15 for 26 from the line and, in many corners, this game will be remembered for these three men: Michael Stephens, Verne Harris and Mike Eades, the referees who called 27 fouls in the second half, completely busted up the flow of the game and sent Meeks, Gonzaga's 7-footers Przemek Karnowski and Zach Collins, and a host of others to the bench in foul trouble.

The game "featured" 52 free throws. Both teams were in the bonus with 13 minutes left. Somehow, Collins was the only player to foul out.

Most bizarre sequence: With 8:02 left, Berry got called for a foul for (maybe) making contact with Karnowski and stripping the ball from the big man's hands. But as Karnowski was flailing after the ball, he inadvertently grabbed Berry around the neck. After a long delay, the refs called Karnowski for a flagrant foul of his own.

"I'm not going to talk about refs," Karnowski said. "It was just a physical game."

Zags coach Mark Few handled it with class, calling the refs "three of the best officials in the entire country," and insisting they did a fine job.

He might have wanted further review on the scrum with 50 seconds left. The refs were taking heat on social media for calling a held ball, which gave possession to the Tar Heels, on a pile-up underneath the Carolina basket. It set up the Hicks layup to put Carolina ahead by 3. One problem: Meeks' right hand looks to be very much touching out of bounds while he's trying to rip away the ball.

"That was probably on me," Few said. "From my angle, it didn't look like an out of bounds situation or I would have called a review. That's tough to hear."

The Bulldogs (37-2), the Cinderella-turned-Godzilla team from the small school in the West Coast Conference, tried to keep the big picture in mind. Twenty years ago, this sort of run at that sort of place looked virtually impossible. With less than 2 minutes left, they had the lead in the national title game.

"We broke the glass ceiling everyone said we couldn't break," junior forward Johnathan Williams said.

And North Carolina got over a hump that, at times this season, felt like a mountain.

"They wanted redemption," Williams said. "I put it on the locker room up on the board - one of the things we had to be tonight was tough enough. I think this group was tough enough tonight."

NCAA title game: Blue blood vs. new blood

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GLENDALE, Ariz. -- It's the blue blood vs. the new blood.

The contrast in the NCAA Tournament championship game is clear: North Carolina, winners of five titles and appearing in its record 20th Final Four, is in one corner. Gonzaga, in its first Final Four after spending almost two decades chugging up the mountaintop, is in the other.

"To be playing in the last game of the year is just crazy cool," said Bulldogs coach Mark Few.

But make no mistake. The programs might hang different kinds of banners in their arenas, but this is a heavyweight matchup all the way. These are two experienced, balanced, No. 1 seeds ready to throw down Monday at 9:20 p.m. ET from University of Phoenix Stadium.

North Carolina's Roy Williams will be coaching in his 100th NCAA Tournament game and going for his third national title. He has rings from 2005 and 2009, coming up just short of adding the 2016 title to his collection as the Tar Heels lost to Villanova on a last-second shot.

"You know, on game night, kids gotta play. That's the bottom line," Williams said. "I've never won a game from the bench. I may have lost some, but I know I've never won one. We've gotta go out and play and do the best we can."

North Carolina (32-7) won the ACC regular-season title by two games and knocked off a No. 4 seed (Butler), a No. 2 seed (Kentucky) and a No. 3 seed (Oregon on Saturday night) to advance to the title game. The Tar Heels' bona-fides are unquestioned.

Plenty have doubted Gonzaga. The Bulldogs (37-1) have had their doubters because they play in the weaker West Coast Conference, and their last two games in the tournament were against upstarts -- 11th-seeded Xavier and seventh-seeded South Carolina.

"No one's here by accident," said Gonzaga point guard Nigel Williams-Goss. "I think the respect thing has to go out the window. You have 37 wins in a college season, I mean that's just unbelievable. And to be playing the last game of the season, we have a chance to play for it all. And we're here to win it."

