MILWAUKEE — You could feel the pain in North Carolina’s locker room after an all-too-familiar horror show. Yet again, UNC trailed by 21 early in the second half and looked lost and lethargic. Yet again, the Tar Heels reeled off a spirited late rally to sneak within two. Yet again, North Carolina found itself on the losing end of a heartbreaker. This time, Friday’s 71-64 loss to Ole Miss ended UNC’s season in the Round of 64.
Was this the second game of the year or the 37th? It didn’t feel much different.
“If there had to be one end to this season, that would be it,” guard Seth Trimble said.
All junior forward Cade Tyson could do was sit and watch what had to feel like a replay. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Not for North Carolina, the team. Not for Tyson, the player.
North Carolina sneaking into the First Four wasn’t the move for a group ranked in the preseason top 10. A first-round exit was not why Tyson signed up for North Carolina as a prized transfer out of Belmont (No. 34 overall). And with UNC’s season on the brink, Tyson was in his normal seat: the eighth folding chair on the bench, mostly out of coach Hubert Davis’ rotation after a year of struggling with his shot, struggling on defense and working through the confidence issues that are almost inevitable when you become in some ways the microcosm of a season that did not pan out.
Even with Jae’Lyn Withers sidelined with a painful ankle injury, Tyson did not play in a single second in the second half when North Carolina needed offense in the worst way and small-ball reigned supreme.
Guard Elliot Cadeau may have described UNC’s season as “a success,” but this tradition-rich program has far loftier goals than winning a play-in game. It’s not on one player, but one reason North Carolina’s season fell short of their standard centered around Tyson not becoming the player Hubert Davis envisioned when he inked the second-team, All-Missouri Valley transfer last spring for what sources estimate was a high-end, six-figure NIL deal. Tennessee was the runner-up in the recruitment.
So here Tyson sits in the corner of UNC’s locker room alone, scrolling his phone to kill time and wondering the same thing everyone else in UNC country is thinking: how did this happen?
“I’m sad, man,” Tyson tells CBS Sports. “Disappointed that we couldn’t go farther in the tournament as a team. Individually, I felt like it was a really tough year for me. I would never say I’m happy it’s over. You hate to see it end. You always just want another chance. Unfortunately, we don’t get that. I’m just more disappointed than anything.”
Tyson averaged just 2.7 points in his first season at Chapel Hill. Tyson and Auburn’s JP Pegues were the only two transfers in the 247Sports’ Top 100 from the 2024 haul who averaged less than three points per game this season.
The ruthless, sobering reality of a lost season had not fully set in yet. Tyson admitted he felt a little helpless as UNC’s season finished as it started.
“As a competitor, I am never content,” Tyson says. “I want to be out there with our team. I trust our coaching staff. They know what they’re doing. I’m in their hands at the end of the day. I trust them. I believe in them.”
The 2025 transfer portal window opens on Monday. The speculation is abuzz and stay-or-go decisions will be made shortly.
“We’ll see, I’m not completely sure,” Tyson said when asked if he planned to return to North Carolina next season. “I do like it here. I never regret coming here.”
Trimble bemoaned the ‘lifeless’ first half. Big man Ven-Allen Lubin said he believed UNC was “surprised” by Ole Miss’ first punch. Hubert Davis acknowledged a “frustrating” end while simultaneously praising the resolve and respectfully side-stepping a portal question he knew was coming — who on the team was staying, who was going and what the window may look like.
“That’s something I have not thought about at all,” Davis said. “My anticipation was for us to play extremely well today and win and play Iowa State on Sunday.”
Inside the bowels of Fiserv Forum, R.J. Davis couldn’t hold back the tears. Trimble thanked all the seniors, including the legendary RJ, who taught him the ropes three years ago.
The end is always cruel and this one was no different. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that UNC was one player away from potentially making a real run. He wouldn’t have fixed some of UNC’s interior defensive issues, but Tyson was a guy who was supposed to be a big help. Tyson was transparent about the mental tax a season gone awry can manufacture.
“I felt like I never really got a rhythm on the court,” Tyson says. “I feel like I need to work harder. My confidence wavered too much this year. That’s something I have to work on.”
Maybe in more ways than one, Tyson hopes to leave that eighth chair on the bench behind for good.
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