The Tar Heels delivered a message to their critics with an easy victory vs. the Aztecs on the first night of the NCAA Tournament

Alabama State kicked off the 2025 edition of March Madness with a thrilling 70-68 win over Saint Francis (PA) and North Carolina dominates San Diego State 95-68 in First Four games.

McNeeley and the eighth-seeded Huskies will take on the ninth-seeded Oklahoma Sooners in the first round of March Madness. This first-round matchup of the NCAA Tournament will be played in Raliegh, North Carolina, on Friday at 9:25 PM EST.

In the first game No. 16 St. Francis (PA) will square off with No. 16 Alabama State, with a trip to Kentucky to take on the top overall seed Auburn on the line. In the second game, No. 11 North Carolina — a surprising inclusion in the tournament — takes on No.

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.

The First Four has been around since 2011 and features the last four automatic qualifiers and last four at-large bids playing to whittle the field from 68 to 64. This year will see two 16-seed vs. 16-seed matchups and two 11-seed vs. 11-seed matchups, but don’t write these games off because they involve double-digit seeds.