CHAPEL HILL – Instead of students and fans exploding from the bars to party on Franklin Street late Saturday night, they might have convened a giant prayer meeting to thank whatever forces allowed the Tar Heels to survive the second national semifinal over Oregon.
Their team literally limping to the finish line against the Ducks, saved by offensive rebounding that offset four bricks from the free throw line by two of the team’s more reliable foul shooters, Carolina lives to play in the national championship for a second straight year and try to avenge the last-second loss in Houston.
But, clearly, it will be heart break followed by heart ache if Carolina can’t find a cure for Joel Berry’s throbbing ankles that you could feel watching from 2,000 miles away. Gonzaga, 37-1, has the size to combat the marvelous Meeks inside and a passing game that finds capable shooters in the paint and all over the Bulldogs’ perimeter. Fans, it will be ugly without divine intervention from medicine men of all persuasions to cure what is ailing the Tar Heels in Phoenix.
Despite the career game from president Kennedy, another clutch POY performance from the redoubtable Justin Jackson and timely support from Theo Pinson and Nate Britt, Carolina cannot beat the Zags on what they did versus Oregon, for example, going the last six minutes of the game without a field goal.
The trainers must find a way to repair Berry for the last game of the season and the coaches to restore the confidence of Hicks and Maye; that trio combined to miss 26 of 29 shots against the unlucky Duckies who hung around and might have stolen the game if not for a traditional Tar Heel tip-out by Pinson and Meeks’ eighth offensive rebound of a night to remember (and forget) in the desert.
Oregon had only one reliable big man, Jordan Bell, who despite his own ankle problems still pulled down 16 rebounds. Gonzaga has three, led by bearded mountainous Pole Przemek Karnowski and guys who can drive it, stop and pop it and launch it from the arc-osphere. Carolina started poorly against a zone it will surely see again Monday night and, after its defense took control of the game to lead by 10 with eight-plus minutes left, combined maddening misses with miscues and four free throws that weren’t even close in the closing seconds.
Pinson, who had his moments despite shooting 2-8, is a North Carolina kid who grew up watching Dean Smith’s teams tap out failed free throws and swooped in to swipe one away after Meeks barely got his two foul shots to the rim. By then, Berry’s pain was so palpable that the team’s best from the line all season missing badly on both his tries was no surprise. Meeks might have jumped into the lane a little early, but he pulled the rebound away from Bell, fired it out to Pinson and mercifully the clock ran out on the 77-76 victory.
As beautifully competitive as the first game was with another gallant Gamecocks comeback falling just short, the nightcap was a nightmare for both teams. Oregon turned the ball over 12 times in the first half, shot 3-18 from three-point range in the second and nearly survived when a ball that appeared to have fallen under the rim rolled back up and in to cut the deficit the 77-74 with 45 seconds remaining. Carolina shot its lowest winning NCAA tournament percentage in 50 years, missed eight free throws after going 8-8 in the first half and won only due to Meeks’ ever presence around the rim and those two saving caroms in the frenzied final seconds.
It was a glorious Final Four Saturday back home, with nary a cloud in a clear blue sky, as afternoon weddings and early evening sorority formals morphed into silence on Franklin Street, the eye of the hurricane as the game tipped off just after nine. But despite the calm of that eye, the storm could be heard through open doors and windows down the main drag. In their record 20th Final Four appearance, could the Heels encore in the championship game for only the second time (1981 and ’82), and can they eventually mend the broken hearts inflicted by Villanova’s Kris Jenkins who was in Phoenix to cheer on his adopted brother Britt.
The answers are Yes with a sigh of relief and Maybe with a capital M. Heal up Heels, and recover your greatness one last time. It will take nothing less.
Przemek Karnowski is Polish, not Czech