University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Rapid Reactions
April 2, 2017 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas
1. How are any of us going to survive this? The Arkansas game, the Kentucky game, and now this one, a 77-76 win over Oregon in which the Tar Heels did everything possible to lose it...and somehow they're still playing--and playing for the national title on Monday night.
2. What incredible board work by Theo Pinson and Kennedy Meeks in the final six seconds. Carolina was in the process of missing four straight free throws with a one-point lead, but Pinson first rebounded Meeks' miss, and then Meeks--after being very upset with his two misses--somehow outworked the Ducks for Joel Berry's miss to seal the win.
3. The Tar Heels did not make a field goal in the final 5:53 and somehow won it. The final six UNC points--during a stretch when Carolina went just 6-for-13 from the line, including a missed front end of a one-and-one--came from the charity stripe.
4. Meeks kept Carolina in the game early and had one of the best games of his Tar Heel career. During a stretch when the rest of the Tar Heels were 4-for-24 from the field, Meeks was 4-for-5 on his way to 14 first half points. No one else was generating much offense at all, and Meeks' production might have avoided a 2008 Kansas-type debacle.
Meeks finished with a double-double (25 points, 14 rebounds) and tied his career high with 25 points.
5. Justin Jackson was the other offensive stalwart for the Tar Heels. The ACC Player of the Year played like it, making multiple big shots on his way to 22 points, and also sank a couple big free throws late at a time when Carolina needed them.
6. Carolina was completely perplexed by the multiple Duck defenses early in the game, starting 8-for-27 from the field. But the Tar Heels then made six of the team's next seven shots, seemingly spurred by a ferocious dunk from Isaiah Hicks in traffic. UNC ended the half on a 17-6 run.
7. You just never know when you might need experienced seniors. Nate Britt came off the bench at a first half juncture when the Oregon defense was frustrating Carolina. Britt made a big three-pointer, pushed the ball up the floor when he had the opportunity, had a pair of nice dishes for easy hoops, and played solid defense on the way to igniting a momentum-changing run that saw the Tar Heels take a 39-36 halftime lead.
8. Thoughts on Phoenix as a Final Four city: not as bad as Houston, not as good as San Antonio or New Orleans. The people are friendly, the arena is enormous, and it's approximately 30 minutes from downtown to the actual game facility. It's undeniable that the Final Four has become less of a spectator event and more of a television event in which the fans are part of the TV package (those shots of the students screaming on the baseline largely ignore the fact that you can't actually see the game from those seats, and the prohibitive travel distance meant that empty student seats were filled with students from Phoenix-based Grand Canyon University and Tempe-based Arizona State University), but somehow the NCAA keeps packing in 70,000-plus fans each year.
Unbelievably, the concession stands on Carolina's side of the court managed to run out of multiple food items just a couple minutes into the first half of the UNC-Oregon game, leading to lines that stretched over a half hour. For a facility that is accustomed to NFL games and big events, that's hard to imagine. But it'll seem like the greatest facility in the world if things go well Monday night against Gonzaga.