Williams-Goss is the engine of a Gonzaga attack that shoots 50.8 percent from the field, second-best in the country. His 16.9 scoring average leads five Bulldogs in double figures.

Senior center Przemek Karnowski is a load inside at 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds, while freshman 7-footer Zach Collins is a future first-round NBA draft choice. He had 14 points against the Gamecocks, setting career highs with 13 rebounds and six blocked shots.

They will be matched up, in part, against North Carolina's sturdy man in the middle, senior Kennedy Meeks. He is not often called upon to be a leading scorer, but when the Tar Heels went cold against Oregon, Meeks dominated with 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting. He added 14 rebounds, eight on the offensive glass.

North Carolina leads the country in rebounding margin and offensive rebounds.

"I think our main objective every game is to hit teams early in the mouth, whether that's attacking them on the offensive end or playing great defense," Meeks said.

Forward Justin Jackson averages a team-best 18.3 points. Point guard Joel Berry II, averaging 14.5 points per game, has been dealing with two balky ankles. He played 35 minutes Saturday night but was just 2 of 14 from the field.

Can he guard Williams-Goss?

Will the Tar Heels assert their usual dominance in the paint?

Will Jackson go off?

Can Gonzaga 3-point ace Jordan Mathews be a shooting star?

Will the last team standing be blue blood or new blood?

For North Carolina, it's more of the same. For Gonzaga, the peak has never been closer.

"I've had some really, really tough teams. I've had some really close teams. I've had some teams that have been crazy efficient on the offensive end and ones that have been pretty darned good on the defensive end that probably didn't get credit for it," Few said. "These guys are all of that. All of it."

Meeks shoots, and rebounds, and saves the day for Tar Heels

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) North Carolina missed the shots. No surprise there.

Kennedy Meeks saved the game. No surprise there, either.

Meeks, the only Tar Heel who could shoot straight Saturday night, muscled away the game-saving offensive rebound in a 77-76 victory over Oregon after ice-cold Carolina missed its fourth straight free throw down the stretch.

All part of a career night for the North Carolina senior, who was on the bench in last year's championship game when Villanova devastatingly ended the Tar Heels' chance at a title with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

In this one, Meeks was front and center. He finished 11 for 13 to match his career high with 25 points. And he had 14 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive glass and none of which was more important than the last. It secured a Monday-night date with Gonzaga in the title game, where the Tar Heels (32-7) will go for the program's sixth title.

"If it wasn't for Kennedy Meeks, we wouldn't have been in the basketball game," Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

Meeks had plenty to mop up for.

The rest of his team shot a brick-a-minute 14 for 55 from the floor (25 percent). Justin Jackson was one of the few to break through. He had 22 points on 6-for-13 shooting, including a five-minute stretch with three 3-pointers and two free throws that helped the Heels to a double-digit lead and put them on the verge of a runaway midway through the second half.

Given the lead and Oregon's own awful shooting (37 percent), losing this one might have felt every bit as bad as the Villanova loss last year. This is, after all, a team on a mission with only one acceptable destination.

"I just didn't want to lose another game off a winning shot," said Joel Berry II, who missed the free throw that Meeks tore away from Jordan Bell to ice the game. "I wish we would have closed it out."

Didn't quite happen. And after Keith Smith's layup pulled Oregon within 77-76 with 7 seconds left (should Oregon have pulled it out for a game-tying 3? Maybe so), it looked like it would come down to free throws.

It did, and it wasn't pretty.

First, Meeks got fouled, stepped to the line and rimmed out two. But Theo Pinson got inside and batted the ball back out to Berry, who then got fouled with 4 seconds left and took his turn at the line.

Berry missed both, too. But Meeks got inside of Bell for that final rebound, threw it outside to Pinson, who dribbled out the clock to end this ugly affair.

"My main focus was, if Joel missed the second free throw, to hit the offensive glass hard," Meeks said.

