All notes courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications:

• UNC is 28-7 and No. 1 seed in the West Region.
• The Tar Heels play ninth-seeded Michigan State (20-14) in the second round at Spectrum Center in Charlotte on Saturday, March 23, at 5:30 p.m.
• Carolina defeated Wagner, 90-62, and the Spartans beat Mississippi State, 69-51, to advance.
• RJ Davis scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half, Armando Bacot had 20 points and 15 rebounds and Charlotte native Ja e'Lyn Withers scored a season-high 16 points and added 10 rebounds vs. Wagner to lead Carolina to its 33rd win in 35 games in the round of 64.
• Bacot tied Wake Forest's Tim Duncan and Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon with his seventh consecutive double-double in an NCAA Tournament game. It was his sixth NCAA Tournament game in a row with 15 or more rebounds.
• Bacot became Carolina's second-leading scorer (2,130 points) and tied Morehead State's Kenneth Faried for third in NCAA history with his 86th double-double.
• Davis (2,052) passed Lennie Rosenbluth for fifth in UNC career scoring and passed Justin Jackson, Charlie Scott and Bobby Lewis to move into fourth in points in a season (748) by a Tar Heel.

TAR HEELS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• This is Carolina’s 53rd NCAA Tournament appearance, second most all-time. The Tar Heels are 132-49 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
• Carolina has the most wins in NCAA Tournament history (132), most Final Fours (21), second-highest winning percentage (.729), second-most games (181) and third-most NCAA titles (6).
• The Tar Heels won NCAA titles in 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2017.
• Carolina played in the national championship game six other times (1946, 1968, 1977, 1981, 2016 and 2022).
• This is Carolina’s 18th No. 1 seed, most in NCAA Tournament history. UNC is 64-12 as 1 seed.
• Carolina’s No. 1 seeds include 1979, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2024.
• Carolina advanced to the Final Four as a No. 1 seed 10 times (1982, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016 and 2017) and won NCAA titles as a No. 1 seed in 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2017.
• The Tar Heels advanced to the Final Four out of the West Region in 1981.
• This is the eighth time UNC is playing in the West Region: 1978, 1981 (2 seed), 1986 (3 seed), 1988 (2 seed), 1999 (3 seed), 2015 (4 seed), 2018 (2 seed), 2024 (1 seed).
• Carolina is 24-8 in the round of 32 since the field expanded to 64 (and then 68) teams beginning in 1985.
• The Tar Heels are 13-1 in Charlotte and 35-2 in the state of North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament.

TAR HEELS IN CHARLOTTE
• The Tar Heels are 167-27 all-time in Charlotte.
• That includes a 17-2 record in Spectrum Center from 2006-24.
• The Tar Heels are 13-1 in the NCAA Tournament in Charlotte (1-0 in 1975, 1-0 in 1982, 1-0 in 1984, 2-0 in 1987, 2-0 in 2005, 2-0 in 2008, 2-0 in 2011, 1-1 in 2018 and 1-0 in 2024).
• UNC is 35-2 in NCAA Tournament games in the state of North Carolina: 13-1 in Charlotte, 7-0 in Greensboro, 9-1 in Raleigh and 6-0 in Winston-Salem.

MORE UNC & THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• Carolina is the only team to play in the Final Four and a national championship in nine straight decades (the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s).
• Hubert Davis is the fourth Tar Heel head coach to lead a team to a No. 1 seed (Dean Smith eight times, Roy Williams eight times, Bill Guthridge once).

CAROLINA AND MICHIGAN STATE
• Carolina is 12-4 against Michigan State, including 5-0 in the NCAA Tournament.
• This is the first NCAA Tournament game between the Tar Heels and Spartans since the 2009 national championship, which Carolina won, 89-72, in Detroit on 4/6/2009.
• Against MSU, UNC is 1-0 in the round of 32 (2007 in Winston-Salem),1-0 in the Sweet 16 (1998 in Greensboro), 2-0 in the national semifinals (1957 in Kansas City and 2005 in St. Louis) and 1-0 in the championship game (2009 in Detroit).
• Michigan State beat Carolina, 63-45, in the finals of PK80 in Portland, Ore., on 11/26/2017, in the most recent game between the teams.

5:30, will air on CBS

Sorry this is late posting, but here is the NCAA tournament field as a scatter plot based on Points Per Possession. On the Y-axis is offensive efficiency (0.95+ is the goal, and UP is better). On the X-axis is defensive efficiency (<0.85 us the goal, and LEFT is better).

Prediction Contest Results Through Wagner Game - Contest #4
Check your results!

Gone, gone, gone! The G League Ignite team was 2-18 his past season. OUCH! NIL strikes again folks.

" Between the struggles of the Ignite and the dawning of college basketball’s NIL era, it’s easy to wonder if the NBA has the appetite anymore to pay top prospects to develop in the G League. The Ignite does not have a public commitment from a top prospect in the 2024 class, though five-star Karter Knox has said he’s considering the G League route. Of the current players with the Ignite, only promising 17-year-old Dink Pate has said he intends to return'.
The comments that Silver made during All-Star weekend will only fuel speculation about whether the Ignite continues beyond this season and, if so, in what form.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/nbas-g...longer-exist-after-this-season-201858783.html

https://pr.nba.com/nba-g-league-ignite-final-season/

https://pr.nba.com/nba-g-league-ignite-final-season/

Absolutely love the kid and his game. Excellent shooter and seems to give it his all. But, yes, he needs strength and bulk and to work on his D, mainly movement and positioning. I think another summer of training and workouts will tell and yes we need a Bacot replacement. I would be surprised and dismayed at him if he entered Portal considering how Hubert and UNC stayed Loyal to him after his Knee issues and not being able to play. We stuck with him not knowing what we might get and i feel he might reciprocate with 1 more year anyway. But you never know with these kids anymore. Please stay Jalen and show us what you really got!

