UNC’s Ian Jackson is gearing up for his first March Madness tournament with the Tar Heels. UNC finished the season winning 22 of its 35 games, good enough for fourth in the ACC. The Tar Heels were given the 11th seed in the tournament and kicked off their tournament Tuesday night against San Diego State.
Unfortunately, UNC’s selection to the March Madness tournament field caused a lot of criticism online. Jackson recently responded to criticism of UNC’s selection, with the likes of Indiana, West Virginia, and Ohio State missing the tournament altogether.
Ian Jackson Responds To Criticism Over March Madness Seeding
“I seen some of it,” Jackson said. “Everybody has an opinion of what should’ve happened or shouldn’t happen. But we’re here. We’re here. Now it’s time to play basketball.” Jackson is focused on UNC’s First Four game against San Diego State rather than listening to the noise of social media.
Jackson has other important challenges to face right now, too, including celebrating Ramadan. The toughest part for Jackson will be fasting and not being able to eat from sunrise to sundown.
“For me, I would say it’s been rough,” Jackson said. “How should I say it? This fast is going to be looked at as a burden. This is something that we do to get closer to God. So, for me, it’s been good… This is my third year fasting …
“We fast during the day between sunrise and sundown… You can’t have pork. We don’t eat pork. So, pork is off the table, but we just eat food… Nothing. No, you can’t drink. So, it’s nothing during the day.”
Unfortunately for the University of North Carolina, Jackson isn’t the only one hearing all the criticism and noise. His teammate, Seth Trimble made his statement about the noise about North Carolina making the tournament with other powerhouses not.
“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Trimble said. “I think we’ve all kind of felt the hate, the disagreement, all that, from everybody outside of the Carolina family and fan base … “We’re just running with it. We definitely feel like we’ve got something to prove. We wanted to be better this year, but we deal with the cards at hand. So, absolutely.”
Star RJ Davis also made his presence felt on the hotbed topic of the University of North Carolina making the tournament while other teams didn’t get picked.
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“Yeah, 100 percent,” Davis said. “For us to be considered an 11 (seed) and to have people asking, do you think you’re a tournament team, that irks my soul because I know we are, and I know what we’re capable of. It’s really just about proving ourselves right (rather) than people wrong.”
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