Bell finished with 13 points and 16 rebounds, but needed No. 17 to give the Ducks a last shot.

"Jordan felt terrible," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "But I told him, `Buddy, you got 16 rebounds, we wouldn't have been in this position if it hadn't been for you.'"

That it came down to Carolina winning on the boards was no big surprise. This was the best rebounding team in the country this season, grabbing an average of 13 more boards than their opponents over the course of the season.

Against the Ducks, the rebounding battle was even (43 each), though North Carolina got five more on the offensive glass, which resulted in 19 second-chance points, 10 more shots and, eventually, the win.

"I think coach, definitely, when we're gone, he's going to tell that story," said Pinson, who finished with eight points and eight boards. "That just shows how big offensive rebounding is. Boxing out at the end of the game. I'm sure (Bell) wished he'd boxed out right there."

ANKLE TROUBLE: Berry played, as promised, but his shot was troubled by the injured ankles that limited him in practice all week. He was 2 for 14 from the floor and 5 for 9 from the line and finished with 11 points.

MR. MARCH: Tyler Dorsey had been lighting it up through the tournament for Oregon, shooting 65 percent from 3, but the Tar Heels got in his face early and he never got on track. His 21 points came on 11 shots from the field and he only went 3 for 7 from behind the arc. Oregon shot 3 for 18 from 3 in the second half.

BROOKS STRUGGLES: Dillon Brooks has been the leader for Oregon all season, but struggled, finishing with 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting before fouling out.

GOOD COMPANY: According to ESPN Stats and Info, Meeks joins Larry Bird, Ed O'Bannon, Carmelo Anthony and Danny Manning as the only players to reach 25 points and 14 rebounds in the Final Four over the last 40 years.

NEXT UP: Carolina vs. Gonzaga in the title game Monday. Ducks' season over after falling a game short of returning to the title game for the first time since 1939, the first NCAA Tournament.

Maye hits late jumper to lift North Carolina to Final Four

By TERESA M. WALKER
Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Roy Williams went all "Gone With the Wind" when a player asked about his North Carolina Tar Heels making the last shot Sunday to edge Kentucky to the Final Four.

And the coincidence that the Tar Heels have been on the other end of similar shots recently, like in the 2016 national championship and a wild December game against the Wildcats.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a ...," Williams said with a smile, quoting Clark Gable's famed line as Rhett Butler. "I didn't care what he was talking about."

Luke Maye hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left and top-seeded North Carolina held off Kentucky 75-73 to earn the Tar Heels' second straight trip to the Final Four, winning a showdown of college basketball's elite in the South Regional.

The national semifinal will be the 20th for North Carolina, where the Tar Heels (31-7) will play Midwest champ Oregon on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona.

North Carolina took control with 12 straight points over the final 5 minutes, a run similar to what it used a week ago to beat Arkansas. The Tar Heels finished this game with a 16-9 run. Kentucky's freshmen De'Aaron Fox hit a 3 and Malik Monk quickly added two more, one with 7.2 seconds left and defenders in his face to tie the game at 73.

"I probably should have called time out," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "It entered my mind, but they got that son of a B in so quick, I couldn't get to anybody to do it. I needed to stop that right there."

Theo Pinson drove enough toward the basket to pick off Maye's defender, then passed back to Maye. The sophomore from Huntersville, North Carolina, knocked it down for the win with his feet on the 3-point line.

"I just kind of stepped back, and he gave me the ball and I just shot it, and luckily it went in," Maye said. "It was a great feeling."

Maye finished with a career-high 17 points off the bench for North Carolina. Justin Jackson scored 19 points, and Joel Berry II added 11 on a sprained left ankle.

The Wildcats had one last chance, but Derek Willis' inbounds pass went out of bounds on the far end.

Kentucky (32-6) will miss out on the Final Four for the second straight year. Willis and sophomore Isaac Humphries left the court with towels over their heads, and Fox was the last to leave.

