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

The 2025 men’s NCAA Tournament has officially begun with the First Four. (11) North Carolina used a barrage of 3-pointers to rout (11) San Diego State after (16) Alabama State beat (16) Saint Francis 70-68 on Amarr Knox's layup with one second left.

Before the tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2011, there used to be a single opening-round game between No. 16 seeds just to get in the actual tournament. But with the enhanced TV deal with Turner Sports and CBS that was set to start back in 2011, the NCAA worked to take a different approach with the First Four.

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.