Defense let North Carolina realize the redemption they were waiting for
Roy Williams’ North Carolina Tar Heels aren’t exactly known for their defensive prowess. In just three of his 14 seasons at the school have the Tar Heels finished in the top 10 nationally in adjusted efficiency.
Williams, on the other hand, is well-known for the offensive success that his teams have. They often play at a quick tempo, pushing the ball ahead to attack in transition or on secondary breaks relying on predetermined reads without running many set plays. When the shots don’t fall, they simply crash the offensive boards and create second chance opportunities. While the defense isn’t always up to snuff, in six of his 14 seasons in Chapel Hill, North Carolina has finished in the top 10 of adjusted offensive efficiency.
In Monday night’s national championship game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the nation’s top-ranked defense, though, the offense sputtered. The Tar Heels’ leading scorer, junior Justin Jackson, managed to score 16 points, but it took him 19 shots and five free throw attempts to get there. The 36.8 percent 3-point shooter went 0-for-9 from behind the arc on the night as North Carolina shot a meager 35.6 percent from the field against the Bulldogs’ stifling defense.
And yet, the Tar Heels eked out a 71-65 victory to secure the sixth national championship in school history one year removed from the most exciting, most devastating finish to a NCAA Tournament title game in college basketball history.
How’d they do it? Defense, of course.
North Carolina held Gonzaga to a measly 0.88 points per possession, according to KenPom. It was the worst offensive performance of the season for the Bulldogs who finished ranked 15th nationally in adjusted efficiency. Two numbers in particular stick out. Gonzaga shot just 33.9 percent from the field and turned the ball over on 18.9 percent of its possessions. “They won this game with their defense, quite frankly,” Mark Few said after the game.
The Bulldogs, a team that relies heavily on post ups to generate points, made just 12-of-40 (30.0 percent) shots inside the arc. Senior Kennedy Meeks battled mightily against the 7-foot-1 Przemek Karnowski, Gonzaga’s second leading scoring. Karnowski finished with nine points on 13 true shooting possessions.
“It wasn’t my best game,” he said afterwards.
Despite regularly getting excellent position low on the block, the Polish big man often failed to convert his bunnies, going 1-for-8 from the field and delivering one of the rougher shot charts you’re likely to see:
Karnowski’s struggles can be contributed directly to Meeks’ ability to simply hold his ground and stay vertical against the big man. Playing in the West Coast Conference, the Gonzaga senior rarely faced opponents with the size of the 6-foot-10, 260-pound Meeks.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs’ super freshman Zach Collins was saddled with foul trouble for much of the contest. In his limited minutes, Collins managed to score nine points on 4-of-6 shooting by using his agility and height to counteract the bulk of North Carolina’s frontline. Unfortunately for Gonzaga, he simply wasn’t able to stay on the court long enough for it to mean more.
The Tar Heels’ size elsewhere also had an effect on Gonzaga’s leading scorer Nigel Williams-Goss. The 6-foot-3 point guard was the hero in the Bulldogs’ national semifinal win over the South Carolina Gamecocks, scoring a game high 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including 7-of-11 inside the arc.
That story changed against North Carolina as Williams opted to defend Williams-Goss with the length of junior wing Theo Pinson. At the 2014 Nike Hoop Summit, Pinson measured in at 6-foot-6 with a wild 6-foot-11 wingspan. He has been the go-to defensive stopper for the Tar Heels on multiple occasions this season, but none of his performances were as important as the one he delivered tonight. Pinson’s ball pressure flustered Williams-Goss, taking away his 3-point shot, forcing him into help defense when he drove the ball and generally disrupting the flow of a Gonzaga offense that has relied heavily on the junior point guard to create for others.
“They climbed up into us, kind of drove our offense outside the normal area, as far as our wing touches and our entries,” Few told the media.
Williams-Goss scored a team high 15 points in defeat, but he finished a horribly inefficient 5-of-17 from the field, including 4-of-14 inside the arc where his floaters always seemed to come up just a little bit short. It was ultimately the story of Gonzaga’s night. Everything seemed to come up just a little short.
Next: UNC wins, so who's going to the NBA?
But, Monday night was about North Carolina. The Tar Heels suffered for a year after Kris Jenkins drilled a buzzer beating 3-pointer to end their championship hopes in the national title game last season. On that play, it was a defensive lapse that left Jenkins open as the trailer, giving him a deep, but open shot with a chance to win it.
This time around, North Carolina didn’t make the same mistake. The Tar Heels locked up Gonzaga’s offense with a combination of size, length and smart pre-game adjustments. The impressive defensive performance from Williams and Co. delivered redemption to Chapel Hill just one year after Jenkins ruined their Monday night.
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