They may not have played a perfect game, but the North Carolina Tar Heels certainly did more than enough to win thenational championship in their 71-65 win against the Gonzaga Bulldogs They may not have played a perfect game, but the North Carolina Tar Heels certainly did more than enough to win thenational championship in their 71-65 win against the Gonzaga Bulldogsat the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The Tar Heels once again finish the 2017 March Madness on top and earn the title of national champions for the sixth time in school history and their first since 2009.
Certainly the game was always close, and if Gonzaga had taken advantage of the many opportunities it had in the first half it could have won its first national title ever.
But in the end, the experience and knowledge of veteran North Carolina’s head coach Roy Williams made the difference in favor of the Tar Heels.
The Tar Heels’ victory allows Williams to earn his third NCAA national championship, all of them with North Carolina.
Gonzaga’s coach Mark Few, on the other hand, became yet another coach who failed to win the title with a team that reaches the national title game for the first time in school history.
So far, of 34 teams that have reached their first national title game, 33 have failed to come out on top. The only exception to this rule are the Connecticut Huskies, who did it in 1999.
The hero for the Tar Heels was point guard Joel Berry II, who scored 22 points and had three rebounds along with six assists in the victory.
The Tar Heels, playing in their second national title game in as many years, did not play spectacular basketball, but they sure played efficiently enough to make sure they did not suffer a last-second setback, like in last year’s final against Villanova.
Gonzaga, was playing in the national; championship game for the first time ever and it sure affected them, as they made too many mistakes and turned the ball over way too many times.
The Bulldogs had 14 giveaways against just four by the Tar Heels, and in the end that was too much for Gonzaga to overcome.
