North Carolina is the last team standing
Usually I start the recap of the games with the two teams and the scores. Not this time, not this game, today I am going to begin by saying the following: Ladies & Gentlemen let me introduce you to this season’s national champions, the North Carolina Tar Heels. You can not understand, unless you are a diehard Tar Heel as me that saying those words felt so good! Watching the UNC win against MSU felt so good! Staying through thick and thin during the season makes it all feel so much better. It’s their moment, the seniors who came in to re start a new cycle after the 2005 title team left, the juniors who came right behind to complete a team that could be special, the freshmen who were here to help anyway they could, the walk ons who worked as hard as possible in practice, the staff who made all of these players believe they could.
And in the end, as the scoreboard read North Carolina 89 Michigam State 72, this team did exactly what they believed they could, they won a national title. Bobby Knight said in the week prior to the Final Four that it’s a lot harder to win a title when people espect you to do it, then by coming out of nowhere to win it. He is right, the pressure of having everyone thinking you can do it can’t be easy, being a dark horse you are playing with nothing to lose. That is exactly what this squad did, being the favorite from the moment that Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green decided to come back to Chapel Hill. After 38 games, injuries, some miscues, other things, and of course all the media/other pressure this team has done what us Tar Heels believed they would and what most haters/ABC’ers wanted never to happen.
Today I have read from other fan bases “we will be back next season/year” or “we are going to make it to where you are soon enough” or “don’t enjoy this because it is ours next”. To all of that let me say this: we are there now! This is our time! Can’t use the head coach Roy Williams won’t win a title with his own players, cause that last night was proven to be a myth. Who says our coach with that talent would have won more. In 5 years: 4 Elite Eight, 3 Final Four, 2 National Championships. I think coach Williams is doing just fine. He is one of only 13 head coaches to win multiple national championships, one of the other 12 is Dean Smith. Tyler Hansbrough is over rated and won’t do anything at the next level is also a good one. I am not even going to go down the list of achievements that Hansbrough has. He has done more for the game of college basketball than most anyone will ever do.
This is North Carolina’s moment and no one is going to take this away from them or for me. First it was the “cinderella” team of Villanova that could be the one beating Carolina, wrong! Then it was the destiny team from the same state as they were in that were going to relieve these people from the economic problems if only for a week. Sorry, there was a team of destiny, and it was the Tar Heels. It was a team that needed to prove to the rest of the college basketball landscape, and maybe themselves, that they could do what most believed they would. I think the best way to sum it up from the Heels’ stand point is what head coach Roy Williams said before the final game began:
Asked who needed to step up in order to win the game, he replied “everyone” because it needed to be a team effort.
That’s the Carolina Way, and that is why UNC won it all, because they played that way from the first game in this tournament to the last. At the beginning of the season we knew that one thing would be going up in the rafters, Hansbrough’s jersey. Now we know three will, Hansbrough’s and Lawson’s jerseys along with the National Championship banner. But as we look at the fifth title banner we will all think about the many contributers to it. From the great shooting of both Wayne Ellington and Danny Green, to the hard work of Deon Thompson in the paint, to the three/four bench players who might not have had great scoring out bursts, but were not a liability for the team and helped the starters by giving them good breatheres in the game.
I said all along to enjoy the ride, because it would be a great one. I think I was right about that. Now, after finishing this post and a couple of others today I am going to enjoy the ride myself, by relaxing and reflecting on a great season by a great team!
Let me put this in as well. A thanks to two non UNC bloggers for their support. Jeff Sack over at Slam Dunk Central, who I talked to for about an hour before the game last night. Chit chatting with him about so many great things (the man knows sports!) let me relax as I was “out of my skin” in waiting for the game. Also, to C from the And One web site, for her small message about watching the game and wishing us luck. Lastly, a big thank you to my wife, who stayed up to watch the game when she is usually going to bed before the game begins (as her commute is long). I think she was just as happy for me as she was for the team, and that is why she is so special. Thank you to all three of you for helping this old Heel through this great time.
As the feeling of being national champions sinks in here is the song that all of the teams that win it get:
Shortlink:
