March Madness Final Preview: House of the Rising Fun / News - Basketnews.com
Credit Lance King, Jamie Squire/Getty Images Sports history is full of strange coincidences.
You know the song that goes like: "There is a house down in New Orleans, house of the rising sun."
The author is anonymous, but The Animals recorded a highly successful commercialized version back in the 60s, which rendered the song into a folk-rock hit.
The song's theme is probably a tragedy, about a life that went wrong in the city. But actually, it went all good for North Carolina, down in New Orleans, when they made it to the finals in the March Madness.
Here is another occasion to test their love story with the state of Louisiana: There goes the NCAA Final tonight: North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Kansas Jayhawks.
This is very the same location where a guy called Mike Jordan shot against the Georgia Bulldogs and brought the title to the coach Dean Smith and North Carolina in 1982.
Likewise, it was the place where UNC broke the spell of 10 years without a national title in 1993 when they came over the Kansas Jayhawks in the semi-finals.
This is a final with a big brand.
Kansas and UNC are playing against each other for the fifth time in the history of the NCAA Tournament final, the most than any other matchups in the Final Four of March Madness. Most recently, they met in 2008, 2012, and 2013 in the NCAA Tournament, all won by the Jayhawks.
The Jayhawks were ranked highly since the beginning of the season in the AP Polls as they were always perceived as a Top 10 team in the country. They were ranked No.3 in the first weeks. After sharing the regular season honors in the Big 12 conference, Kansas won the conference tournament for the first time after 2018.
Unlike many No.1 seeds in the tournament that were eliminated one after another, like Gonzaga or Arizona, they did not have much difficulty making their way into the final. Starting with their first-round game with Texas Southern, the Jayhawks did not really stumble while coming over Creighton, Providence, Miami (FL) successively, and finally, Villanova in the semis.
On the other hand, North Carolina had a much more bumpy road until they made it to the very last game of the season. To be fair, it was not very clear what to expect from the Tar Heels in Hubert Davis' first season. They were struggling to win games against highly ranked schools like Purdue, Tennessee, and Kentucky and could clinch neither the ACC regular-season nor the conference tournament title.
But they had a series of dramatic wins that brought the team together. Among the most important ones, perhaps the epic comeback victory in Cameron Indoor Stadium against Duke, where they spoilt Mike Krztwski's last game in front of his own crowd, was a special place.
But the Tar Heels did not stop there and effectively brought Coach K's era to an end in the semi-finals, where the much-famed Tobacco Road Derby took place in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in their 102 years long rivalry and 258th meeting.
So North Carolina is definitely on the run here, but this could have gone all bad if they could not survive the 25-points comeback of the defending champions Baylor in the second round.
But other than those nightmare 10 minutes, North Carolina showed dominance in the court against Marquette, UCLA, and "Cindrella" Saint Peter's.
The name of the schools are big but looking from a players' perspective, this is not a clash of star NBA prospects. All prominent potential Top 3 drafts, Paolo Banchero (Duke), Jaden Ivey (Purdue), and Chet Holmgren (Gonzaga), are already eliminated.
Instead, both Kansas and North Carolina have a teamwork-oriented organization, and they play as a single unit with a good level of cohesion.
According to the latest Kenpom Ratings, Kansas is superior to North Carolina on both ends of the court; 6th vs. 18th in Adjusted Offensive Efficiency and 17th to 39th in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency.
Moreover, Kansas scored 0.98 points per possession during the last tournament while giving 0.79 in defense, which is a strong indication of dominance. The same figures are 0.96 to 0.82 for North Carolina.
In terms of shooting accuracy, Kansas has the upper edge, too.
They are better finishers around the rim (51% vs. 46%) while also shooting slightly superior from mid-range (37% vs. 35%). Regarding their shot selection, UNC is taking 35% of all their shots as their pointers, and despite sitting Top 60 in the entire county with regards to accuracy, they put worse figures than Kansas during the tournament. (35% to 40%).
Beyond the stats, both teams had strong demonstrations from various strands that passed the eye test with strong grades.