NCAA WEST REGION FIRST ROUND
No. 1 CAROLINA 90, No. 16 WAGNER 62
MARCH 21, 2024
SPECTRUM CENTER, CHARLOTTE, N.C.

UNC Scoring Leader: RJ Davis 22
UNC Rebound Leader: Armando Bacot 15
UNC Assist Leader: Elliot Cadeau and Jae’Lyn Withers 3
Team Records: Carolina 28-6, Wagner 17-16

• Carolina
... 132-49 all-time in the NCAA Tournament (most wins in NCAA Tournament history).
... 33-2 in the round of 64.
... 35-2 in NCAA Tournament games in the state of North Carolina, including 13-1 in Charlotte.
... 9-0 this season and 21-1 under head coach Hubert Davis when scoring 90 or more points.
... has won 21 games this season when holding opponents to 70 or fewer points, including 17 times under 70.
... shot a season-high 50% from three-point range (9 of 18)...previous high was 46.7% at Duke when it made 7 of 15.
... outrebounded Wagner, 43-24, the 24th straight game it outrebounded its opponent (by a margin of plus 245).
... shot 55.0% from the floor, its second highest this season and highest since Dec. 29 when it made 56.2% against Charleston Southern.
... is 8-0 this season when shooting 50% or higher from the floor.
... has won 30 consecutive games when shooting 50% from the floor.
... shot 50% in both halves for the third time in the last five games (at Duke and vs. Florida State) and fifth time this season.
... shot its highest field goal percentage (.550) in an NCAA Tournament game since the 2016 Elite Eight vs. Notre Dame (.615).
... shot 50% from the floor in both halves in an NCAA Tournament game since the second round in 2019 vs. Washington.
... shot 50% from the floor, 50% from three and 75% from the free throw line for the first time in an NCAA Tournament game since the 2016 Sweet 16 vs. Indiana.
... didn’t trail for the seventh time this season, including the third time in the last six games (Notre Dame, Duke and Wagner).
... it was the fifth time this season and 12th time in the last four seasons Davis and Bacot both scored 20 or more points. UNC is 4-1 this season and 11-1 overall when both score 20.

Armando Bacot
... scored 20 points and grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds (UNC is 14-4 this season and 62-24 all-time when he has a double-double).
... his 86th career double-double (passing Morehead State’s Kenneth Faried for No. 3 in NCAA history).
... seventh consecutive double-double in an NCAA Tournament game (tying Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olajuwon for the NCAA Tournament record for consecutive games with a double-double).
... his sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament game with 15 or more rebounds.
... passed Phil Ford for second outright in UNC career scoring with 2,310 points (they were tied entering the game at 2,290).
... tied NC State’s David Thompson for 11th in ACC career scoring.
... has 1,696 rebounds, passing Alabama’s Jerry Harper (1,688) for eighth most in NCAA history.
... was his 27th career game with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.

RJ Davis
... scored a game-high 22 points, the 25th time he led or co-led UNC in scoring this season and the 18th time he led or co-led both teams.
... has 2,052 career points, passing Lennie Rosenbluth (2,047) for fifth in UNC history.
... was his 22nd 20-point game this season, tied for the fifth most by a Tar Heel in a season and the most since Tyler Hansbrough had 27 in 2007-08.
... was the 40th consecutive game he made a three, tying the second-longest streak ever by a Tar Heel (with Marcus Paige from 2014-16).
... made four 3FGs, the 31st time in 35 games this season he made multiple threes and the 14th this year he made at least four in a game.

Jae’Lyn Withers
... season-high 16 points and matched his season high with 10 rebounds.
... second double-double as a Tar Heel (had 15 and 10 vs. Louisville on Jan. 17) and the seventh of his career (five while playing for Louisville).
... it was the Charlotte native’s fourth time he scored in double figures and the first since Jan. 17.
... scored 10 points in the first half, which matches his season high for a half (10 in the second half vs. Louisville).
... made five field goals (which tied his season high vs. Louisville) and made a season-high six free throws, all in the first half.
... finished plus 15, his highest plus/minus since he was plus 24 vs. Louisville. It was his fourth-highest plus/minus this season.

Cormac Ryan
... scored in double figures for the 19th time this season and 76th time overall.
... made two three-pointers, the 20th time he made two or more this season (UNC 16-4 in those games).

UNC-Wagner
• This was the first game between UNC and Wagner and UNC’s first against a Northeast Conference opponent since beating Saint Francis (Pa.) in Chapel Hill on 11/19/2018.

Next Game
• Saturday, March 23 vs. Michigan State in the round of 32.

The first of six hopeful games start today in the Queen City and on paper it looks like a major mismatch but on any given day a team could play over their head and stun a team that takes them for granted.

I do not see that happening. My biggest hope is that none of the top 8 players sustain an injury. Hopefully the team can build up a big enough lead early so that the starters can come out early and get some rest because Michigan State looks like they have some excellent athletes and that contest will be a war.

I am here ready to roll. I will be courtside for the Michigan State-Miss State game. Looking forward to seeing that.

As @David Sisk said the other day, the Bulldogs are enormous and could give Carolina fits. But, first things first.

Bryan will be here as well, Kevin is shooting, and Jacob will be here Saturday, assuming the Heels play Saturday.