The University of North Carolina men's basketball team returned home Tuesday afternoon without the hardware they hoped to bring with them from Houston. But that hardly stopped a throng of fans from greeting the team at the Dean E. Smith Center. Hundreds were there to offer solace and support to a team that came so far, only to fall in historically dramatic fashion in the NCAA Tournament's championship game.
It was the toughest loss imaginable on the collegiate game's biggest stage. Many UNC fans were no doubt disappointed by the 77-74 outcome on a buzzer-beating basket by Villanova, a dagger that deflated an almost impossible shot seconds before by UNC senior guard Marcus Paige. Yet, 24 hours after it all happened; they turned out in droves to slap the players and coaches on the back, thanking them for a successful season that fell just seconds short of being a year for the history books.
While the defeat was a bitter pill, the backing of the fans is heartening in this day and age, when Internet sniping and social media wailing seems to overwhelm common sense and good sportsmanship.
There is little doubt that UNC and Villanova engaged in one of those "game for the ages" battles on Monday night. The two teams, not quite evenly matched but equally tough, battled back and forth for the lead. With five minutes left, all seemed lost on the UNC side of the ledger, down 10 and with momentum on the side of those Philadelphia-based Wildcats.
Then, the patented UNC comeback drew the Tar Heels closer — and closer still. It came right down to the wire ... and, well, folks around here know the rest. The hopes that UNC might add another national crown to its trophy case crashed.
Carolina entered the tournament as the ACC champion, a No. 1 seed and the prohibitive favorite to claim the NCAA title. Throughout, the Tar Heels represented our state with aplomb. They played well and they played hard. They conducted themselves with grace and dignity in victory and defeat. They deserve applause.
College athletics in recent years have been under fire, and rightly so, because of concerns that success on the field or court come well before success in the classroom. The enormous amount of money tied up in college athletics makes it a virtually insurmountable issue.
The Final Four matchup between UNC and Syracuse on Saturday spotlighted some of the troubles. Syracuse last year was banned from the tournament because of major violations that the NCAA found. UNC has been embroiled in an academic fraud scandal for years now in which athletes were funneled to nonexistent classes and received good grades for work they never performed. Contrast that, though, with the outstanding performance of Paige, who excelled both in the classroom and on the court. The driving heart of this year's UNC team, Paige listened to his coach, was generous to a fault in supporting his teammates and was named this year to the first team Academic All-America.
In addition, Paige, like many of the athletes in this year's tournament, remained in college for four years. In fact, the final game involved perhaps more upperclassmen than any in recent memory. The sordid one-and-done culture in college basketball took a hiatus for at least one year anyway.
We hope it becomes a trend.
REPRINTED FROM THE JACKSONVILLE DAILY NEWS
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