It wasn't easy (or pretty), but North Carolina got its title-game redemption

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Isaiah Hicks stood on almost the exact same spot on the court as he was on a Monday night in April a year ago. But other than location, everything was different this time.

Then, Hicks was the closest North Carolina player to Kris Jenkins as his shot sent the Tar Heels into sudden defeat with the national championship on the line. He’d lunged out to contest the shot, too late, then turned and watched as it swished. Hicks walked off blankly as Villanova celebrated around him.

This time, Hicks put his hands on his head and looked like he might cry, then laughed instead. There were 7.3 seconds left, and the giddy reality had set in: North Carolina’s self-titled redemption cycle was now complete. The Tar Heels had secured the national championship that eluded them in 2016, beating Gonzaga 71-65 in a game that was clumsy and controversial but also competitive until the final seconds.

“Last year was the worst,” Hicks said. “This year is the best.”

[Yahoo Store: Get your North Carolina championship gear right here!]

This year the Heels’ quest was a forced march through three successive nail-biting victories to grab the University of Phoenix Stadium nets. There was a last-second Luke Maye shot to beat Kentucky in the South Region final. There were the two offensive rebounds in the final six seconds that prevented a complete collapse against Oregon on Saturday in the Final Four semifinals. And there was the closing 8-0 run over the final 100 seconds Monday to beat the Zags and win it all.

The biggest basket in that run was a contested, fall-back banker by Hicks with 26 seconds left, giving North Carolina a 68-65 lead. The fact that the 6-foot-9 senior would make that shot, after playing horribly offensively for much of this tournament, made for a redemption within the redemption.

Hicks was 1 for 12 Saturday against Oregon and had made just nine of 29 shots from the NCAA tournament second round through the game against the Ducks. But he produced 13 points and nine rebounds against Gonzaga’s long front line, including what would be the clinching basket.

“My boy’s been struggling like a dog,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said of Hicks. “But he looked like a greyhound there a couple of times at the end.”

This entire game was a dog for long stretches. The shooting was hideous – 34 percent for Gonzaga, 36 percent for Carolina – the fouls were rampant and the constant whistles left much of America decrying the quality of play or the officials or both.

For the two games here, North Carolina shot 36.2 percent – more than 10 percentage points below its season average. It has to be in the running for the worst Final Four shooting in tournament history by a national champion.

Williams has coached some outstanding offensive basketball throughout his Hall of Fame career. Nobody ever thought he could win a title with his team struggling that badly on that end of the court.

“Twenty-six for 73, I don’t think you should win any game shooting like that,” said Carolina wing Justin Jackson, who had a 6-for-19 night himself. “I shot the ball like I had never shot a shot in a gym before. But the last three minutes, we made some huge plays.”

With 3:08 remaining and the Heels clinging to a one-point lead, Carolina assistant coach Steve Robinson told everyone exactly where things stood.

“Fellas,” Robinson said. “We were right here last year. We don’t want that to happen again.”

But Gonzaga had a say in the proceedings too. Nobody would expect a 37-1 team to submit easily, and the Zags didn’t. They took a 65-63 lead with 1:53 to play, and Carolina was staring at the possibility of a second annual heartbreak.

But Theo Pinson, the man of a thousand small contributions at important times, came through yet again on the next possession. Pinson drove into the paint and made a late dish to Jackson for a layup and a foul, and when he made the free throw with 1:40 left the Heels never trailed again.

Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss missed a shot with 1:19 remaining, Pinson secured the rebound and then one of the many controversial officiating moments intruded.

After Final Four MOP Joel Berry (22 points, six assists on a pair of sprained ankles) missed a 3-pointer with 53 seconds left, Carolina big man Kennedy Meeks and Gonzaga guard Josh Perkins went to the floor battling for the loose ball. Official Mike Eades called a jump ball, but still frames of the TV coverage show that Meeks’ right hand was out of bounds during the tie-up – which should have given Gonzaga possession.

Instead, the possession arrow said Carolina retained the ball, and Hicks made his decisive shot during that possession. When Meeks followed it with a block of Williams-Goss, which led to a Jackson run-out dunk, the game was all but over and a year of pent-up emotion began tumbling out of the Heels.

They had won everything there was to win over the past two seasons: an Atlantic Coast regular-season title, an ACC tournament title and two region titles. But they hadn’t won the last game until this game.

“This is the hat we were missing,” said Pinson, with a national championship lid and net strand perched on his head. :I told the team in the summer, ‘Fellas, we’re missing one hat. We’ve got to get that hat.’ ”

They got the hat by putting on the hard hats many weren’t sure the Heels owned. North Carolina, perpetually perceived as a pretty team with questionable defensive fortitude, won it all by grinding it out.

“There have been a whole lot of people who doubted us and didn’t think we were tough enough or played defense well enough,” Jackson said. “I wonder what they’re saying now that we’re champions.”

Here is what some of those people will say today: North Carolina never should have been here to accept the championship trophy from NCAA president Mark Emmert while Emmert’s enforcement staff is investigating the Tar Heels.

The academic fraud case that will not end has loomed like a cloud over Carolina basketball for years, and the failure to bring it to a resolution has allowed the Tar Heels to play the past two NCAA tournaments without penalty or ineligibility. Dare to dream, it will be settled before the 2018 tourney is underway.

There is no guarantee Carolina will be penalized when that case is resolved, but fans of other programs have chafed while the Heels have gone 11-1 in the past two Big Dances and nearly won consecutive national titles. That’s why this title will be wildly unpopular in many locales.

But as much as North Carolina may deserve suspicion – or outright invalidation – regarding its 2005 and ’09 national titles, these Tar Heels are blameless champions. Players on those two championship teams majored in and took bogus classes from UNC’s infamous African and Afro-American Studies program. Not the guys on this team.

Whatever you want to say about Williams’ previous two title winners, this one comes with no asterisk or taint attached when it comes to the players. You can’t hold Rashad McCants’ transcript against any of the current Heels.

They are simply gleeful champions, emerging from an ugly weekend of basketball in Arizona with a feeling so deliciously different from a year ago.

More NCAA tournament coverage on Yahoo Sports:
• Everyone thought the title game refs were bad … even LeBron
• Way-too-early Top 25 for the 2017-18 college basketball season
• Joel Berry II wins NCAA tourney’s Most Outstanding Player award
• UNC couldn’t fill its student section, so ASU students stepped in