March Madness: Tar Heels set all-time NCAA Tournament record

March Madness indeed! The North Carolina Tar Heels set an all-time NCAA Tournament record in their blowout victory over Marquette.

The North Carolina Tar Heels put on a performance to remember on Thursday afternoon, beating the Marquette Golden Eagles in convincing fashion en route to a berth in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 where they will take on the top-seeded defending national champion Baylor Bears.

After taking a commanding 53-25 lead into halftime, the Tar Heels continued to pour it on in the game’s final 20 minutes. They actually extended the 28-point advantage they held at the break and beat Shaka Smart’s squad 95-63.

Not only was it the most impressive and dominant showing of the day, but the Tar Heels’ 32-point spread over the outmatched Golden Eagles was actually the most in the history of the NCAA Tournament’s 8/9 game.

https://twitter.com/MarchMadnessMBB/status/1504600211469045762

Entering this year’s tournament, the 8/9 game is the most even of all first-round matchups, with 9-seeds holding a 73-71 edge over 8-seeds. It stands to reason, assuming that the NCAA Selection Committee does their job correctly, that these would be historically even matchups and closely contested games.

In the case of the Tar Heels and Golden Eagles, though, it simply didn’t pan out that way. From very early in the game, North Carolina took a commanding lead and simply never let up. Now, the Hubert Davis-led squad will try to replicate its first-round performance in order to beat a Baylor team that is currently undermanned but battle-tested and up for the challenge regardless of their current circumstances.

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