Final Four Matchup vs. Oregon Presents UNC With a Look in the Mirror

From the very beginning of this season, the Tar Heels have wanted nothing more than to avenge last year’s loss in the NCAA Title game.

Now in Phoenix for the Final Four, UNC is on the doorstep of doing just that—however head coach Roy Williams is making it a point to remind his players that there’s a tough Oregon team hoping to crush those dreams on Saturday night.

By now, plenty has been written about the group text shared by the Tar Heel players—one stored in each player’s phone as “Redemption.”

Not only did the Tar Heels return six key contributors from last year’s team, guys like Luke Maye, Kenny Williams and Stilman White were also around to experience the pain and suffering of watching Villanova’s Kris Jenkins steal the championship at the buzzer.

That experience has helped make the bond even stronger between players who have chosen to stick around in college together rather than leave after one or two years for a chance at an NBA paycheck.

After Maye’s buzzer beater gave the veteran Tar Heels a win over a Kentucky team littered with one-and-done prospects this past Sunday, it earned them a Final Four matchup against an Oregon team that will be like looking in a mirror.

The Ducks, too, are seeking NCAA Tournament redemption after knocking off Duke last season–then bowing out in the Elite Eight as a No. 1 seed. This is also the program’s first Final Four since 1939.

“My biggest fear is that everybody’s gonna talk—and those guys are gonna talk—about national championship game last year,” Williams said at his press conference on Tuesday. “If we don’t beat frickin Oregon we’re out there in the Uber trying to get our butts back to Chapel Hill.

“So we’ve gotta focus on Oregon is what we’ve gotta focus on,” the coach continued. “And they will hear that a heck of a lot from me.”

Oregon, like UNC, is also heavily comprised of veterans who are great college players with fringe NBA potential.

Versatile forwards Jordan Bell and Dillon Brooks—the Ducks’ most consistent threats throughout the regular season—are juniors just like the Tar Heels’ Justin Jackson, Joel Berry and Theo Pinson.

Of those players, only Jackson—the ACC Player of the Year–is expected to be selected in the first round.

DraftExpress.com has Bell and Brooks each being taken in the second round, while there isn’t much chatter surrounding Berry and Pinson as it pertains to this year’s mock drafts.

Each team also relies on a rare species called the senior as well.

Fifth-year guard Dylan Ennis—who, fittingly enough, is a Villanova transfer–is averaging double figures for Oregon. UNC, meanwhile, starts both Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks in the frontcourt.

Experience certainly is a helpful factor in reaching this stage of the NCAA Tournament, but the Tar Heels’ head coach is quick to remind people that it’s not as important as it may seem.

“That will be the most often asked question,” Williams told the assembled media. “We’ll be better at the Salute Dinner. We’ll be better with all the B.S. that’s going on. We’ll be better at the press conferences because we know what’s going on.

“But when the game starts it really makes no difference” the coach added. “I really believe that. Duke went down there [and won a national championship] in 2015, and they played all freshmen.”

The commonalities between the teams don’t stop there, either.

On the Oregon side, sophomore point guard Tyler Dorsey has upped his scoring average by over 10 points—up to an incredible 24 points per game—during the NCAA Tournament.

Meanwhile, Luke Maye rose from relative obscurity as a sophomore this year for UNC. He’s now in the midst of a breakout tournament himself, winning the South Region’s Most Outstanding Player and sinking one of the most memorable shots in Tar Heel history.

Despite an outpouring of support and congratulations from his peers—not to mention plenty of jokes in the team group text–Maye has done his best to deflect the attention he’s received during this time.

He knows that while his shot was big, UNC’s ultimate goal requires a win over Dorsey and the red-hot Ducks or else there will be no redemption whatsoever.

“A lot of my teammates keep bringing it up and I’m just trying to stay humble,” Maye said, of his game-winner against Kentucky. “But they continue to bring it up, so I’m like ‘Alright, let’s focus on Oregon.’”