While North Carolina's addition to the NCAA Tournament was deemed controversial, there is no denying the program's March pedigree and it was evident in record First Four television ratings on Tuesday.

North Carolina demolishes San Diego State 95-68 in a game possibly energized by debate over their tournament inclusion. Jon Rothstein joins to recap the action.

Despite the controversy surrounding their selection into the NCAA Tournament, the North Carolina Tar Heels’ play proved worthy of a postseason berth. UNC (23-13) routed San Diego State (21-10) in the second game of the First Four play-in round in Dayton on Tuesday night,

Alabama State and North Carolina both won in Tuesday's March Madness First Four games, albeit in different ways. Scores, highlights, results and more:

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 last at-large team in the NCAA field, UNC couldn’t replicate its wire-to-wire spirited play from its First-Four win. The 11th-seeded Tar Heels fell behind early to No. 6 Ole Miss and never fully recovered.