North Carolina Tar Heels NCAA Basketball Betting
As it turned out, the experts were right. The North Carolina Tar Heels did not belong in the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina was given what many believed to be an unjustified berth in the First Four of the tournament. The Tar Heels did win their First Four matchup against San Diego State in a blowout and admitted they were fired up to prove everyone wrong. But in the first round against the Ole Miss Rebels, North Carolina could not keep up and was exposed. Head coach Hubert Davis is under fire after his fourth season. Davis led UNC to the 2022 national championship game but has overseen an erosion of a blue blood program.
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2025 North Carolina Tar Heels Season Recap
Overall, the North Carolina Tar Heels are 23-13 straight up, 12-19-1 against the spread, and 16-15 over/under the total. North Carolina has national metrics of 25th for scoring offense, 33rd for field goal percentage, 102nd for 3-point field goal percentage, 116th for free throw percentage, and 118th for offensive rebounding. While defensively, North Carolina is 299th for scoring defense, 173rd for field goal percentage permitted, 256th for 3-point field goal percentage allowed, and 183rd for defensive rebounding.
Lately, North Carolina has covered eight of its previous ten games and has gone over the total in one of its last seven outings. RJ Davis is first among North Carolina scorers with 17.4 points per game.
Sean Pedulla had 20 points, and Dre Davis added 15 as sixth-seeded Ole Miss staved off 11th-seeded North Carolina’s second-half rally for a 71-64 victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament’s South Region on Friday.
With the win, Ole Miss advanced to the second round. North Carolina, which trailed by 22 early in the second half, closed within 66-64 on RJ Davis’ three-point play with 1:09 left. Pedulla countered with a 3-pointer from the top left to make it 69-64.
The Tar Heels missed a 3-pointer on their next possession and Pedulla hit a pair of free throws to push the lead to 71-64 with 34.3 seconds left. North Carolina missed its final six shots.
Davis had 15 points and Ven-Allen Lubin 14 for the Tar Heels, who shot 38.1 percent from the field and made just 5 of 24 attempts from 3-point range (20.8 percent).
The Tar Heels got back in it with an 11-0 run, pulling within 63-59 with just over five minutes on a thunderous dunk by Jalen Washington with just over five minutes left.
North Carolina missed layups on its next three possessions before Pedulla scored on a drive to put Ole Miss up 65-59 with 2:56 remaining.
Ole Miss led 44-26 at the half and stretched it to 50-28 on a jumper from the paint by Jaemyn Brakefield with 17:48 left.
The Tar Heels cut the lead to 56-43 on a turning one-hander from the lane by Washington, but Pedulla answered with a three-point play at the other end.
Ole Miss hit 11 of its first 14 shots, including six of seven beyond the arc, for a double-digit lead midway through the first half. Davis’ jumper from the paint put The Rebels up 29-14 with just over nine minutes remaining.
The Rebels hit just one of their final nine shots of the half but still shot 51.9 percent, including 7 of 13 from deep (53.8 percent). Ole Miss had 10 assists on its 14 first-half field goals.
Ole Miss never trailed and seemed on the way to a blowout win for much of the day.
“Every category, every angle in regards to physicality, they not only won in the first half - they dominated us,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “There were only two choices coming out in the second half, either to respond with that same type of fight or get embarrassed.”
Latest NCAA Tournament Results
| YEAR |
RESULT |
| 2025 |
Lost First Round vs. (6) Ole Miss 64–71 |
| 2024 |
Lost Sweet Sixteen vs. (4) Alabama 87–89 |
| 2022 |
Lost National Championship vs. (1) Kansas, 69–72 |
| 2021 |
Lost First Round vs. (9) Wisconsin, 62–85 |
| 2019 |
Lost Sweet Sixteen vs. (5) Auburn, 80–97 |
| 2018 |
Lost Second Round vs. (7) Texas A&M, 65–86 |
| 2017 |
Won National Championship vs. (1) Gonzaga, 71–65 |
| 2016 |
Lost National Championship vs. (2) Villanova, 74–77 |
2024-2025 NCAA Basketball Top Teams
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