Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. St. Peter's (NCAA Tournament - Elite 8)

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 69-49 win over St. Peter's in the NCAA Tournament Elite 8.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Mar 28, 2022 12:30 AM EDT

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 69-49 win over St. Peter's in the NCAA Tournament Elite 8.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

The dream NCAA Tournament run carries on. The Tar Heels have made the Final Four for the 21^st time, the most of any program in the nation.
Hubert Davis heads to the Final Four in his first season as head coach. Absolutely remarkable. The last Division I coach to do so? None other than Bill Guthridge in 1998.

Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, just six eight-seeds have made the Final Four. UNC is the only school to do so twice.
I don’t usually spend much time talking about the opposition, but how about the historic run for St. Peter’s? The first-ever 15 seed to make the Elite 8, and did so not with miraculous or lucky shots, but by going out and beating the teams in front of them.
This was UNC’s 130^th NCAA Tournament victory, breaking a tie with Kentucky for most all-time.
Against Baylor and UCLA, Carolina was essentially playing with house money. Today, they faced the pressure of being the highly favored team for the first time this tournament. A big question mark was whether they would come out tight or continue to play loose? That question was quickly answered as they jumped out to a 9-0 lead and, for the third time in the four NCAA Tournament games, held a double-digit lead fewer than 10 minutes into the game.
In the NCAA Tournament, Brady Manek is shooting 57.7% on field goals (30-52) and 47.1% from three (16-34).
Manek isn’t the only one filling it up from three in the tournament. While Manek has 16 made threes, Caleb Love is one behind him with 15. Coming into the tournament Kenny Smith held the Carolina record for most made threes in four games in a single NCAA Tournament with 12. Manek and Love have both surpassed that mark.
Leaky Black continues to just absolutely wreck opponents’ offensive plans while also filling up the stat sheet. Go back and watch the play around the 8:27 mark of the second half. He fights around a defender to recover to Doug Edert, breaks down in a defensive stance, stays in front of Edert, stays vertical to block the shot, and grabs the rebound. Not to mention Black keeps filling up the stat sheet. Against St. Peter’s he had five points, four rebounds, five assists, zero turnovers, three blocks, and two steals. Really, really impressive.
Armando Bacot is unreal. He tied Tyler Zeller’s UNC single game NCAA Tournament record with 22 rebounds to go with 20 points. That double-double gives him 29 this season and 47 in his career. The single season mark is tied for the ACC record with Tim Duncan and puts him one ahead of Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe to lead all of D1. The career mark ties him with Tyler Hansbrough and Sam Perkins for third all-time on the UNC double-double list. When you can be mentioned in any sentence with greats like Duncan, Hansbrough, and Perkins, you’ve really achieved something special.
Carolina has played 37 games and has outrebounded their opponents in all but three of them, including 14 straight. The Heels have double-digit OFFENSIVE rebounds in all six postseason games they’ve played this season.
Bacot hauled in an offensive rebound off a missed Carolina free throw. It was the first such rebound since February 12 against FSU.
After 21 turnovers against Baylor, UNC had just eight against both UCLA and St. Peter’s. The Tar Heels had just one in the first half.
After a phenomenal season of free throw shooting, Carolina has had a bit of trouble at the line in two of their last three games. The Heels were 26-37 against Baylor and 13-21 against St. Peter’s. Despite those two performances, UNC is still shooting 76.5% this season, second best in recorded Carolina history.
Given Carolina’s size advantage, the tandem of Bacot and Manek handled the majority of the scoring load (39 of 69 points), giving RJ Davis and Caleb Love an off-night from having to turn in more 30-point performances. An encouraging sign though is that both guards continued to attack the rim.
Here I go thinking I have Coach Davis’ substitution pattern (or lack thereof) figured out. Dontrez Styles had been the first reserve into the game in the first three NCAA Tournament games. What happens against St. Peter’s? Puff Johnson is the only first half sub. The Iron Five play the entire first 18:39 of the second half before Styles, Johnson, D’Marco Dunn, Justin McKoy, and Kerwin Walton checked in for the final 1:21.
Field goal percentage allowed isn’t the only (or best) indicator of strong team defense, however Carolina has held three of its four NCAA Tournament opponents under 40% shooting for the game.
From the craziness of March Madness we now arrive at an all-Blue-Blood Final Four with North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, and Villanova. These four teams have combined to win four of the last six NCAA Tournaments and seven of the last 13.
Carolina will play Duke in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever, in any round. In the Final Four. In Coach K’s last season. Hollywood couldn’t write a script this good. The TBS/CBS executives must be foaming at the mouth in anticipation of what type of audience they'll get.
We’re at the point now where no matter how things play out in the Final Four, Hubert Davis’ first season as the head coach of UNC will go down as one of the most phenomenal and memorable seasons in Carolina history. Enjoy. Every. Moment.

Box Score

Postgame Press Conference

Hubert Davis & the #IronFive

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament against Duke on Saturday, April 2. Tip is approximately 8:49pm ET on TBS.