It finally clicked for North Carolina.
A team that spent much of the season being derided as a disappointment in Hubert Davis’s first year as head coach is off to the Final Four, ringing the midnight bell on Saint Peter’s Cinderella run in a game that was never particularly close Sunday. It was a complete and comprehensive beating by the Heels–efficient on offense, organized on defense and unfazed by staring down the darling of March. And it all sets the stage for one final Duke vs. UNC battle in the Mike Krzyzewski era, in front of the brightest lights and biggest crowd in the rivalry’s history.
Different Heels come to different conclusions as to exactly when everything clicked. Leaky Black and Caleb Love pointed to the week in late January when UNC lost back-to-back games to Wake Forest and Miami in blowout fashion. Brady Manek pointed to the embarrassing home loss to Pittsburgh that jeopardized the Heels’ NCAA tournament hopes. Armando Bacot mentioned feeling things start to shift offensively when they won on the road at Virginia Tech.
