North Carolina had a 52-41 rebounding edge, had 19 assists to Miami’s 11, made 18 of 23 free throws to Miami’s 7-13. The Tar Heels outrebounded Miami 27-16 after halftime, had 13 assists to Miami’s five and made 10 of 13 from the foul line to 6-11 for Miami.
There were a lot of complaints from the Hurricanes fan base on social media about the foul discrepancy. Miami committed 20 fouls to North Carolina’s 13. Most of that came in the first half though. Miami was tagged with 10 first-half fouls to the Tar Heels four. That’s not why Miami lost the game though.
Settling after getting out to the big lead, not sharing the ball enough, poor decisions at the end of the shot clock and a lack of interior defense did Miami in. You can also blame a bad draw. The Hurricanes finished third and had to play six seeded North Carolina.
Four seeded Clemson played 12th seed Boston College in the quarterfinals. They were slated to play North Carolina State if the seeds held up. The fifth-seeded Wolfpack were upset by the Eagles.
Miami now awaits its fate like the rest of the country. As of yesterday morning, Miami was the lowest sixth seed in the consensus Bracket Matrix. They are likely to drop from there.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi dropped the Hurricanes from a six to a seven seed after the loss. CBSSports.Com’s Jerry Palm updated his brackets last night after the Hurricanes loss. Palm still has Miami as a six seed.