FORT WORTH, Texas — Writer's Note: Blaming the officiating crew for an outcome a game is a lazy, tired path and ... sometimes the path of least resistance is the correct one.
The officiating in the Round of 32 game between North Carolina and Baylor was so bad that every player and coach involved would be within their rights to sue.
If any of these officials calls any of the remaining NCAA Tournament games, the only explanation is that the NCAA is out of refs, much like our schools can't find teachers.
Both teams feel like they were ripped off by a crew that lost any control of the game early, and they wouldn't be wrong.
By the time North Carolina forward Brady Manek was ejected for a throwing elbow while he was boxing out on a rebound in the second half any sense of consistency was gone, and makeup calls were on top of the menu.
North Carolina/Baylor was not #MarchMadness. North Carolina/Baylor was #MarchMaelstrom.
The game was a wreck. The game was an entertaining wreck. The game was a wreck North Carolina won.
Despite blowing a 25-point lead in the second half, the Tar Heels defeated Baylor, 93-86 in overtime.
Had Baylor rallied to win, it would have been the biggest comeback in NCAA Tournament history.
"Both teams were very physical. Both teams attacked the basket, and none of us wanted to go home," Carolina coach Hubert Davis said when I asked him what he thought of the officiating. "Two teams that were fighting and scratching and kicking on every shot."
Those are some expensive verbs, and he's not exaggerating.
The moment the NCAA designated North Carolina as an eight-seed in the same bracket as top-seeded Baylor, something was up.
Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams could write a 90-page dissertation on why North Carolina should never have been an eight-seed for the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
North Carolina is an eight-seed the way the New York Yankees are a cute little underdog.
The last time we saw an eight-seed this talented was 2013; that was when Kentucky was an eight-seed and defeated top-seeded Wichita State in the second round of that season's tournament. Kentucky made the national title game that year.
Alas, on Saturday morning in Fort Worth there was one of the top blue blood college basketball programs masquerading as an eight-seed, beating a No. 1 seed, defending national champion Baylor.
It's a tough sell to feel any Hallmark-card sympathy for a national champion, but between these last two NCAA Tournaments Baylor missed out.
Every team from the L.A. Lakers, L.A. Dodgers, Tampa Bay Lightning et al., that won a title under COVID-19 conditions missed out on the normal experience. Baylor is in the same category.
Every title won during the time of COVID will eventually be regarded as the same as any other, but these were also not the same.
Baylor was the best team in college basketball last season, and, thanks to our good friend that will never go away, COVID, the entire season was hardly the same as any other.
Arenas were not allowed to be full. Games were canceled. Games were crammed in while teams often had to play with rosters beset by positive COVID tests, or worse, contact tracing.
The entire NCAA Tournament was held in and around Indianapolis, but the respective arenas were not allowed to be sold out in that farcical "bubble" environment.
There were no crowded hotels full of bands, cheerleaders and fans to party before and after the game.
Scared of positive COVID tests, teams just clung to themselves and celebrated publicly six-feet apart.
Baylor's win over Gonzaga in the 2021 national title game left zero room for conversation that the Bears were anything but the best team in the nation.
But something was missing, a point that Baylor senior forward Matthew Mayer mentioned this week.
There was nothing anybody could do about it, and the whole thing felt off.
Because it was off.
To Baylor's credit, despite injuries and player departures, it came back this season to claim a share of a second straight Big 12 title, and earned this No. 1 seed.
It couldn't do anything about COVID.
It couldn't do anything about their draw in the second round. Baylor and North Carolina should never have been a No. 1 vs. a No. 8.
If Baylor plays North Carolina 10 times, the series finishes 5-5.
The painful beauty, and charm, of this tournament is that it's a one-and-done.
Nothing can ever take away from Baylor's national championship year, or this season, even if some things just felt off about all of it.
