Zags and Tar Heels Advance, Ducks and Gamecocks Fall
In the end, the Zags and Tar Heels just wanted it more. On one half of the bracket, the Zags finally put all that mid-major talk to rest; while on the other half, Roy Williams and company are one win away from redemption. Then there’s the Ducks and the Gamecocks who’ve gone back home by now, their heads filled with what-ifs, their eyes filled with tears. It was a sad end for these two teams. Their miraculous runs cut down by two very deserving squads.
For the Zags, it came down to some stellar coaching in the final moments against South Carolina. Nigel Williams-Goss continued his fantastic tournament play, with 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists. Their big men, Przemek Karnowski and Zach Collins, combined for 27. Collins also blocked 6 shots and grabbed 13 rebounds. For a sixth man, it sure was a dominant performance.
“That’s my job is to go in and rim protect,” Collins said of his play. “I had four fouls today. But I thought, you know, getting those blocked shots would help us.”
Meanwhile, on the other bench, Sindarius Thornwell was held to 15 points, shooting a grim 4 of 12 from the field after leading the tournament in scoring through the first four games.
“They just crowd the paint,” Thornwell said. “They forced me to pass it out on my drives. And just protecting the rim real well.”
That’s not hard to do when you have two 7-footers towering over you all game long. At times it looked almost comic the way the Zags guards were lobbing passes into the paint. Karnowski had no trouble pulling them down and slamming them home. At one point, the Bulldogs increased their lead to 14, before the Gamecocks went on a 14-point run to take the lead with 7 minutes to go. After that, the Zags biggies put up seven straight. But even then, South Carolina hung in, pushing the game into its final seconds.
With 12.7 seconds remaining, Williams-Goss missed a shot; the Gamecocks rebounded and called a timeout. Off the timeout, South Carolina moved the ball around to set up a final shot with their star, Thornwell. But Gonzaga fouled him with 3.5 seconds left. He made the first free throw and purposefully missed the second.
“The plan was to miss it left and hopefully Chris [Silva] could tap it out to somebody,” Thornwell said. But the plan failed. Gonzaga’s Killian Tillie grabbed the board, got fouled then went to the line and sank both free throws to solidify the game.
“Just an awesome, awesome basketball game, with just how hard both teams competed,” said Gonzaga head coach Mark Few. “It took everything we had to hold them off and come back.” Now the Bulldogs are headed to their first ever NCAA Tournament championship following a historic one loss season.
On the other side of the bracket, the Tar Heels were able to stave off a relentless Ducks squad that refused to quit. In the end, however, it came down to Oregon’s Jordan Bell getting pushed around on two consecutive missed free throw attempts by UNC. With 5.8 seconds to go, Kennedy Meeks went to the line and bricked it. Instead of Bell pulling down a decisive board, UNC’s Theo Pinson was able to knock the ball out to Joel Berry II. Then Berry got fouled and went to the line. He, too, missed his attempt. But what happened? Bell got a hand on the ball as it fell, but Kennedy Meeks slipped behind the box-out and grabbed it for himself. He then dished it out to the perimeter and the rest is history.
“If it wasn’t for Kennedy Meeks, we wouldn’t have been in the basketball game,” said Roy Williams after the game.
Meeks matched his career high with 25 points, going 11 for 13 from the floor. He also grabbed 14 rebounds, 8 of them on offense, and three steals. It was a memorable night for the senior, who was forced to watch his team lose from the bench in last year’s championship game against Villanova. This time, though, the ball was in his hands when it counted most. Teammate Justin Jackson also had a solid night, scoring 22 points, and going 4 of 9 from three.
For the Ducks, it was a hard fought battle. Jordan Bell, despite his last-second blunders, had 13 points, 16 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Tyler Dorsey added another twenty+ point game with 21, hitting all twelve of his free throws. But he also shot 3 of 11 from the field. Dylan Ennis also had 18 points and 6 boards. After such a strong offensive showing against Kansas, this is how it ended for the Ducks; shooting a combined 37.9% from the field. Then again, the Tar Heels didn’t fare much better. Other than Meeks’ straight shooting, UNC shot 36.8%.
What it came down to was grit, was who wanted those last rebounds more. And I don’t know what Jordan Bell was feeling or thinking in those final five seconds, but if you watch the highlights, he just looked slow off the line. Pinson and Meeks made strong efforts for the ball and you just didn’t see it from Bell, which is surprising considering his performance on the glass.
“Jordan felt terrible,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “But I told him, ‘Buddy, you got 16 rebounds. We wouldn’t have been in this position if it hadn’t been for you.'”
Which is true. Both teams grabbed 43 rebounds each, and much of that fell on Bell for Oregon. But in the end, it was the differential in offensive rebounds that decided it. North Carolina got five more offensive boards than the Ducks. Those five boards led to 19 second-chance points, 10 more shots and, ultimately, a victory. It was surely a hard fought game for both teams. One can’t help but feel some compassion for Bell, who everyone (including myself) had been calling the Ducks’ X-factor. But the Tar Heels had an X-factor of their own. And when the buzzer sounded, it was his play that carried them back to the championship game.
Speaking of championship game, our two winners will face each other Monday night at 8:20 CST. You can catch it, as with every other game, on CBS (as well as online streams if that’s more your style). While I’m hesitant to make a prediction for this one, I’m going to have to go with the Tar Heels. I think in the end this team is hungry for a redemption that Gonzaga has never known. Sure, it’s the Bulldogs’ first appearance in the championship and they’ll be giddy for a win. Sure they’ve got two monstrous 7-footers to crowd the paint and crash the boards, but UNC has momentum, tough memories, and a bad taste in their mouths that they’ve been trying to wash out for a whole season.
My prediction: 78-75, UNC. Then again, there’s a little voice in the back of my head saying Gonzaga will snag the upset and send the Tar Heels home empty handed. They’ve certainly got the firepower to do it. I guess we’re going to find out either way.
