March Madness: Importance of Manek felt in shaky second half

After a very questionable ejection of Brady Manek, we saw first-hand just how important the senior forward is to the UNC basketball program, especially during March Madness. 

In their second-round March Madness matchup against No. 1 seed Baylor, the UNC basketball program was flat-out DOMINATING!

Brady Manek had a huge role in that, as he helped lead the Tar Heels to a 25-point cushion over the defending national champions.

Over the first 30 minutes of game action, Manek was simply on fire. The senior scored 26 points on eight of 13 shooting, including four made triples. He was the sparkplug for the team’s ability to create a significant lead against the Bears and provided a huge energy boost that Baylor did not match up to that point.

However, this is where things turned for the worst for North Carolina, as they had to play the final 10 minutes without their senior forward.

As seen in the above play, Manek was crashing the offensive glass and elbowed Jeremy Sochan. What should’ve been a Flagrant 1 call ended up being a very questionable Flagrant 2, which led to Manek’s ejection.

Social media went furious over the call, as the same group of Tar Heels fans watched Caleb Love get purposely head locked in their first-round matchup against Marquette, which only resulted in a Flagrant 1 call. As we all thought that this would be the worst call of the game, the referees quickly and continually showed us that we were wrong.

And here’s where the game went south for the UNC basketball program.

The loss of Manek was a gut-puncher for North Carolina, and Baylor added momentum off of it. With the officiating favoring their Big 12 opponent, the Tar Heels were called for 10 consecutive fouls in what boldly stood out as a one-sided affair from the referees.

With momentum and the officials on their side, Baylor fought back, as they erased the 25-point deficit that looked at one point as if it would be way too much to overcome. The Bears outscored the Tar Heels 38-13 en route to forcing overtime.

The game should not have come to this point by any means, but man did it show just how valuable Brady Manek is to this year’s squad.

When Manek was absent from the floor, it clearly impacted this team. Not only did it take one of its most lethal scorers out of the equation, but his leadership and calm presence were also very much missed.

I think I’ve said this line about 10000000 times since he arrived in Chapel Hill, but we are truly lucky to have Brady Manek as a Tar Heel, even if it’s for only one season.

You could make the case that no player, of course, that only spent one season on campus, had made as drastic of an impact as Brady Manek has. He is a very unique basketball player and a tremendous person off of it, and you can tell just how valued he is to this program just based on the final 10 minutes of regulation as well as the five-minute overtime period.

Don’t worry though, Manek’s teammates got the job done (even though we all now have high blood pressure!). Manek will NOT be suspended further, as he’ll be available for the team’s upcoming Sweet 16 matchup.

You already know that the Tar Heels players are very excited that they not only were able to hold on to win the game but now have another chance to play alongside beloved teammate Brady Manek.

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