Redemption championship for North Carolina
After losing in final last year, Tar Heels overcome Gonzaga 71-65 to claim tournament title
Seldom in life do we get what we actually desperately want. For a year now – almost exactly to the day – all these North Carolina players wanted was a chance to redeem themselves, an opportunity to erase the heartbreak from last April’s national championship game loss. They wanted this: A title of their own.
And, somehow, they got just that, beating Gonzaga 71-65 in Monday night’s national championship game here at the University of Phoenix Stadium.
The Tar Heels became just the fourth team to come back from losing the national championship the year before to go on and win it the following year.
It is the third national championship for North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who has won all three with the Tar Heels and since 2005. It also gives him one more than his mentor, the late Dean Smith. It is UNC 6th NCAA title. And this one didn’t come easy. North Carolina’s big men came up in the clutch. With Gonzaga trailing by three and looking to tie, Kennedy Meeks blocked a determined Nigel Williams-Goss and the play led to a breakaway and game-securing dunk.
And Isaiah Hicks, who struggled to find an offensive rhythm in previous tournament games, came up with a huge bucket with 22 second remaining. His 13 points and nine rebounds helped offset both teams’ big men hampered by foul trouble, with the Zags’ Zach Collins fouling out at the 5:03 minute mark.
The Tar Heels were plagued by poor shooting throughout much of the first half, shooting just 30.6% from the field and a putrid 15.4% from beyond the arc. The two players who carried North Carolina to the title game – Meeks and Justin Jackson – combined to score just 10 points prior to halftime.
But, much like their national semifinal win over Oregon, weathering the opponent’s storm proved to be more important than just about anything else. North Carolina, which trailed by three at the break, burst into the second half with an 8-0 run that forced Gonzaga coach Mark Few to call a timeout – which, in turn, prompted a roar from the North Carolina bench as the team gathered for a huddle.
Gonzaga’s strength – its enormity in the post – became problematic early in the second half as well, with all three of its bigs finding themselves in serious foul trouble, though some played through it.
The second half featured two teams teetering back and forth as if on a seesaw, a tight, nerve-wracking game befitting the grandest of the sport’s stages.
Referees unfairly steal show
This was a championship game only North Carolina fans could love.
And even their patience was tested by the referees.
A year after Villanova snatched the title from the Tar Heels’ hands in the closing seconds, the referees did their best to hijack this one, too.
Sure, North Carolina won its title. But all anyone is going to remember is whistle-a-rama.
What had the makings of a wildly entertaining finish became – TWEET! – an interminable slog as officials called 11 fouls – TWEET! – in the first four-plus minutes – TWEET! – of the second half and 27 over the – TWEET! – last 20 minutes. Both teams were in the bonus – TWEET! – with 14 minutes left, bringing the game’s flow and pace – TWEET! – to a grinding – TWEET! TWEET! TWEET! – halt. Just reading that makes you want to beat your head against the wall, doesn’t it? Now imagine trying to play through it. In the biggest game of your careers, no less.
“It was an ugly game,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “It’s a very difficult game to call. I’m not thinking the officials are doing a terrible job... I’m thinking our offense stinks.” While that’s true, the refs did, too. Gonzaga’s big men, such a crucial part of the Bulldogs’ game, were effectively neutralized by fouls. Collins picked up his third and fourth fouls within three minutes of coming in for the first time in the second half, the latter coming with 15:53 still to play. Nine seconds later, Przemek Karnowski, got called for his third foul. Karnowski would pick up his fourth on a flagrant with 8:02 to play while Collins would foul out with five minutes still to play.
The fouls – a whopping 22 for each team – were bad enough, as inconsistent as they were frequent. But replays showed the officials missed a crucial call down the stretch, too.
With about 30 seconds left and North Carolina clinging to a one-point lead, Meeks and Silas Melson were scuffling for the ball under the basket when Meeks’ right hand slid over the baseline. Despite a referee standing right on top of them, no call was made.
Meeks got possession and fed Isaiah Hicks, who scored on a jumper to make it a three-point game with 26 seconds left.
“That’s probably on me. I had no idea,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said when he was told about the no-call after the game. “I just – from my angle it didn’t look like it was a situation where there was an out-of-bounds situation or I else I would have called for a review.”
Now, that one call wasn’t what won North Carolina its latest championship. Or cost Gonzaga its first one.
But this wasn’t the game either team expected to play, and both deserved better in an event of this magnitude.
That the officiating was bad – scratch that, awful – was probably fitting given it’s been a theme all tournament. Actually, officiating has been an issue all year. If this doesn’t prompt the NCAA to consider adding a sixth foul, I don’t know what will.
But the refs ruined what had the potential to be a great national championship. Worse, they stole the spotlight from the ones who deserved it, the players.