A shot at a title, and perhaps more shots ahead

In my other life, as a college basketball enthusiast whose hobby is to travel to the first and second rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, I’ve been fortunate enough to see some outstanding North Carolina teams.

- The 1986 team, with Brad Daugherty and Kenny Smith, beat Utah and UAB in Ogden, Utah, before falling to eventual national champion Louisville in the West Regional semifinals.

- The 1988 squad, with J.R. Reid, Scott Williams and still with Jeff Lebo from two years earlier, routed North Texas State and Loyola Marymount (with Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers as sophomores) in Salt Lake City. At the West Regional in Seattle, the Tar Heels beat Michigan (which went on to win the national title the next year) before losing to Arizona for a berth in the Final Four.

- The 1999 club, with Brendan Haywood, Ademola Okulaja, Kris Lang and Ed Cota, lost as a No. 3 seed in the first round to No. 14 Weber State in Seattle. I still hear from my friends about that one.

(Footnote No. 1 — The fact Ademola Okulaja was North Carolina’s leading scorer in 1999, and seeing his name on the roster gave me an “oh, yeah” moment, might tell you all you need to know about how good that team was).

(Footnote No. 2 — You may remember there was another team than played in Seattle in that ’99 subregional. That team hasn’t missed an NCAA tourney since, and has gotten even better over the years).

I (WE) didn’t see North Carolina again until 2014, in San Antonio. By then, the Tar Heels bore little resemblance to the juggernauts of the 1980s, and even to the national title teams of 2005 (featuring Sean May, Rashad McCants and Raymond Felton) and 2009 (which included Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green).

The ’14 squad, which featured Marcus Paige and James Michael McAdoo, squeaked past Providence before losing to Iowa State in the second round.

I remember thinking in ’14, this is the least-talented North Carolina team I’ve ever seen. Paige was an outstanding guard, but had such little talent around him he had to bring the ball up, somehow get the ball back and score, or set someone else up for a basket.

The three freshmen on that ’14 Carolina team were forwards Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks, and guard Nate Britt. Three years later, Hicks and Meeks would be starters, Britt a key reserve as Carolina played Gonzaga for the national title Monday night.

I THOUGHT Charles Barkley, the voice of reason on TV, was right when he said before the title game Gonzaga should win by double digits.

Zag fans can whine about the officiating all they want, and true, their Lovable Zags got the shaft on at least one or two calls. But Gonzaga had a chance to blow out the Tar Heels in the first half and didn’t do it.

Then the Zags gave North Carolina more confidence by starting out the second half with a brain fart that helped the Heels take the lead.

Without either or both of those things happening, it wouldn’t have come down to a call here and there.

So in a way, they kinda got what they deserved.

NOW, NONE of this is to belittle Gonzaga’s accomplishments this season. On the contrary, how often could you say the Zags, heading into a game with one of college basketball’s blue bloods, actually had more talent than said blue blood? But this was the case on Monday night.

Zags coach Mark Few said he had 6-7 guys on his team who could average 16 points a game, if necessary. That’s often been the case in Zagland. The difference this year was, these Zags were “long” and played excellent team defense.

Depth in scoring, plus defense. Pretty good recipe for a run at a national title.

MEANWHILE, THE Carolina team the Zags faced Monday night was experienced (two seniors and three juniors started), but still struggled to score. The Heels had only two people who could make open shots, and on this night, only one of them did.

But Carolina was able to stay in the game for two reasons. One, Gonzaga shot just 34 percent from the field (UNC only shot 36 percent), including 12 of 40 from inside the arc.

Some would say the refs neutralized the Zags’ big men, but the Tar Heels’ bigs did a pretty good job of post defense as well. Usually, in the West Coast Conference, Gonzaga’s 7-foot-1, 300-pound Przemek Karnowski can simply back his man down in the post, ram into him a time or two until he’s close enough to the basket, then drop in a short left-handed hook shot.

(Hey, if it works ... )

But North Carolina’s bigs, led by Hicks and Meeks, had the bulk (and perhaps the line of credit) to hold their ground and bang back at the Gonzaga bigs. They put up just enough resistance to make those short shots a little harder than usual, and Karnowski, perhaps still affected after getting poked in the eye two nights earlier in the national semifinal, helped by missing 7 of his 8 shots.

PRESUMABLY THE Zags have had enough “welcome back” events to help soothe the pain of coming oh-so-close to winning a national title. Also presumably, they’ve shattered the myth that a “small” school from a “mid-major” conference can’t compete with the big boys.

Gonzaga had the talent to win that game; the Zags just lost to a good team that found a way to make a few big plays when it needed to.

And unlike other recent NCAA tournament darlings, the Zags aren’t a one-hit wonder. We already know that around here; the rest of the country is just starting to understand it. They’ve gotten their program to the level where they should have the talent and the depth to contend every year for a while.

And after that, it’s all up to the crapshoot that is the NCAA tournament.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.