North Carolina defeated Gonzaga 71-66 in a contested championship game Monday night, winning the title a year after coming up short in heartbreaking fashion. With the college basketball season now behind us, here are five things that were made evident over the season’s final 40 minutes.
1) This was an ugly, ugly second half
The 2017 championship game will not go down in history as one of the better-played ones. The second half in particular was a festival of fouling, with both teams in the double bonus midway through the half. It was a combination of two foul-happy teams, but mostly, it was a refereeing crew that was calling everything way too tightly, as seen here. The fouls completely wrecked the flow of the game, with Gonzaga in particular spending much of the half struggling to knock down a field goal.
Gonzaga’s big men were on the bench with four fouls with eight minutes left, while Kennedy Meeks had four as well very early in the half. The reviews of the officiating were pretty much universally negative, including from The King himself.
The two teams spent pretty much the entire stretch compensating for foul trouble and the latest calls. One call — more specifically non-call — will be heavily analyzed by Gonzaga faithful in particular, and is pretty much emblematic about the officiating in this game. Ultimately, despite Gonzaga’s depth, they had a difficult time surviving with Przemek Karnowski, Zach Collins, and Johnathan Williams on the bench for so long.
2) The star players struggled
Przemek Karnowski spent almost the entire game missing bunnies. He went just 1-for-8 from the floor in the game, missing a series of shots from way inside. The Bulldogs could have had much more luck if their big center had been able to knock down any of those baskets in a game they lost by just six.
Nigel Williams-Goss struggled as well. The star point guard shot 5-for-17 from the field, including a mere 4 of 8 from the free throw line. He was playing on a bad ankle, and he aggravated it badly within the last two minutes, but his performance is not one he will look back on fondly. He seemed to lose control at the end of the game, playing recklessly during the Bulldogs’ meltdown.
On the other hand, Justin Jackson was little better for North Carolina. He was just 6-for-19, with a hideous 0 of 9 mark from three-point range. He had 16 points, but the amount of missed shots was quite frankly unacceptable.
3) Joel Berry delivered when UNC needed him
Berry was just 2-14 against Oregon, and it was fair to say that his Tar Heels won in spite of his shooting. He was much better Monday, on a night when Justin Jackson and Kennedy Meeks weren’t impactful on the offensive end.
Berry’s 22 points led all scorers. He was 7-for-19 from the field, adding in four three-pointers. He also dished out six assists with only one turnover. The six assists were the most he’d had in a game since Feb. 15 at NC State. The fact that he did it all with wrecked ankles made it all the more impressive.
Berry had a bad tournament, and he was seriously hindered by injury. On Monday night, though, he put in a performance that would secure his Tar Heel legacy for all time.
4) Turnovers were a deciding factor
If you look at the shooting stats, North Carolina probably shouldn’t have won this game. Gonzaga shot better from three-point range; the Bulldogs made 42.1 percent of their shots from beyond the arc, while North Carolina was just 4-27. Gonzaga was slightly better from the free throw line as well.
However, the Tar Heels took great care of the ball, turning it over just four times. Gonzaga, the well-drilled, fundamentally sound team, coughed it up 14 times.
The North Carolina big men were a huge part of that.
The battle in the paint was inevitably going to be a huge part of the contest, but foul trouble hindered pretty much everyone. In the end, the Tar Heels had a bit less of it and were able to hold out a bit more. Meeks block of Williams-Goss in the final seconds let Jackson dunk it home for a five-point lead, and though Gonzaga was getting the better of North Carolina for the first 20 minutes, the Tar Heels had finally seized the upper hand by the end of the game.
5) The Tar Heel redemption tour ends with victory
From the moment Kris Jenkins dramatic shot fell in last year’s NCAA title game, this season was always going to be about atonement for North Carolina.
This was a very experienced team laden with juniors and seniors who remembered that pain well. The pressure was on from day one, and at times, it seemed that the team struggled to live up to it. Late in the first half, in fact, they looked like they were in danger of fading out of the game.
Adjustments were clearly made at halftime, and the trio of Jackson, Berry, and Meeks in particular stepped up. There was an added intensity in their game after the halftime break, tightening things up on the defensive end in particular. The end result was Gonzaga shooting 33.9 percent from the field for the game, Berry stepping up and making big shots, and the likes of Karnowski being nullified down low.
The edition of the Tar Heels that played in the second half looked like a team on a mission — and they were rewarded for it.
