The North Carolina Tar Heels, the number one seed, will begin their NCAA Tournament campaign against the Wagner Seahawks, a 16th seed, on Thursday in Charlotte.
Despite losing to NC State in the ACC championship game, the Tar Heels secured a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
With R.J. Davis leading the team and averaging 21.4 points per game this season, North Carolina looks poised for a strong performance in March Madness.
On Tuesday, Wagner achieved a historic victory by securing their program’s first NCAA Tournament win.
The Seahawks defeated Howard 71-68 in the First Four game, with Melvin Council Jr. playing a crucial role in the victory by leading the team with 21 points.
This season, Council Jr. averaged 14.8 points per game, and now, as the team moves forward in the tournament, they will rely on Council Jr. to continue his impressive performance and help them advance against North Carolina.
Matt Gannon writes: “Wagner truly has nothing to lose.
The narrative around this game will be to fade Wagner after it nearly blew a big lead.
Plus, people will want to back North Carolina because the Tar Heels should be extremely focused after losing to NC State in the ACC tournament.
We’ll hear plenty about fading Wagner because it only has seven players and it’s tired.
While that’s true, do we think Vegas doesn’t know this? Clearly they do, and that’s baked into the number.
This is bait to try and grab the 1-seed and flashy name, so ride with the underdogs here.”
