UNC to face old rivals Duke in NCAA tournament after ending Saint Peter’s fairytale
North Carolina crushed all hope of a March Madness miracle on Sunday, getting 20 points and 22 rebounds from Armando Bacot in a wire-to-wire 69-49 runaway victory over 15th-seeded Saint Peter’s.
The eighth-seeded Tar Heels made their record 21st Final Four, and next on their list is none other than archrival Duke and their soon-to-be-retiring coach, Mike Krzyzewski.
Next Saturday in New Orleans will mark the first NCAA Tournament meeting between the Tobacco Road archrivals, whose campuses are separated by 11 miles.
While Coach K’s winding road to retirement has been a beauty to watch this March, nothing has captured more imaginations than the run put on by underdog Saint Peter’s. The entire basketball budget for this scrappy group from Jersey City, New Jersey, is $1.6m or around $400,000 less than what Tar Heels first-year coach Hubert Davis, who was sobbing as his players enveloped him after the buzzer, makes in a year.
Earlier on Sunday, top-seeded Kansas put up a brilliant second half in a 76-50 victory over Miami, sending one of college basketball’s top programs to the national semifinals for the 16th time.
“That was about as well as we can play, the second half,” coach Bill Self said. “These guys earned it.”
After trailing by six at halftime, Kansas outscored Miami 47-15. The Jayhawks shot 59.3% (16 for 27) after the break, compared to 21.4% (6 for 28) for the Hurricanes. They also outrebounded Miami 25-11 in the final 20 minutes.
Once the Jayhawks started flashing their superior speed and athleticism, the Hurricanes couldn’t keep up.
“We started to play the score, not the game,” Miami forward Sam Waardenburg said.