Top-Seeded North Carolina Fills Last Spot in Final Four

Tar Heels forward Brice Johnson (11) grabbing a rebound over Notre Dame’s Zach Auguste (30) in the second half of the East Regional final

PHILADELPHIA — The Earth has managed to orbit the sun for the last seven years in spite of one of college basketball’s great injustices. Somehow the Final Four had been contested each spring since without the presence of North Carolina, challenging an enduring belief among its supporters that if God were not a Tar Heel, then why is the sky Carolina blue?

For the nation’s most eminent programs, such a shard of time is like an eon. North Carolina identifies itself by championships won, and after continuing its romp through the N.C.A.A. tournament Sunday, it will pursue another one next weekend in Houston.

The Tar Heels pounded Notre Dame, 88-74, in the East Regional final, restoring order to a tournament pummeled by upsets.

A formless regular season gave way to a tournament that, after some early mayhem, unfurled as the bracket designers intended, with all four top seeds advancing to the regional finals. But then chaos descended again.

As Oregon, Kansas and Virginia all succumbed this weekend, North Carolina survived, reaching the Final Four for the first time since 2009, when it thrashed Michigan State to win a fifth title. In a nod to all that bedlam, with 34 seconds remaining, Marcus Paige, the Tar Heels’ calm-as-low-tide guard, gathered his teammates for a huddle.

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Continue reading the main story“I was saying, ‘Fellas, I know this feels good, but play 30 more seconds and we in the Four,’ ” Paige said on the court afterward. “There’s been some crazy things that have happened. I wanted to make sure we were in.”

Oh, they were in. For reasons beyond their seeding or pedigree, these Tar Heels will be considered the favorite as they try to capture Championship No. 6, to beat upstart Syracuse on Saturday and Villanova or Oklahoma thereafter. Complemented by Paige, the frontcourt, best in Division I, is powered by a collection of enormous young men whose size belies their agility and athleticism.

One after another, they tormented Notre Dame on Sunday: the 6-foot-8 pogo stick Justin Jackson (11 points, 5 rebounds), sinking 3-pointers from the wing and driving along the baseline; the 6-foot-10 forward Brice Johnson (25 points, 12 rebounds), selected as the regional’s most outstanding player, balancing a dominant low post game with a pillowy jumper; the 6-foot-10 center Kennedy Meeks, scoreless in the first half but unstoppable in the second.

Trailing, 51-40, after Meeks’s fourth straight basket, the Irish trudged to the bench for a media timeout with 15 minutes 47 seconds left in the game. Limping after a spill on the baseline, Demetrius Jackson went back out and made a layup, swished a 3-pointer and tossed an alley-oop to Zach Auguste, who, fouled, made his free throw.

Before the Tar Heels could score again, they had allowed 12 straight points. But before the Irish could score again, they, too, allowed 12 straight points.

This is how North Carolina operates. It weathers poor stretches and then crushes souls and dreams. The Tar Heels outrebounded Notre Dame by 32-15 and scored 12 more points — 42 to 30 — in the lane.

Asked why he did not have his players foul when North Carolina possessed the ball for nearly a minute late, Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey all but shrugged.

“Because it was over,” Brey said. “It was over. Our guys were exhausted, too.”

They were exhausted by Sunday’s events, but also the last 10 days collectively. By all good sense, the Fighting Irish should have been back in South Bend a week ago, monitoring the school’s burgeoning quarterback controversy, eliminated in the first round after trailing Michigan by 12 at halftime; or in the second round, after trailing Stephen F. Austin by 6 with 95 seconds remaining; or in the regional semifinal Friday, after trailing Wisconsin by 3 with 25 seconds left. In the final minute of each of those last two victories, Notre Dame outscored opponents by 14-3.

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The mission for the Irish on Sunday was to remain that close, that long. They made nine of their first 12 shots, and 14 of 24 over all, and still trailed, 43-38, after a first half that asserted their resilience. Not even three weeks ago, the Irish lost to North Carolina by 31 in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

“Those are ones that you burn, you don’t go back to,” Brey said of the game tape. “But you certainly have to learn from it.”

The Irish responded by elevating another skilled ballhandler, Matt Farrell, to the starting lineup.

They refined their ability to compartmentalize. What they could not do is consistently crack a North Carolina defense that has morphed into a strength.

All season, as North Carolina kept scoring 90 but floundering on defense, Coach Roy Williams reminded his players of a Tar Heel truism: Both of his N.C.A.A. champions, in 2005 and 2009, just suffocated opponents.

Implied was a challenge that players took weeks to convert into results. The Tar Heels cited a film session after their Feb. 27 loss at Virginia as pivotal. Rarely does Williams demand his players watch every single second from a game again, but he wanted them to see Virginia’s precision, execution, spirit. Play like that, he told them.

But by the later stages Sunday, the coaches were not yelling much anymore. They were standing behind Williams, shaking hands and dispensing hugs, and after the final buzzer, the party spilled onto the court.

Johnson, clutching a pair of scissors, asked his teammates if he could cut the net first. Meeks grabbed a selfie stick and snapped a photo. Williams climbed the ladder to clip the net as regional champion for the eighth time in 28 seasons as a head coach, only now he sliced his pinkie finger.

“He should be used to cutting nets,” Paige quipped. “That’s something he’s done several times in his career.”

It has been a while, though — seven long years, as Williams and the Tar Heels can attest. Notre Dame has been waiting far longer, since 1978, but one hiatus had to end, and it belonged to the bigger, better blue bloods. It belonged to North Carolina.