North Carolina (33-2) will face No. 9 seed Arkansas (23-11), who dominated eighth-seeded Indiana, winning 86-72 on Friday night. Arkansas has been here before. Maybe not in Raleigh, N.C., home of Sunday’s East Regional second round game at RBC Arena but Arkansas has faced numero-uno nine times over its own storied history and one of those was in 1984 against an undefeated Tar Heels team led by Michael Jordon. Arkansas won. None of the experts are predicting Arkansas to win this game including oddsmakers at Bodoglife.com having installed North Carolina as an 11 1/2-point favorite with a 158 total.
The Heels and Hogs have played six times, splitting the all-time series 3-3. North Carolina won the first two in 1979 and 1980 but fell in 1984. That loss ended a 21-game winning streak and an 11-game road winning streak. The last three meetings between the two teams have come in the NCAA Tournament; North Carolina holds a 1-2 record. Their Cinderella run in 1990 was ended by Arkansas in the Sweet 16 in 1990; Carolina defeated Arkansas in 1993 in the Sweet 16; Carolina lost to Arkansas in the Final Four in 1995.
The Tar Heels beat Mount St. Mary's 113-74 Friday night, scoring the most points in an NCAA Tournament game by a Carolina team since 1993 (112 against Rhode Island). It tied the second-most points in an NCAA Tournament game by a Carolina time ever (113 against Penn in 1987; the most was 123 against Loyola Marymount in 1988). Carolina is now 22-1 in NCAA Tournament games played in North Carolina and 6-1 in Raleigh.
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