Coming in on Friday, North Carolina coach Roy Williams held a 29-0 record in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Wisconsin basketball had a 4-42 record at Mackey Arena, the location of the Badgers ‘first round match against the Williams’ Tar Heels.
Lies, damn lies and statistics.
Improbability became an emphatic reality in West Lafayette, Indiana, on Friday, when the ninth Badgers defeated North Carolina 85-62 to win Williams’ unbeaten record, which dates back to his first March Madness in 1990 in Kansas.
A popular choice in many keys to drop the No. 1 Baylor seed in the next round, North Carolina was overtaken by Brad Davison’s game of life. The Wisconsin senior scored 29 points, the best of the season, hitting 5 out of 7 out of a 3-point streak. There were three easy points:
In attack, the formidable North Carolina attack court battled the Badgers’ big-man duo, Micah Potter and Nathan Reuvers, in the first half. Armando Bacot woke up at the start of the second half, but not long enough to overcome another offensive attack by Davison and D’Mitrik Trice, which ended with 21 points.
The game was one-sided enough that Tar Heels’ 16-point deficit at the break was the worst of the program since losing in the 2008 Final Four at the hands of Kansas. The loss of UNC also continued a brutal year for the blue bloods, as shown by this curious fact:
Wisconsin will now advance to the second round, where the No. 1 Baylor seed awaits. The 18-12 Badgers were an irritatingly inconsistent team throughout the season, but a twist is not out of the question if they continue to play like that.
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