Under Bill Self's much-proven acumen, Kansas' offensive fluidity makes them fun to watch with a lot of ball movement, the lob passes and the baseline cuts give their game an aesthetic value as well.
On the other hand, Hubert Davis was highly successful in recuperating his players despite having limited time, around one vital idea: Fight until the end regardless of the circumstances.
It could be easily observed that the UNC players are fully locked-in and mentally resilient. Each and every one of them is a ferocious fighter.
Injected with this "blue blood," North Carolina is on a roll with stifling defense that climbed to a new level during the tournament.
No team managed to pass 80 points in regulation against the Tar Heels in nearly one month. Showing remarkable solidarity and coming through adversity in recent games, Hubert Davis' unit is battle-tested.
Regarding the player personnel, there are no clear favorites to "hack" the game. As we mentioned above, both teams are built by complementary players who try to give their best on the court unselfishly.
One could point to the NBA Draft prospect Ochai Agbaji, the John Wooden Award finalist, as the natural leader of Kansas, but it is not that simple.
During the tournament, big man David McCormack stepped up and gradually improved his dominance around the paint, finishing with 25 points and 7 rebounds in the semi-final. He does not have a long-range but shooting 53% from the field, he could be one big problem in the paint against North Carolina.
The role players of the Jayhawks should not be undermined. Jalen Wilson could be a turnover small forward but a good spacer and high-energy player with good defensive instincts. Christian Braun is a good off-screen shooter, although he often does not take them.
Remy Martin, on the other hand, was the X-factor this season as his bench contributions were highly valuable, especially in the March Madness.
The Arizona State transfer guard got well beyond the expectations and averaged 14 points and 3 assists in 24:16 minutes per game during the tournament. His back-to-back 20+ point displays against Providence and Creighton dismissed the probability of an early upset.
North Carolina might look less than flashy without having any prospective top NBA prospect on the roster but furnished with a plethora of offensive and defensive weapons.
As their coach, Hubert Davis, indicated in the away game against Duke, by playing only 5 players for an entire half, they have a clear-cut rotation where everyone tries hard to fulfill their well-designed roles.
Four starters (Caleb Love, RJ Davis as guards-Brady Manek and Armando Bacot as bigs) can score and average double-digit points per game. Only Leaky Black does not get involved with the offense as a prominent scoring option, but he is the team's best defender.
Both of their main threats from the perimeter, Caleb Love and RJ Davis, are having a great season. Davis is more of a ball-handler than Love, and he is essentially the hero of the latter part of the season with those 30 points 6 assist displays that kept North Carolina in the tournament against a resurgent Baylor in the second round.
Caleb Love, who evolved his game from being a point guard to becoming an off-screen shooter and catch and shoot threat, is a clutch player and the first person to look when things get tight.
Those late performances against UCLA (30 points, 27 of them came in the 2nd half) and Duke (28 points, 22 of them came in the 2nd half while North Carolina was down by 7 points) once again showed his ability to handle the big moments.
The dagger 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining on the clock against Duke in the semi-final already became an iconic moment in Final Four history.
Power forward Brady Manek is a graduate transfer from Oklahoma and essentially changed the classical North Carolina playing scheme. For many years dating back to the Dean Smith era, they usually had two traditional big players around the paint.
Manek is a different breed; as a 40% shooter beyond the arc this season, he stretched the court and opened up the space for Armando Bacot so that the big center can operate around the paint.
Bacot is an intimidating rim protector and essentially a rebounding machine, as his 30 double-doubles toppled Tim Duncan's single-season record in the ACC conference from 1996-to 97. His free-throw rate is not convincing, and he tends to take early fouls, but Bacot did well to find his path to the NCAA finals with UNC.
With all things considered, this will be nothing but a fun final down in New Orleans. Let's see whether Bill Self will lead Kansas to their 4th national championship title and the first after 2008.
Alternatively, Hubert Davis will rewrite history to become the first coach to win NCAA Tournament in his first season at the helm.
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