After Carolina loss to Duke in the ACC Tournament, I felt Duke was peaking and UNC was declining. Evidently the arrows were pointed the opposite directions for both basketball teams.
I knew going into the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament that the officiating was going to be bad, but each year it keeps getting worse and this year was no different. By the time Carolina had their blowouts, challenging games and buzzer beater - everyone knew that if the Tarheels made it past Oregon to the Championship game, it was going to be either a doozy of a game or a dud.
Gonzaga met Carolina for the 2017 NCAA National Championship in Arizona - and it was ugly. But every team has to win those kind of games too. Both teams seem to cancel each other out talent wise, so it would be the X Factor that came into play.
Early on, and for most of the game, it was Carolina shooting themselves in the foot and out of the game with Pinson making stupid decisions with the basketball. Isaiah Hicks was not even present in the first half. Thankfully, UNC's defense kept the Zags offense cold.
The second half - more of the same with missed Free Throws to make it more dramatic. The X Factors (plural).....Carolina had been there before, was being fueled by Redemption, has a Hall of Fame coach, and is excellent under game-winning pressure. All that combined to grant the University of North Carolina Tarheels the 2017 NCAA National Championship!
I had my doubts, but they pulled it off - Congrats Heels! You are truly the University of National Champions.
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