National Championship Game Grades: North Carolina
What would have been one of the best Cinderella stories in the history of the NCAA tournament came to an end with the Tar Heels losing to the Kansas Jayhawks by a score of 72-69.
After starting the second half with a 15-point lead, the Jayhawks quickly closed that gap and only let go of the lead once before completing the comeback once the clock hit zero.
So even in this disappointing finish to the season, let’s look at what the Tar Heels did well in this game and what ultimately led to their demise.
Offense: B+
After a fairly slow start to the game, North Carolina went on a 16 - 0 run to take a 38 - 22 lead in the first half before ultimately finishing that half with 40 points.
Brady Manek continued to shoot well from beyond the arc, Armando Bacot was dominant on the offensive glass, creating multiple second chance points for both his teammates and himself and R.J. Davis couldn’t miss from the mid-range.
However, in the second half, things started to hit a snag.
Carolina still managed to score 29 points, but the Tar Heels went on multiple large stretches without scoring points which ultimately allowed Kansas to get back in the game and take home the victory.
The team as a whole was also extremely inefficient from the field.
While Davis did shoot well from mid-range in the first half, he finished with a line of five makes on 17 shots.
Fellow guard Caleb Love also made only five shots, but he took 24 attempts, many of which were bad decisions on contested looks from behind the arc.
Bacot also shot just 3-for-13, but somewhat made up for it with his ability to draw fouls and hit his free throws.
Overall, the Tar Heels put up a more than respectable 69 points in the game, but could have, and should have, scored more if it weren’t for poor decisions and missed opportunities.
Defense: C-
The Tar Heels’ first half defense was great.
When they went on their 16-0 run, they were locking down every player Kansas had on the court and gave them no easy looks while keeping them far away from the basket.
Much like the offense, things began to change drastically in the second half.
The Tar Heels were slow in transition, slow to close out, allowed McCormack to have easy looks around the rim and played undisciplined, fouling more frequently than they had been.
They still had some solid possessions of defense where Kansas was just able to convert on difficult shots and the late loss of Bacot allowed McCormack to take advantage of the mismatch with Brady Manek inside, but allowing 72 points in the National Championship is not good enough of a defensive effort to come away with the victory unless the offense is lights out, which was not the case for UNC.
Jakob Schnur is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jks6463@psu.edu
