MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Roy Williams still hasn’t watched the tape of the 2016 national championship game and likely never will. The North Carolina coach sure has done his best to make sure his Tar Heels know how to hit game-winning shots.
Now all that practice with a 15-second shot clock has paid off with a return to the Final Four.
Luke Maye knocked down a jumper with 0.3 seconds left Sunday, answering Malik Monk’s tying 3 and lifting North Carolina over Kentucky 75-73 in the South Regional final.
Williams had a timeout but chose to let his top-seeded Tar Heels run the ball back upcourt.
“We practice that way every day,” Williams said. “Believe it or not, we have practices where we play with a 15-second shot clock because I want them to push the ball hard enough to get a great shot in 15 seconds, not just throw it up. We’ve won a few games like that.”
A year ago, Marcus Paige hit a 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds left to make the national championship game 74-74. Then Kris Jenkins won the title for Villanova, knocking down a 3 as time expired. It’s a loss Williams still calls a heartbreaker.
Williams said Maye’s winner isn’t redemption for the Villanova loss but noted he yelled at Paige after this win. Paige was Facetiming with Eric Hoots, North Carolina’s director of player development.
“And he was so happy for us,” Williams said. “But I’m really happy for this team and the work that they’ve put in, the toughness that they’ve shown, and they’re just, they’re wonderful kids.”
Now the Tar Heels (31-7) are headed for a record 20th Final Four and a game Saturday against Midwest Region champ Oregon. They also improved to 3-1 against Kentucky in regional finals – the only place these college basketball behemoths have met in the NCAA tournament.
They tapped into their experience with Williams able to start two seniors and three juniors, while second-seeded Kentucky (32-6) started only one senior, a sophomore and three talented freshmen. Junior guard Joel Berry II said last season helped the Tar Heels know what it takes to play at this stage.
Those who played in the loss to Villanova have seen this season as their last chance at redemption.
“We want to win a national championship,” Berry said. “We don’t want to just make it to the Final Four. We want to go there and win it.”
Maye finished with 17 points, his second straight game with a career high.
“I just kind of stepped back, and he gave me the ball and I just shot it, and luckily it went in,” Maye said of his winner. “It was a great feeling.”
The loss left De’Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo weeping side by side in the Kentucky locker room.
“That shot is just playing back and forth in my head,” Fox said. “It’s going to be difficult to get over.”
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