The Wildcats had hoped their talented freshmen would carry them. Bam Adebayo and Fox each had 13 points, and Monk, the Southeastern Conference player of the year, finished with 12. Fox and Adebayo wept side by side in the locker room.

"That shot is just playing back and forth in my head," Fox said. "It's going to be difficult to get over."

Never before had the NCAA Tournament pitted powerhouse programs that have so dominated March. This South final featured Kentucky with the most tournament wins all-time with 124 and North Carolina just behind with 120 (now 121).

This was just the fourth time these blue bloods have met in a regional final. The result was much the same as the others, with North Carolina now 3-1 against Kentucky as the Tar Heels avenged a 103-100 loss on Dec. 17 in Las Vegas.

Kentucky led for less than 4 minutes in a game North Carolina had a big edge on the boards (44-34) and inside, where the Tar Heels outscored the Wildcats 34-26.

Officials didn't help the flow of this game calling fouls left and right, though Kentucky took the brunt with its star trio of freshmen all picking up two fouls each in the half. Fox played only 8 minutes of the first half after picking up his second foul with 12:23 left. Adebayo easily was the most frustrated as he missed all five shots in the half with Kennedy Meeks swatting away one of his dunk attempts.

North Carolina led by as much as 9 a couple times before both teams went into shooting slumps. The Tar Heels led 38-33 at halftime.

BIG PICTURE

Kentucky: Nobody has played in more Elite Eights than the Wildcats with this their 33rd overall and sixth under Calipari. Kentucky now is 4-2 with Calipari in regional finals. Fox and Monk combined for 71 points in the December win over North Carolina led by Monk's 47. This time, they combined for 25.

North Carolina: Memphis and the South Regional have been very good to the Tar Heels. This is the second straight time the Tar Heels have been the region's top seed and advanced to the Final Four through Memphis, and now they can only hope to replicate their success of 2009 when they won the program's fifth national title. Williams improved to 9-4 in regional finals overall and 5-3 at North Carolina.

BERRY'S ANKLES

Williams said Berry aggravated the right ankle he sprained in the opening weekend of the tournament in practice Saturday. Berry then rolled his left ankle in the opening 5 minutes. The junior guard played 33 minutes.

UP NEXT

North Carolina plays Oregon in the national semifinal. Kentucky prepares for another batch of freshmen heading to the NBA.

Elites meet in South final between Kentucky, North Carolina

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- After avenging a December loss to UCLA on Friday night in the South Regional semifinals at FedEx Forum, Kentucky tries to keep North Carolina from evening the score with a Final Four berth on the line.

Two of the sport's bluebloods meet Sunday in a rematch of perhaps the game of the regular season, a 103-100 Wildcats win on Dec. 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Freshman guard Malik Monk wowed the sellout crowd of more than 19,000 with 47 points on 28 shots, canning eight 3-pointers.

Can Monk possibly improve on that epic effort?

"They will play me even tighter," he said, "so (De'Aaron) Fox will have his way. Or anyone else will have their way."

Fox sure had his way in Kentucky's 86-75 elimination of UCLA on Friday night, pumping in a career-high 39 points on just 20 shots as he continually attacked the bucket. Monk perked up after a slow start to add 21 points, setting up a matchup of the region's top two seeds.

North Carolina (30-7) disposed of Butler 92-80 in Friday night's opener, leading by double figures for the final 24 minutes and getting a combined 50 points from Joel Berry and Justin Jackson.

Berry appeared to be over an ankle injury that hampered him in the Tar Heels' previous game against Arkansas, tallying 26 points, while the smooth Jackson worked the Bulldogs over for 24 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Jackson had a great matchup early, going against the 6-3 Kethan Savage, who tried hard but simply wasn't able to keep Jackson from getting whatever shot he wanted.

