NCAA Latest: UNC hasn’t lost tourney game in home state

If Alabama-who are 11-point underdogs-are going to keep this thing close, they’ll probably have to go blow-for-blow and turn it into a shootout. The curtain didn’t fall with a last-second shot or a classic March comeback.

The Wildcats had no trouble getting past the No. 16 Radford Highlanders in the First Round, 87-61.

MI (29-7) trailed by 10 in the opening minutes, struggled to get into rhythm until late in the first half, and never really went on a big run to seize control of the game. Collin Sexton (23.2 points and 3.8 assists) has been stellar for the Crimson Tide while Eric Paschall (10.0 points and 8.2 rebounds) has made solid contributions to the Wildcats. “But they didn’t miss shots”. “Just to make sure we come into this game ready and that’s what we did”. Jalen Hudson had 16 points and Chris Chiozza had 11 assists.

Buffalo’s Jeremy Harris drives around Arizona’s Deandre Ayton during the first half. DiVincenzo didn’t score in the second half but his teammates did their part. Villanova had to go deep into the shot clock on most possessions. Nova had 27 second-half shots with just under six minutes left in the game.

Williams had tinkered with his team’s defensive approach after giving up 84 points to Miami in a loss February 3, and it paid off with low-scoring wins over Clemson, Virginia and Duke over the final month of the season.

The Wildcats’ run to start the second half all but eliminated the chance of a comeback.

Having attracted that group and drawn national attention to Alabama basketball is yet another challenge surmounted by Johnson, who coached the Mavericks to the NBA Final and stood strong through some rough years with the Nets.

MUST-SEE MATCHUP: It’s the battle of the star point guards when Villanova’s Jalen Brunson faces Alabama’s Collin Sexton. He drew a technical foul with 5:21 to go and was pulled by Johnson. From the bench, Sexton got a good look at what it must feel like to watch Alabama pummel, say, Coastal Carolina inside Bryant-Denny Stadium on a Saturday in the fall.

Come back for more on this game. Egor Koulechov finished with 20 points, four threes and six rebounds.

“These coaches prepare us for stuff like this”, Sexton said.

Sexton did make five of Alabama’s 15 turnovers.

Sexton isn’t wrong. The Tide rank 18th in the nation in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency defensive rankings, and in big wins this season, it has often been the defense that has shined-50 points allowed in a win against Florida, 50 points allowed in a win against Tennessee and 63 points allowed in a win against Auburn.

Alabama is in the Big Dance for only the second time this decade – it’s tough to win at a such a huge football school – and is in the second round for the first time since 2006, when the Tide lost to UCLA.

Not exactly the last impression someone wants to make before turning pro, and probably not the type of image the University of Alabama wants to project to the rest of the country after making it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.

Johnson was looking upward and onward afterward.

“That’s the way you do it”, Booth said. “You can learn, and we learned a lot”.