Gonzaga not a David to N. Carolina’s Goliath; it’s Goliath vs. Goliath
As the dust settled Saturday night inside University of Phoenix Stadium, an easy story line emerged. Monday night’s national championship will pit a natural underdog against a towering blueblood.
It will be Gonzaga out of the midmajor West Coast Conference, the little-school-that-did, appearing in its first championship game. It will be North Carolina, the program of Dean and MJ, of 20 Final Fours and five national championships.
You will hear the theme constantly over the next 48 hours. And it will be woefully wrong.
Ask Frank Martin, the South Carolina coach who has spent 11 years combined as a head coach in the Big 12 and SEC, whose Gamecocks gave Gonzaga everything it could handle and still exited the tournament.
“It’s not 1997 anymore,” Martin said. “They were Cinderella and all that pretty stuff in ’97. They’ve been in this thing for 20 consecutive years. They’re as high-major as high-major can get.”
Martin’s memory is a hair off — it was 1999 when Gonzaga marched to the Elite Eight and began its run of 19 consecutive NCAA tournaments. But, he’s exactly right. The title is not David vs. Goliath. It’s Goliath vs. Goliath.
The real storyline of Monday night is so much better, anyway. It’s not every year we can say the best two teams play to decide the national championship. This year, the best two teams will play to decide the national championship. You could make an argument for Kansas or Kentucky or Villanova or Duke, but over the course of the season, no teams have impressed more than Gonzaga and Carolina.
“The two best teams are the two left standing,” North Carolina assistant Sean May said.
“It’s going to be, in my opinion, the two best teams in the nation,” Pinson said.
Since November, many experts formed the consensus that North Carolina possessed more talent than any team in the country. The Tar Heels start three juniors and two seniors. They have rebounding muscle in Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks, more than enough scoring punch from Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II and an intelligent Swiss Army knife in Theo Pinson. They have a powerful singularity of purpose, having reached the title game last season and lost on Kris Jenkins’s last-second threepointer.
“We have another shot,” Pinson said. “We dreamed about this every day since that game. That shot that Kris made against us, I think about it every day. Now we get another shot to make up for it.”
Since November, Gonzaga has accomplished more than any team in the country. The Bulldogs plowed through a challenging nonconference schedule, dominated the WCC and will arrive Monday night with a 37-1 record. They spent four week ranked No. 1. They play eight or nine players, and those who come off the bench are enormous and offer scant drop-off. They are light years from a fluke, having been a 1 or 2 seed in three of the past five NCAA tournaments.
It takes only one piece of evidence to prove Gonzaga’s worthiness as a powerhouse. Zach Collins decided to play there, and he comes off the bench. The 7-foot freshman might be playing in the NBA this time next year. He is an elite talent, and the Zags wield him only in spurts. He has the confidence and skills to swing a game, and he did so Saturday night.
In the locker room before the game, Collins told Nigel WilliamsGoss, his roommate, “I wouldn’t want to be playing against me today.” Then he backed it up. Collins came off the bench to produce this staggering line: 14 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks in 23 minutes. The combination of mountains Przemek Karnowski and Collins, both of whom have mastered the defensive concept of verticality, forms an effective wall in the low block.
“We always play inside-out,” Williams-Goss said. “We have four really talented bigs. They’re all very different and can bring us something different on a given night. I just think that’s a credit to our balance. We feel confident, no matter who we go up against, that our bigs are going to deliver for us.”
North Carolina, of course, will not be daunted by Gonzaga’s size. Meeks has devoured rebounds all tournament, the 14 boards he grabbed Saturday against Oregon bringing his tournament total to 59. If Hicks can avoid foul trouble, which is a longshot, he’ll be just as hard to keep off the glass.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The 40 girls and 40 boys moved in orderly fashion from the driving range to the chipping area to the putting green in their age groups.
At Augusta National, it was precision unlike any other.
The latest tradition at the Masters is the Drive, Chip and Putt national finals, with winners from eight age groups posing with Danny Willett, Bubba Watson, Nick Faldo, Mark O’Meara and other Masters champions.
Alexa Pano, already the first three-time finalist, became the first two-winner when the 12-yearold from Lake Worth, Florida, won the girls 12-13 division.
It was yet another reminder why Sunday at the Masters is unlike any other majors.
Kids ages 7 to 15 were putting on the 18th green. Jordan Spieth headed out to play with his father. Matt Kuchar took a break from his putting drill to watch Andy Scholz hole out his chip, which led to the first roar of the week at 8:03 a.m.
And the stress was at a minimum.
Except for Watson, the two-time Masters champion who had a serious game to play against former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among the first female member at Augusta National.
“She’s not talking very much to me, so I think she was getting focused on this match, because two years in a row losing, she’s not happy about that,” he said.
Danny Willett arrived on Saturday and was seen at the club wearing his green jacket for the first time since his surprise victory last year, when he rallied with a 5-under 67 and took advantage of Spieth shooting 41 on the back nine.
The green jacket has been plenty of other places, such as snooker competitions in Britain and even a few weeks ago when he hosted the “Wee Willetts,” his own program near Yorkshire where nearly 100 kids play nine holes over three courses during their summer holidays.
“As soon as you walk in the room, you see smiles from ear to ear,” Willett said.
The Masters will turn serious at some point. It is the most anticipated major of the year, mainly because of traditions, the exclusivity of the field (94 players) and perks that include an invitation for life and a seat at dinner with the Masters Club on Tuesday night.
Willett, as the defending champion, is the host this year.
“There’s going to be some true legends there, and to be in that room is going to be pretty special,” Willett said. “That’s when you start to realize you get to do that the rest of your life.”
Mostly, however, Sunday was about the kids.
Augusta National was behind the program that began in 2014 with the USGA and PGA of America, where kids from around the country go through qualifying and earn points based on how driving distance and accuracy, chipping and putting.
Finalists from eight regions face off at Augusta National.
“Can you imagine how cool it is going off to qualify and then go to Augusta National? I can’t imagine the excitement for these youngsters,” Nick Faldo said. “Most people’s goal is just to get a ticket. To actually come here and compete is fantastic.”
Others were at Augusta to get ready.
That included Spieth, who had not planned to be at the Masters until after the Houston Open, except that he missed the cut for the first time in 11 months. Spieth has been back plenty of time since his runner-up finish a year ago, most recently playing with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Showing up early never was in Faldo’s plans when he was winning the green jacket three times. Now it’s all changed. Players have been dropping in and out of Augusta for the last month to get a look at the course, which will be largely devoid of colour this year because of warm weather that caused the azaleas and dogwoods to bloom early.