"I saw they had a smaller defender on me and my teammates were finding me," Jackson said. "They were setting screens and they were just kind of late off those screens. I just kind of felt like I was moving freely, and my teammates were finding me. It was just up to me to step up and knock in the shots."

Jackson also enjoyed a huge game against Kentucky, firing in 34 points on 17 shots from the field. Berry added 23 points and three other teammates hit for double figures as North Carolina shot 53.3 percent from the field while committing only nine turnovers.

But it wasn't nearly enough to outdo Monk and Fox. Lost in Monk's display of shotmaking was Fox's 24 points and 10 assists, which helped the Wildcats notch the most entertaining of their 31 wins this season.

"We didn't play very well on the defensive end and Malik lit us up for 47," Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said of that game.

North Carolina has exerted itself with more consistency without the ball during the NCAA Tournament, holding Arkansas scoreless down the stretch in a 72-65 second-round win and limiting Butler to 43 percent shooting from the floor on Friday night while controlling the boards 38-26.

Kentucky also won in part because of defense Friday night, holding UCLA 15 points below its season average and forcing 13 turnovers from a team that had only nine in its first two NCAA Tournament games.

"The key to that was basically try to get a hand up and don't break down defensively," guard Dominique Hawkins said.

Berry scores 26 points and Carolina defeats Butler 92-80

By CLAY BAILEY
Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – North Carolina expects strong offensive performances from junior leaders Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II, but Luke Maye provided an unexpected bonus.

Berry scored 26 points, Jackson had 24, but it was the first career double-double from Maye - 16 points and 12 rebounds - that helped set the tone early and send the top-seeded Tar Heels to a 92-80 victory over Butler in the NCAA Tournament on Friday night.

"He has the ability to shoot the ball. He has the ability to rebound the ball," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said of the sophomore forward and former walk-on. "But the reason Luke is going to be successful is what he's got in his brain and in his heart."

Carolina, which reached the Elite Eight for the 27th time, will face the winner of Friday's second South Regional between UCLA and Kentucky.

Maye's early jolt off the bench helped Carolina (30-7) build a first-half lead to as many as 20 as the Tar Heels benefitted from accuracy, connecting on 54.4 percent of their shots while Butler was at 43.5 percent.

"We knew we were going to have to make some perimeter shots to give ourselves a chance," Butler coach Chris Holtmann said. "They were going to give us some clean looks, and we were going to have to make them. We just didn't."

Andrew Chrabascz led the fourth-seeded Bulldogs (25-9) with 21 points and seven rebounds, while Kelan Martin finished with 16 points for Butler, which struggled shooting early and did not recover.

"We let them get into a rhythm, especially in the beginning," Chrabascz said. "When you let a team like that feel good about themselves, it's tough to get them out of that with how many talented guys they have on their team. And also they answered every run that we had."

The Tar Heels broke out of the gate early, building a double-digit lead and really weren't threatened after halftime, although Butler did get within 10 at one point. Carolina, which let Arkansas claw back before defeating the Razorbacks 72-65 last weekend, weren't going to let that happen again.

"We got by with very little room against Arkansas," Jackson said. "We knew it was a game of runs. Butler is a good team, and they keep on coming at you. For us, we tried to stay focused and stay poised."

North Carolina used early accurate shooting to build a 16-point lead as the Tar Heels connected on 13 of their first 18 shots, including missing only one of seven from outside the arc.

While Butler managed to whittle the deficit to single digits on a couple of occasions before halftime, North Carolina would simply answer with another rally, helping the Tar Heels carry a 52-36 lead into the break.

The Tar Heels lead would stretch the lead back to 20 near the 12-minute mark of the second half, but Butler didn't exactly allow North Carolina to coast home.

A 13-4 Bulldog run made a dent in the advantage as Martin had seven in the stretch with Avery Woodson connecting on a 3-pointer. Martin closed out the run with another 3-pointer to pull Butler within 71-60.

