North Carolina Basketball: 3 keys for Round of 32 matchup against Baylor

By Bryan Mauro | Mar 19, 2022

Mar 17, 2022; Fort Worth, TX, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Dontrez Styles (3) reacts after dunking against the Marquette Golden Eagles during the second half during the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament at Dickies Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports /

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North Carolina Basketball Leaky Black Nell Redmond-USA TODAY Sports /

A month ago, North Carolina Basketball was questionable for the tournament, something tells me they would have gotten in but it may have been a lower seed. The Tar Heels took care of that though when they beat Duke to close the year and that locked up a bid for North Carolina. That also improved their seeding by line. The Tar Heels took their improved seed and ran with it as they won their first-round game to set them up with a showdown with the East Region 1 seed the Baylor Bears.

North Carolina dismantled Marquette in the first round and it was North Carolina that we have seen this year as they were hitting shots, rebounding, and working the ball inside out. Caleb Love was hitting shots all over the place and Marquette had no answer for the Tar Heels. The competition gets a lot more difficult as they face the defending National Champions the Baylor Bears. North Carolina and head coach Hubert Davis are going to have to find some sort of consistency to beat Baylor.

How is North Carolina going to beat Baylor? Can they even keep it close? It is possible for North Carolina to keep this game close and the NCAA tournament is extremely unpredictable. Anything can happen in this format; it only takes one good night and an off night for your opponent.

Baylor is very good, but North Carolina does have the ability to keep this game close and win it if things go right. Here are the three things that the Tar Heels must do in order to get this accomplished.

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