Peacocks showed the Madness glory

PHILADELPHIA — For all but one of the 68 teams playing in the NCAA Tournament, the dream dies hard. It doesn’t matter whether it dies in Dayton, Ohio, in the first four games or on championship Monday — losing is always full of heartbreak.

That’s because no team steps onto a court anywhere in March or early April believing it is going to lose.

There has never been a better example of that than this glorious and historic run to the Elite Eight by Saint Peter’s. The Peacocks knew they could beat Kentucky — and they did. They knew they could beat Murray State — and they did. They knew they could beat Purdue — and they did, becoming the first No. 15 seed to reach a region final.

On Sunday, they knew they could beat North Carolina — but they didn’t. The Tar Heels were too quick, too prepared and, ultimately, too good. The final score was 69-49, but this game was over by halftime.

“Honestly, I really thought we were going to win this game,” Coach Shaheen Holloway said. “I didn’t really recognize my team the first 10 minutes. They looked just a little bit slow and maybe intimidated.”

It should be noted that Holloway and his players gave plenty of credit to North Carolina. There were no sour grapes — just disappointment and sadness.

“I wish we could play this game over again,” Holloway said. “There are some things I would have done different.”

In Friday’s upset win, Saint Peter’s never trailed Purdue by more than six. On Sunday, Holloway called his first timeout less than three minutes into the game with his team trailing 7-0. The lead grew to 9-0 before Hassan Drame hit a three-pointer. Unfortunately for the Peacocks, that was the only three-pointer they made in the first half: They were 1 for 11.

The margin at halftime was 3819, and the difference between the teams was symbolized by one player: Brady Manek. That’s no knock on Armando Bacot, UNC’s other big man, who was dominant with 20 points and 22 rebounds.

But Manek was the X-factor — especially in the first half, when the Tar Heels took control and never looked back. He is 6-9, a 23-year old who played four years at Oklahoma (including his freshman season with Trae Young, who drew a little more attention than he did) before transferring to North Carolina. Manek doesn’t look at all like your Dean Smith-coached Tar Heels player of yore. His shoulder-length hair is held back by a hairband, and his beard comes down to the top of his chest.

But Smith hasn’t coached for 25 years, and Hubert Davis understands these are different times. If you can play, you can wear your hair (and beard) anyway you like.

In the game’s first 10 minutes, Manek drained two threes and made a nice baby-hook. By contrast, Purdue’s big men Friday night couldn’t have made a shot outside five feet in a (no-defense) shell drill. Equally important were the things Manek did that never show up in a box score. Every time the Peacocks attempted to set a high ball screen, Manek flashed out of the post to make any kind of pass or handoff difficult. That pressure wore the Purdue guards down Friday; needless to say, that didn’t happen against North Carolina.

The Tar Heels made sure nothing was easy for the Peacocks from the first minute until the 1:11 mark in the second half, when Davis put in his subs and walk-ons and then began weeping almost uncontrollably. He has gone from coaching a team that was 16-7 after a blowout loss at home in February to Duke to a team that is 28-9 and heading to the Final Four in New Orleans to play Duke yet again, having beaten the Blue Devils soundly in Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s Cameron Indoor Stadium farewell.

The world will watch as the two ancient rivals meet in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

Even with Krzyzewski on his farewell tour, the first two weeks of this event were about Saint Peter’s. It wasn’t just that the tiny school from Jersey City became the first team lower than a No. 12 to make the Elite Eight; it was the way the Peacocks did it. They made one key play after another in their stunning first-round upset of Kentucky and just kept going from there. People who had never heard of the school two weeks ago suddenly wanted to know everything about the Peacocks and their undersized, under-recruited band of scene-stealers.

On Sunday, the dream of joining blue bloods Kansas, Villanova and Duke in the Final Four died quickly and emphatically. North Carolina was up by 10 within the first 10 minutes, and Saint Peter’s never got it back down to single digits. The lead was never under 17 points in the second half.

“This is a tough way to go out,” Holloway said. “But words can’t describe or explain how happy I am for this group. I’m so proud of them.”

As he should be; as all of college basketball should be. Holloway and his players were asked the usual questions about how their school can build on what this team accomplished. The realistic answer: That will be almost impossible. Holloway is expected to be hired at Seton Hall, his alma mater, sometime in the next week. Even if all the underclassmen return, equaling this will be virtually impossible.

One statistic says everything about what Saint Peter’s faced Sunday: By winning, North Carolina qualified for its 21st Final Four. Before this tournament began, Saint Peter’s had never won an NCAA Tournament game.

Now the Peacocks have won three. Their dream died painfully Sunday, but the memories will last forever.