But while the Bulldogs would cut the Carolina advantage to 10 points 2 minutes later, they would get no closer the rest of the way.

BIG PICTURE

Butler: The Bulldogs had not trailed in the tournament until Carolina's Isaiah Hicks scored the game's opening basket. The two previous times Butler defeated a No. 1 seed, the Bulldogs went all the way to the national championship game.

North Carolina: The Tar Heels have reached the Elite Eight 27 times, including eight times since 2000. Maye's 16 points were a career-high. "I got a couple of shots to fall in and felt pretty confident they kept going in," Maye said.

JENKINS ATTENDS: Kris Jenkins, who made the 3-pointer to defeat the Tar Heels in last year's national championship game, was seated near the Carolina bench. Jenkins was cheering on his brother, senior guard Nate Britt. "Me, him and Nate are in a group chat together. We always laugh and stuff. He's pretty close to most of us. I mean, he's here supporting his brother, and we're kind of like his brothers, too," forward Kennedy Meeks said.

PENCE CANCELS: Vice President Mike Pence, who once was expected to attend Friday's game, cancelled Friday because of the action in Washington surrounding health care. Pence has ties to Butler, not only as the former governor of Indianapolis, but also because his wife, Karen, attended the school.

UP NEXT: North Carolina plays the winner of the region's second game on Friday between No. 2 seed Kentucky and the third-seed UCLA.

Texas Southern-North Carolina Preview

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North Carolina is back as a No. 1 regional seed for the NCAA Tournament, looking for another deep run in an effort to finish one spot better than a year ago.

The 2016 runner-up will begin its quest Friday afternoon against 16th-seeded Texas Southern at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C.

North Carolina (27-7) is the No. 1 seed in the South Region.

“I’m very pleased with what our team accomplished, because they don’t give those things (No. 1 seeds) away, you have to earn them,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “I think we’re a top seed for the body of work during the course of the season, winning the ACC regular season by two full games and playing a very good schedule out of conference.”

North Carolina is a No. 1 seed for the 16th time, the most for any men’s team. This is the seventh time in 14 seasons under Williams that the Tar Heels hold a top regional seed.

Of course, there are bigger goals than holding a nice seed. Coming up a victory short last spring could serve as an inspiration for the Tar Heels.

“I think they should use that as motivation,” Williams said of his players. “They know how good it felt (to win postseason games), so use that as motivation. And then if you happen to get lucky and still be playing that last Monday night, then you really can use last year as motivation. The biggest thing to me is for them to understand how much fun this time of year can be.”

North Carolina went 2-2 across its last four games, falling to Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals. The Tar Heels are led by ACC Player of the Year Justin Jackson. The junior forward averages 18.9 points per game.

Texas Southern (23-11), winner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament, also was a regular-season league champion.

“This time of year everybody is giving maximum effort out there on the floor,” said Texas Southern coach Mike Davis, a former coach at Indiana and Alabama-Birmingham.

The Tigers are seeking their first NCAA Tournament victory in seven tries. However, the team is playing in the postseason for the fourth season in a row, last year competing in the NIT.

Davis said he wants more from the Tigers than simply appearing in the NCAA Tournament.

“Everybody thinks, you’re in the NCAA Tournament, feel good about it. … Make us proud,” Davis said, pointing out he’ll be proud when the team advances.

The SWAC Player of the Year is Zach Lofton, a junior guard for Texas Southern. Center Marvin Jones, a graduate student, was the Most Valuable Player of the SWAC Tournament.

This will be North Carolina’s first NCAA Tournament game in the state of South Carolina. The Greenville site wasn’t originally slated to be on the NCAA Tournament list this year. But the NCAA removed games from the Greensboro Coliseum because of North Carolina’s controversial transgender bathroom law commonly called HB2. Greenville was selected as the replacement location.

The session’s first game pits Arkansas against Seton Hall, with the winner meeting the North Carolina-Texas Southern winner Sunday.