On Saturday afternoon, while trying to figure out why exactly I’m paying money, separately, to both ESPN and YouTube TV for the ability not to watch ESPN on YouTube TV, my phone took a brief break from its usual job of engulfing me in a never-ending scroll of terror and doom to inform me, via pop-up notification, that North Carolina had beaten Stanford 20-15.

Oh, good, I thought, before I even had a second to process the grotesque, flagrantly venal and immoral thought that had just entered my brain, uninvited, out of nowhere, That’s a nice win for them. They’re getting better.

I paused, shook my head left and right and popped myself on the right ear with my palm, hard, like I was trying to get water out of my brain. I ran to the bathroom, splashed water on my face and stared hard into the mirror, trying to understand the monstrosity I now saw before me.

Did I just cheer for Bill Belichick?

I think I did.

What have I become?

We live in an age of crumbling institutions, of an increasing, almost overwhelming, lack of faith in expertise, experience and accomplishment. If you have spent your life dedicated to the study of something, everything you thought you understood has been called into question. It can leave you disoriented and lost — like you no longer have any idea what is up or down. It is common during a time like this to cling to the simple things, to let what you know to be true serve as your constant, the fixed point on the horizon that allows you to get your bearings. The sky is blue. Gravity exists. Ice cream tastes good.

And Bill Belichick is a great football coach.

I mean, this is true, right? Whatever your thoughts about Tom Brady’s contributions to the Belichick legacy — and I’m fully aware we’re perpetually a couple of news cycles away from “Was Tom Brady actually a good quarterback?” scrolling under Colin Cowherd’s head — can’t we all agree that Belichick knows a lot about football? He was the NFL Coach of the Year three times and surely deserved it more. He is the third-winningest head coach of all time. He won his division as head coach 17 times. He won eight Super Bowls, six as a head coach. Nick Saban is a part of his coaching tree!

And more to the point: He is Bill Belichick. He has served as the signature football coach for 25 years now, the genius, the hoodie, the boogeyman. In a league designed, through salary caps and roster turnover, to discourage dynasties, he found a way, every year, to put together a great team. His players may have despised him and feared him, he might have been the most truly disliked figure in American sports, he dressed like he had just fallen off a train, but he always, always won. He’s Bill Belichick! It’s all he cared about in the world.

There’s a great moment in the documentary “A Football Life: Bill Belichick” when Belichick, touring the bowels of Giants Stadium before it met the wrecking ball, speaks about his early days as an assistant to Bill Parcells, of sitting in dark, smelly coaching rooms, watching endless game tapes, eating disgusting food, sleeping 20 minutes a night, ignoring friends, family and the outside world, basically just living the most miserable life possible in the name of trying to win football games. Reflecting on all that, Belichick, for the only time I can ever remember, got emotional and nearly burst into tears. Over watching game tape in the basement.

Who knows more about football than Bill Belichick? Who could possibly?

Thus: To see how his North Carolina tenure began was wildly disorienting. Remember the Tar Heels’ first game this season, that Labor Day night game against TCU, the one with Michael Jordan and Lawrence Taylor sitting together in the box and the Chapel Hill crowd going nuts? Remember that first drive, when North Carolina drove down the field, unabated, on its first possession and scored a touchdown? Admit it: There was a moment there, right after that drive, that the world made sense. Sure, college football was a new challenge for Belichick, but sheesh, he’s still Bill Belichick. This guy took down the Greatest Show on Turf; you think he’s gonna struggle with Josh Hoover? North Carolina has the guy who has won more Super Bowls than anyone. Of course the Tar Heels would be good. There was order to the universe.

And then, immediately following that play: They were not good. They were very, very not good. As Stewart Mandel predicted last December, Belichick did not quite understand what he was getting into — “It’s delusional to think Belichick will show up, flash his rings and suddenly North Carolina will start producing more high-end NFL players than Georgia or Ohio State” looked particularly prescient. As North Carolina lost four in a row, the ugly stories started coming out. The program didn’t just look like a second-tier one; it looked like an abject disaster.

This led to an outpouring of good old-fashioned schadenfreude. People have been waiting to pile on Belichick for decades, for reasons built up both on and off the field. And I — like most of you — had a difficult time working up much sympathy for Belichick. Age is undefeated, but so is hubris: One of the best things about sports is that you can never rest on your laurels, that you’re only as good as your next game. Belichick was losing, and when you treat people the way Belichick has reportedly treated people throughout his career, your fall will bring out all the haters who never dared say anything when you were on top. All the people you treated like losers now get to treat you like one. I get it. And I didn’t mind, not really. This is how it works. It was his turn.

But still: Bill Belichick, a legend, ending his career in gossip, dysfunction and failure? And worse, like a guy who has no idea what he’s doing? The whole thing had end of “Tar” vibes to it, when Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tar, after ascending to the top of her profession, had it all collapse in scandal, to the point that she was reduced to conducting music for the “Monster Hunter” video game.

Is that really how we want our legends to finish out their careers? Like they never knew what they were doing in the first place? Do we really want them humiliated?

OK, so maybe you do. And again: I get it. But in a world where we search for constants wherever we can get them, I think I found it rattling that something as simple as “Bill Belichick knows how to coach football” could be so proven immediately false, and in such a dramatic, fall-of-Rome way.

So yeah: That’s why, when I saw that North Carolina had won its second in a row, after two close losses (in games it probably deserved to win), that it really was playing better, that it looked better coached and organized, that Belichick was saying things like, “We’ve improved significantly over the course of the season. It’s not just one guy or one thing. A collective effort,” which is exactly the sort of thing you imagine Bill Belichick saying … I think that’s why I caught myself feeling, well, comforted. This does not mean I have to like him. It does not even mean I have to root for him. It just means that, for a brief second, I got to feel like maybe I wasn’t going crazy. There was solace to be found in knowing that gravity still exists. That ice cream still tastes good. That Bill Belichick still knows how to coach a football team.

