Or smooth. Or artful.
"I told my team with three minutes left: 'If you had told me on the first day of practice that we would be in this position I would have taken it.' What we had to do was play the last three minutes".
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) North Carolina coach Roy Williams didn't have to struggle for words this time, not after the Tar Heels made good on their season-long drive to win the national championship that slipped away a year ago. He got another in 2009 and then his Tar Heels lost the championship game on a buzzer-beater by Villanova previous year.
Leading by 1, and in a scrum under the Carolina basket, Tar Heels forward Kennedy Meeks went to the floor to try to wrestle the ball away from Silas Melson.
North Carolina won the national title under a cloud of academic scandal. Despite shooting 4-of-27 from beyond the arc.
"There was a little miscommunication at the free-throw line", Meeks said in the Tar Heels' winning locker room.
That was all the Heels needed, although Jackson added a dunk off a turnover to finish the game.
Joel Berry II and Tony Bradley are wild-cards. Despite their bench accounting for only 7 total points. "I'm sitting over there, I'm not thinking the officials are doing a bad job", North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.
VP Mike Pence to Visit Demilitarized Zone Between North and South Korea
The country launched a long-range rocket and conducted the two nuclear tests previous year , including its most powerful to date. Recent satellite images suggest its main nuclear site is "primed and ready", according to specialist U.S. website 38North.
At the outset of the game the Gonzaga Bulldogs looked like the better team.
Williams-Goss scored 15 points but was just 5 of 17 from the field. They would've won it all previous year had it not been swiped away by a last minute buzzer beater on the behalf of the Villanova Wildcats.
But the night belonged to the No. 1 seed from the South region, UNC.
The win also has some historical significance. Reached the NCAA championship game in 2010 and lost to the Blue Devils.
"The most fun as a coach is seeing the looks on your guys' faces when they accomplish something very hard", Williams told thousands of fans who greeted the Tar Heels when they returned to campus Tuesday with the program's sixth NCAA championship.
And North Carolina got over a hump that, at times this season, felt like a mountain.
With the victory, North Carolina (33-7) won the sixth national title in its basketball program's illustrious history and head coach Roy Williams won his third championship, surpassing his mentor Dean Smith.
North Carolina's Nate Britt, right, holds the championship trophy as Justin Jackson, center, and Theo Pinson, left, greet fans in Chapel Hill, N.C., Tuesday, April 4, 2017 following Monday's win over Gonzaga in the NCAA college. Gonzaga and North Carolina were called for a combined 44 fouls and shot a combined 56 free throws. Both teams entered into bonus with about 15 minutes to play in the second half as foul trouble abounded. It was not the type of basketball anyone enjoys to watch. They made this very clear throughout the first half when they outrebounded North Carolina, who is supposed to be one of the top rebounding teams in the country. The game was called closely with each team whistled for 22 fouls. And there was no one better than Hicks - who came inches short of Jenkins' shot and struggled this postseason - to rise in the paint, cradle the ball in his right hand and kiss it off the glass to seize a three-point lead.
Comments