Alabama From Stands, GAs Identified UNC Plays Crimson Tide Alerted…

Alabama defeated North Carolina in an 89-87 classic, knocking the Tar Heels out of the NCAA Tournament as the first No. 1-seed to fall. The Crimson Tide, which punched its ticket to its second Elite Eight in school history, received critical help from the stands during that March Madness shootout as graduate assistants identified UNC’s play calls and shouted them out towards the Crimson Tide bench and players, per Tar Heel Tribune’s R.L. Bynum. College basketball graduate assistants often fulfill similar duties to those of student managers, and Alabama coach Nate Oats said after the win over UNC that the Crimson Tide’s group aids in putting together scouting videos on upcoming opponents.

“We rely on our GAs a lot,” Oats said at Friday’s pre-Elite Eight media availability. “And they’re good. They help with a lot. They help put the scouting, they help the assistant in charge of the scout put the video together. So they’re working ahead because I’m not going to look at the next team until we are done playing the current team. But they are. They’re working ahead all the time.

“They’ve got everything ready to hand to the assistant in charge of it when they need to. Goes from everything, trying to listen to the video with the sound up, trying to get play calls off the sound. And looking at hand signals to get play calls. They’ve got all in their head. They try to teach it to everybody, but they know it pretty well.”

UNC built multiple leads in the Sweet 16 matchup but squandered those advantages in a game that went back-and-forth for much of the second half. Alabama locked in defensively during that period, limiting the Tar Heels to just 33 points in that frame after surrendering 51 before the break.

Poor shooting from beyond the arc proved costly for UNC, as it connected at just a 25% clip in the second half — its worst single-half shooting performance in an NCAA Tournament game since 2012. ACC Player of the Year R.J. Davis went 0-of-9 from deep. That marked the most attempts without a conversion in his career, and it was the first time this season he finished a game without a 3-pointer.

“In the course of the game we chart a lot of things, offensive and defensive efficiency,” Oats said. “They’re (the GAs) charting that. Paint touches, different things we’ve got. I get an offensive sheet, a defensive sheet, a blue-collar sheet and the general stats. I’ve got four sheets of paper in my hand every timeout, and they’re responsible for three of those four — the offensive, defensive and the blue-collar one.”

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UNC’s NCAA Exit, Season-Ending Finality Hit RJ Davis Hard

LOS ANGELES — In the hushed despair of the locker room space where the Los Angeles Lakers typically reside, with North Carolina teammate Seth Trimble trying to sniff back tears one stall over, RJ Davis quietly was absorbing the unwanted absoluteness of season-ending defeat.

The Tar Heels’ 89-87 loss to Alabama in the West Region semifinals of the NCAA Tournament at Crypto.com Arena had been a personal disaster for the star senior guard, bringing perhaps the final curtain of his college career.

“I don’t really know,” Davis said late Thursday night here, with the hour nearing 1 a.m. on the East Coast, when asked about his thoughts on the possibility of returning to UNC for a fifth season. “I haven’t even thought about it. I haven’t even put that into a thought of what that would look like, just because I’ve been living in the present moment. I don’t really know what to say or how to answer that question right now.”

The present suddenly had evaporated into the past, though. Davis, who set a UNC record with 113 successful 3-pointers this season, missed all of his nine attempts beyond the arc against high-scoring Alabama, and the down-in-flames nature of his 4-for-20 struggle from the field in the No. 1 seed Tar Heels’ narrow loss hit him hard.

There was no One Shining Moment glory to be found for the ACC Player of the Year and consensus first-team All-American, only agony. Thursday night marked the first time across 37 games this season that Davis didn’t connect on a 3-pointer. Even his extremely rough 1-for-14 shooting during Carolina’s grinning victory at Virginia in late February contained one 3-point make.

What about this Sweet 16 loss might linger in his mind when he looks back?

“I just wasn’t good enough,” Davis said. “I didn’t make enough shots. Came up short, so I could’ve done better. And it hurts. Because I know it won’t be the same group, and you’re not going to get this type of group back again. So it’s tough to put into perspective.”

And astonishingly, he became linked with former teammate Caleb Love yet again. Love went 5-for-18 from the field, bogged down by an identical 0-for-9 doughnut from 3-point range, as No. 2 seed Arizona fell to Clemson 77-72 in Thursday night’s first West Region semifinal game, before the Tar Heels took the court here at the former Staples Center. Hours later, UNC was bounced, the first No. 1 seed to bow out of this NCAA Tournament.

The 2022-23 squad returned four starters in search of redemption from a national championship loss several months prior. Infamously, the team didn’t meet the lofty preseason expectations and missed the NCAA tournament all together.

But this season’s team pursued a different kind of redemptive arc. Five transfers — four of whom also missed the 2023 NCAA Tournament — and two freshmen were added to join Trimble, Washington, Davis and Armando Bacot for a bounce-back year.

Chemistry developed quickly once summer workouts began. Everyone was united in their goals from the start. The competitive edge was evident in practice, but the off-court relationships furthered UNC’s ability to gel.

“All the laughs at the dinner tables, the conversations that we had day in and day out, the bond from walk-ons to star players,” Jae’Lyn Withers said. “I think it’s just been great.”

Withers then took a reflective pause for about seven seconds to further collect his thoughts before continuing his answer.

“Just crazy that we did all this in the first year of being together,” he added.