No. 11 seed North Carolina made a statement on Tuesday in the First Four with a near record-setting 95-68 win over No. 11 seed San Diego State to advance to the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Despite UNC's controversial inclusion in the tournament over other bubble teams like Indiana,

Chris Beard and the Ole Miss Rebels will open NCAA Tournament play on Friday afternoon in a clash against the North Carolina Tar Heels at 3:05 p.m. CT in Milwaukee. The Rebels, who won 22 games during the 2024-25 regular season including 10 in the SEC,

The Tar Heels lost to No. 1 Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals, but have won eight of their past 10 games and are playing their best basketball of the season.

For a few minutes, it looked like the Tar Heels were going to validate their critics. They committed turnovers on four of their first six possessions against a San Diego State defense ranked 13th in the country on KenPom. UNC's offense should have been good enough to hang with that unit, but it was a bad beginning.