Charles Barkley says Duke, North Carolina serve as warnings for teams playing on second day of Round 1
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The first day of the NCAA Tournament is one of the most exciting days on the sports calendar. And, unsurprisingly, it lived up to the billing again this year. We saw a thrilling opener between Ohio State and TCU, great upsets from High Point and VCU, and countless other close contests.
Every game on day one provides lessons for the teams who play on day two. In Charles Barkley’s opinion, the biggest advice for today’s teams came from a pair of bluebloods: Duke and North Carolina.
“There’s two ways [playing on day two] is an advantage… you can use Duke… as a high seed, and say, ‘guys, we got to come out ready to play on the jump ball,” Barkley said on CBS’ pregame show. “These teams, they’re gonna come out full of energy… but also, you can say, ‘guys, did you see what happened to UNC last night? These guys had a 19-point lead. We can’t screw around. We get the lead, don’t relax.'”
Duke, the No. 1 overall seed, fell down 43-32 to No. 16 Siena at halftime on Thursday. North Carolina, a No. 6 seed, lost to No. 11 seed VCU in overtime after leading by nearly 20 points. Louisville almost blew a massive lead to South Florida in another 6/11 matchup. Any team hoping to advance today, as Chuck mentioned, would be wise to heed the warnings that yesterday provided.