I do not know how this ends. I suspect it will still end poorly — or at least not with Belichick conquering college football the way he conquered the NFL. But forgive me: Belichick is an institution I am not quite ready to see violently toppled. Part of me still needs to believe. Part of me still needs something to hold on to.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jazzy Davidson scored 21 points and made the go-ahead layup with 8.2 seconds left as No. 18 USC took down No. 9 North Carolina State 69-68 on Sunday in the third-annual Ally-Tip Off.

Davidson’s late game heroics — where she cut hard to the basket and caught Kennedy Smith’s inbounds pass in stride — capped off an impressive second half for the USC freshman, as she scored 18 points on seven-of-13 shooting after halftime.

The Trojans (2-0) were also bolstered by Londynn Jones’ 19 points. Smith added 10 points and eight rebounds.

N.C. State (1-1) was powered by Zoe Brooks, who had 24 points and 11 rebounds. Following Davidson’s go-ahead layup, USC’s Malia Samuels stole the ball from Brooks during a desperate drive to the basket. N.C. State had one more chance to win the game with under two seconds to play, but the Wolfpack’s inbounds pass was picked off by Smith.

Khamil Pierre added a career-high-tying 18 rebounds and 10 points for N.C. State.

N.C. State began to pull away at the end of the third quarter with an 8-0 run that was capped off by a transition three-pointer from Zam Jones. A free throw from Brooks to start the fourth quarter gave the Wolfpack its largest lead of the game at 11 points.

The Trojans then outscored the Wolfpack 19-7 to close out the game and seal the win. USC scored 15 points off 18 N.C. State turnovers.

USC is still trying to figure out how to play without reigning National Player of the Year JuJu Watkins, who is sidelined for the season after having surgery to repair a knee injury she suffered in the second round of the NCAA tournament. However, against N.C. State, the trio of Davidson, Jones and Smith looked more than capable of leading the Trojans.

Up next for USC: Trojans face No. 2 South Carolina on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.

North Carolina and head coach Bill Belichick picked up a second straight ACC win on Saturday, gritting to a 20-15 victory over Stanford in Chapel Hill. It wasn’t pretty for much of the game, but after five straight losses to start the season against power-conference opponents — featuring multiple goal-line fumbles and endless off-field ordeals — Belichick and the Tar Heels have back-to-back wins (4-5, 2-3 ACC) and can reach bowl eligibility by taking two of their last three to end the regular season.

“We’ve improved significantly over the course of the season,” Belichick told reporters after the game. “It’s not just one guy or one thing. A collective effort.”

Considering how drama-filled and disaster-stained Belichick’s first season as a college coach began, it seemed unlikely that North Carolina would be in position to earn its way into the postseason. That effort starts with a road trip next Saturday to Wake Forest, followed by a home showdown against Duke and another road game at NC State — all in-state opponents.

With Duke the only of those teams still in the ACC race, there’s at least a path for the Tar Heels to punctuate an unexpected turnaround with a bowl bid.

It took a while to get things moving in that direction on Saturday. A week after a 27-10 road win at Syracuse, North Carolina turned in a dreadful first half against Stanford (3-7, 2-5 ACC), gaining only 47 total yards on its way to a 3-3 halftime tie. Defense was the saving grace for both teams through the first two quarters, with the Tar Heels sacking Stanford quarterback Elijah Brown six times while holding the Cardinal to just 100 yards.

The entertainment value picked up after the break, starting with a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive for North Carolina, capped by a 20-yard wheel route from quarterback Gio Lopez to running back Davion Gause.

“We had a tough start offensively and kind of got things going in the second half. Defensively, played well really for three quarters,” said Belichick. “Like a lot of these games, they’re close, they’re tight. Fortunately we made enough plays to come out on top today.”

Lopez was electric in the second half. Despite completing just 5 of 8 passes for 28 yards through the opening two quarters, the lefty and South Alabama transfer finished 18-for-25 for 203 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions, including a 55-yard touchdown strike off his back foot to Jordan Shipp in the fourth quarter, with the Stanford defender slipping to the turf and leaving Shipp a clear path to the end zone.

“I saw a blitz zero and I saw Jordan one-on-one,” Lopez said afterward. “I just trusted him because he’s been getting open all week (in practice). Practice goes to game-day reality.”

That’s two straight encouraging performances from Lopez, who went 15-for-19 for 216 yards and two touchdowns against Syracuse. After struggling and battling injuries the first two months, the improvement is another reason for bowl-optimism down this final stretch.

The Tar Heels defense, which has been the team’s least disappointing aspect this season, was stout when it needed to be, finishing with a season-high nine sacks, winning the turnover battle two to one, and limiting Stanford to just 30 yards in a critical third quarter that swung the game. It was enough to hold off a late surge by the Cardinal, who reached the end zone with less than two minutes remaining to cut the deficit to one score.

“The score has a lot to do with it,” Belichick said of the nine sacks. “It’s hard to rush the passer against Clemson when you’re down by four touchdowns. It’s good team defense. Good coverage, better coverage, better rush, it all works together.”

For a UNC roster that added 70 new players this offseason, some familiarity is finally kicking in and translating to the field, Belichick said.

“I don’t think everybody necessarily knew the name of the person to the left or right of them several weeks ago. We’ve gotten to spend more time with each other,” Belichick said. “Trusting the person that’s next to you, trusting the play … that has really helped us to be more cohesive. … We weren’t anywhere close to that several weeks ago.”