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Even with his alma mater leading by 19 points in the second half of its NCAA Tournament opening-round matchup with VCU, North Carolina Tar Heels legend Tyler Hansbrough wasn’t quite comfortable.
As it turns out, the former national player of the year, who has his number retired at the Dean Smith Center, was onto something.
The Rams erased the Tar Heels’ 19-point lead in the second half and went to claim an 82-78 upset victory in overtime, sending sixth-seeded UNC packing.
And Hansbrough wasn’t surprised.
UNC Legend Tyler Hansbrough wasn’t stunned whatsoever that UNC blew a 19-point lead to VCU.
(@TheFieldOf68) pic.twitter.com/8hcruK9zqm
— Zach Gelb (@ZachGelb) March 20, 2026
Tyler Hansbrough Lays Into North Carolina Basketball Team And Athletic Department
Hansbrough said that the collapse was indicative of what he saw from the team all season.
“I’m not stunned,” he said. “We talked about it at halftime, you asked me ‘you have to be pretty happy.’ And I said, ‘No I’ve seen this story before.’ I’ve seen this happen. They just had some lapses in games where they just go still offensively, defensively. Their competitiveness just drops a little bit. They never step on anybody’s throat. When they have a team with a little bit of a lead, they never step on the throat. It’s been something all year.”
But Hansbrough didn’t stop there. He went on to question the entire athletic department at UNC, noting that basketball general manager Jim Tanner and football general manager Michael Lombardi each made $3.5 million this season and that the results fell far short of expectations.
In the interest of fairness, the Tar Heels did have to play their NCAA Tournament game without superstar freshman Caleb Wilson, who broke his right thumb in a practice on March 5.
Still, when you come to play basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels, the expectations are exceedingly high. And it’s obvious that the team did not live up to those expectations this season.