North Carolina dominated Michigan State during the Second Round of March Madness on Saturday. The Tar Heels took a nine-point lead into the locker room at halftime and beat the Spartans by 16.
Although the entire game was a dog fight but it was never particularly close after an early run by the lower seed that was quickly answered.
Despite what the score indicated, there was a constant battle on the court. Tom Izzo’s team tried to impose its will onto Hubert Davis’ group. The latter responded to the former by punching right back. It was a physical, hard-fought matchup that saw both sides trade blows back and forth for 40 minutes.
UNC liked it that way.
A lot of teams try to bring that [schoolyard bully] mentality to beat us. They think they can bully us. We’re a smaller team, we’re North Carolina — quote-unquote pretty boys. But at the end of the day we love these types of games. We’re ready and we have an older team this year. So you’re not going to bully us.
— Harrison Ingram
Michigan State jumped out to a 12-point lead in the first 10 minutes. According to their opponents, the Spartans were talking a lot of talk early that began prior to tipoff and never subsided.
North Carolina forward Harrison Ingram said that it was nonstop, even after the game started to get out of hand down the stretch.
They were talking and it feels good to send them home. I’m not going to say what they were saying, no, but they were talking. That might be the most I’ve heard a team talk in a while.
— Harrison Ingram
He and his teammates welcome the chatter!
Armando Bacot seconded his teammate’s thoughts about the on-court conversations.
The difference, he says, is that the Tar Heels chirped right back and came out with the win. They walked the walk after talking the talk.
None of the players were willing to detail what was said, which is the right way to go about it. Leave what happened on the court on the court. Address it and put in the past.
However, it should be a warning for the teams that will face North Carolina in the upcoming rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Yapping will only fuel the fire and serve as even greater motivation.
Davis has done a phenomenal job with this team. Giving them additional bulletin board material seems like a bad idea.