UNC beats Duke to end Coach K’s career and advance to championship game against Kansas
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.
Davis said it wasn’t the time to reflect right now. There will be plenty of UNC fans to relieve it for him. Carolina’s win at Duke on March 5 with nearly 100 former Duke players invited to watch Krzyzewski’s final home game was like the springboard to vault its current run to the title game.
This time, plenty of North Carolina’s top players from the past were in attendance too. Antawn Jamison, Tyler Hansbrough and Jerry Stackhouse were among the many former players seated in Carolina’s fan section. Former coach Roy Williams was among them too as witnesses for Davis’ fast rise to a special place in program history by being the team to end Krzyzewski’s career.
But that’s not what Davis was focused on, with the national championship at stake against the Jayhawks.
“It doesn’t help us for Monday, it just doesn’t,” he said. “And so when I talk about the noise and things that aren’t beneficial to help us prepare, to help us practice, and help us play, I think dwelling on the two wins against Duke doesn’t help us against Kansas.”
What will help against Kansas is knowing that they are not shaken in close games.
Carolina, who trailed Duke by seven early in the first half, had been in this kind of game before. The teams went through 12 ties and 18 lead changes, they type of game that Davis says it’s not about Xs and Os of execution, but players making a play.
It should come as no surprise to UNC fans that Caleb Love was the one who made the play. And Love helped close out the game as he did so many times this season.
Love, who made big shots late in the game in wins over Syracuse, Louisville and UCLA, pulled up for a 3-pointer with 24.8 seconds left put the Heels up 78-74. He made three of four free throws the rest of the way to seal the victory.
“Coach wanted me to get to switch on Mark Williams so he was guarding Leaky (Black),” Love said. “Leaky set the ball screen, so I got the switch and he stepped back, so I just pulled up for 3.”
Love scored 22 of his game-high 28 points in the second half. It marks the third time in five games against Duke that he scored 20 or more points. Love was recruited by the Blue Devils and his dad coached former Duke, now Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum in high school.
“Who wouldn’t want to go down in history as one of the guys to knock off Duke and have a big game?” Love said. “So, I don’t know, I guess I live for the big moment.”
It was a game that had plenty of them.
The teams exchanged leads on four straight possessions when Duke’s Trevor Keels, who scored 19 points, made a 3-pointer with 2:07 left. Brady Manek answered for Carolina with a 3. Wendell put the Blue Devils back ahead with a 3 off an offensive rebound. R.J. Davis made a pair of free throws with 1:07 to put UNC back up.
Williams got Armando Bacot to foul out with 46.7 seconds left, but he missed both free throws. That left the opening for Love’s 3 to give Carolina a two possession lead.
“He’s always been, all year, one of those guys that has just been willing -- he wants that shot, he’s actually looking for that shot,” Hubert Davis said. “And very few guys in that situation are looking for that type of shot. Caleb is one of them. He has the confidence to be able to knock it down.”
Confidence is what helped Carolina navigate a rocky season that saw them lose five games by 20 or more points. The players were talking national championship as a goal when it seemed like they would settle in as a middle of the pack ACC team.
Bacot, who had 11 points and 21 rebounds for his ACC record 30th double-double on the season, said their confidence never wavered even when it appeared that it should have.
“I would say our belief all year was strong that we can get to this point,” Bacot said. “At some points, I don’t know if it was belief or if it was just us being delusional. I mean at every point of the season we knew if we came together as a team, that we can get to the championship. And that’s what we did.”
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 Manek. He went 1-for-5 in the first half and missed his only two 3-point attempts. Manek went 3-for-4 from behind the arc in the second half and scored 10 of his 14 points.
“They decided to face guard me there for the first 20 minutes,” Manek said. “It gets late in the game a lot of people get tired and I had an opportunity to get a couple steps on them and find an open area.”
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 or 25 percent in the first half.
“I was confident in taking shots, confident in breaking down the defense, and just taking what the defense gives me,” said Davis, who finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists. “I was able to either create for my own or just find the open guy.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 11:13 PM.