NEW ORLEANS — Turns out, all of the focus on storybook endings was misplaced. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski certainly earned all of his accolades during his storied career that came to an end on Saturday night.
The attention should have placed on beginnings. And few coaches in the history of the NCAA Tournament have had a better start than North Carolina coach Hubert Davis.
Davis, in his first year at the helm of his alma mater, has the Tar Heels in the national championship game after defeating the Blue Devils for a second straight time, 81-77, in the Superdome.
Carolina (29-9) advanced to face Kansas in the title game on Monday night.
Davis is just the 10th coach in NCAA history to lead a team to the Final Four in his first year as head coach. He’s only the third, which includes UNC alum Larry Brown leading UCLA in 1980, to reach the title game. And Davis has a chance to join Steve Fisher at Michigan in 1989 as the only other coach to win it all in their first year.
Fisher didn’t have quite the same journey as Davis. He only took over the Wolverines when Bill Frieder had accepted the Arizona State job and was ushered out the door before the NCAA Tournament. Fisher coached six games as head coach that season and won the title.
That’s not to say it was written from the start.
Carolina had been in this kind of game before, where Hubert Davis said it’s not about Xs and Os of execution, but players making a play. As the game went through 12 ties and 18 lead changes, it should come as no surprise to UNC fans that Caleb Love was the closer.
Love, who made big shots during the season in wins over Syracuse, Louisville and UCLA, pulled up for a 3-pointer with 24.8 seconds left put the Heels up 78-74 and he made three of four free throws the rest of the way to seal the victory. Love finished with 28 points, just a bucket shy of tying his career-high.
Davis again tried going with his starters for the entire second half.
It worked in the Heels’ win in Cameron Indoor Stadium. It didn’t work quite the same on Saturday when Armando Bacot had to leave the game with 5:18 remaining and he appeared to twist his ankle. Bacot would re-enter the game but fouled out with 46 seconds left with 11 points and 21 rebounds.
Carolina started off the game a bit out of sync offensively and it showed in the shot selection. Leaky Black, who only had two games this season with seven or more shot attempts, took three 3-pointers and already had seven attempts in the first half.
Meanwhile, the Heels couldn’t get open looks for Brady Manek. The junior forward went 1 for 5 in the first half and missed his only two 3-point attempts.
Had it not been for R.J. Davis, they would have trailed by more than their 37-34 halftime deficit. Davis looked like a flashback of his 30-point performance against Baylor, scoring 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field. The rest of Carolina was just 7 for 27 for 25% in the first half.
Carolina rectified that in the second half, as Love looked like he did after changing shoes at halftime against UCLA. Love connected on his first four shots, including two 3-pointers, and helped spark an 13-0 run that took the Heels from facing their biggest deficit of the game down seven, to grabbing their largest lead at 47-41.
Manek made 3-pointers from opposite corners to get him going offensively too.
Duke center Mark Williams picked up two fouls within the first five minutes of the game, but Carolina didn’t seem to fully take advantage of the ACC’s Defensive Player of the Year being out of the game.
Bacot was just 1 for 5 from the field in the first half, even while piling up four fouls on Duke reserve forward Theo John. Carolina would only score 14 points in the paint in the first half too, despite Williams’ absence.
