Tar Heels fulfill dream
A year after falling just short, Tar Heels crowned
GLENDALE, ARIZ. Rarely in life do we get what we desperately want.
For a year — almost to the day — all North Carolina players wanted was a chance at redemption, a chance 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 at the University of Phoenix Stadium.
The Tar Heels became the fourth team to come back from losing the national championship the year before to go on and win it the next year. It is the third national championship for North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who has won all three with the Tar Heels, with the first coming in 2005. It gives him one more than his mentor, the late Dean Smith.
“I don’t think I should be mentioned in the same sentence with him,” Williams said. This title didn’t come easily. 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 seconds left. His 13 points and nine rebounds were huge, with both teams’ big men being hampered by foul trouble. The Bulldogs’ Zach Collins fouled out at the 5:03 mark.
“It was a slugfest out there,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “I think to be so close for us is a temporarily crushing blow right now. But perspective will come with time.”
The Tar Heels were plagued by poor shooting throughout much of the first half, shooting 30.6% from the field and 15.4% from beyond the arc. The players who carried North Carolina to the title game — Meeks and Justin Jackson — combined to score 10 points before halftime.
But much like the national semifinal win vs. Oregon, weathering the opponent’s storm proved to be more important than just about anything else. North Carolina, which trailed by three at halftime, burst into the second half with an 8-0 run that forced Gonzaga to call a timeout — which, in turn, prompted a roar from the North Carolina bench as the team huddled.
“They wanted redemption,” Williams said. “One of the things we had to be was tough enough, and I think this group was tough enough.”