The North Carolina Tar Heels were one of the last teams to sneak into the men’s March Madness tournament bracket on an at-large bid.

Their inclusion in the tournament field—which, inherently, meant the exclusion of another team—raised flags and critiques from figures inside and outside of the world of college basketball. Screeds on X (formerly Twitter) and takes on First Take were levied at the selection committee. The governor of West Virginia weighed in. It was a whole thing.

On Tuesday night, however, the Tar Heels proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they did indeed belong in the tournament field, laying an absolute trouncing on San Diego State in their First Four matchup.

The Tar Heels jumped out to a 22–11 lead in the first 10 minutes that stretched to a 47–23 lead by halftime. By the time the game ended, North Carolina hit an NCAA tournament-record 14 three-pointers in the 95-68 win.

This thing was never close.

As it became extremely clear that North Carolina had heard the college basketball world talking smack and was responding on the court, fans online had some fun, acknowledging that "O.K., yeah, the Tar Heels belonged here."

North Carolina's victory on Tuesday night set up a matchup against 6-seed Ole Miss on Thursday.

Let the madness of March begin.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as North Carolina Absolutely Dominated San Diego State and Basketball Fans Had Jokes.