PHILADELPHIA — Even without underdog Saint Peter’s, this is a Final Four with something for everyone.
It’s the last ride for Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, who will coach in his record 13th Final Four and compete for his sixth national championship as his career winds to a close. Coaxing four tournament wins out of the Blue Devils’ young, inexperienced and often inconsistent roster represents one of the finest coaching jobs of Krzyzewski’s career.
Kansas has the nation’s highest-paid coach this season in Bill Self, who has a national championship of his own but has been known even more so for the Jayhawks’ multiple failures on the doorstep of the Final Four.
There’s the chance of a third national championship in six tournaments for Jay Wright and Villanova, which would cement the Wildcats as a dynasty and perhaps the top program in the country. But the Wildcats may be discounted for not having junior guard Justin Moore, who tore his Achilles tendon in the waning moments of an Elite Eight win against Houston.
And then there’s North Carolina, which shares little with the rest of the Final Four field beyond miles of pedigree and historic tournament success.
If there’s an unexpected fourth member of this group and a relative underdog among these bluebloods, it’s the Tar Heels.
Thrown onto the trash heap early in ACC play, UNC had a late-season surge to secure a spot in the tournament field but was never viewed as anything other than one of a dozen or more teams lurking on the outer fringes of the championship race.
That differs from the remaining three teams in contention: Duke, Villanova and Kansas spent time in the top five of the Ferris Mowers Coaches Poll, with the Blue Devils rising to No. 1 during non-conference play.
Unlike these Blue Devils, who suffered through similar bouts of inconsistency during the regular season, the Tar Heels aren’t overflowing with lottery picks. Duke has as many as five players who could go in the first round of this year’s NBA draft, with two, Paolo Banchero and A.J. Griffin, in contention for some of the top spots.
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Fifth-year senior Brady Manek, a transfer from Oklahoma, is one of the players who have stepped up for the Tar Heels.
In comparison, no contributor on the Tar Heels’ roster is listed among the nation’s top prospects. With no reliable depth, UNC has leaned heavily on a starting group bolstered by the addition of graduate transfer Brady Manek, a four-year starter at Oklahoma.
Four players have led the Tar Heels in scoring in these four tournament games: Manek (28 points) against No. 9 Marquette, guard RJ Davis (30) in the overtime win against Baylor, guard Caleb Love (30) against No. 4 UCLA and forward Armando Bacot (20) in the 69-49 win against Saint Peter’s in the Elite Eight.
“We know when we take care of the ball, we play defense and we offensive rebound, we know we’ll be successful,” Davis said Sunday. “Coming into the game, we just wanted to play Carolina basketball and that was evident tonight.”
In contrast to Villanova and to a slightly lesser extent the Jayhawks, UNC didn’t enter the postseason with a recent track record of tournament success. The Wildcats are 20-3 in tournament play since 2016. Kansas failed to advance out of the second weekend in 2019 and 2021 but reached at least the Elite Eight in each of the previous three years.
The Tar Heels bottomed out during the coronavirus-shortened 2019-20 season, finishing 14-19 for just the program’s second losing record since 1962. Last year’s team rebounded to reach the tournament but flamed out in the first round.
“My first two years was just so tough,” said Bacot, who added 22 rebounds against Saint Peter’s and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the East Region. “And people kind of pushed North Carolina to the side and saying how we were done and all this and that. I’m just so glad to make it to the Final Four, finally.”
Most of all, the most profound difference between UNC and the rest of the Final Four field can be seen on the sideline.
Longtime coach Roy Williams retired after last year’s early tournament exit, leading the direction of the national powerhouse in the hands of a first-time head coach: Hubert Davis, the former UNC guard who spent the previous nine seasons as an assistant.
Hubert Davis can become the first coach to lead a team to the men’s NCAA Tournament title in his first year.
The other three coaches in the semifinals have made 21 combined Final Four appearances. Davis has 27 career wins. Krzyzewski has five national championships. Davis has four career tournament victories. Self’s title at Kansas came when Davis was working as a college basketball analyst for ESPN. Wright began his coaching career when Davis was entering high school.
If an odd fit among three coaching heavyweights, what Davis has achieved in his rookie season with the Tar Heels has him on the verge of history: Nine other first-year coaches have made the Final Four, most recently former UNC coach Bill Guthridge in 1998, but no such coach has won the national championship.
“I didn’t want them to have the experiences that they had the last couple of years,” Davis said. “That’s not typical North Carolina. And I want them to be respected. I want this program to be respected. And I feel like this year we have moved in the right direction with that.”
The win against the Peacocks sets up what may be the most hyped and anticipated Final Four pairing in modern tournament history.
UNC and Duke split the regular-season series, with the Blue Devils winning 87-67 on Feb. 5 and the Tar Heels returning the favor with a 94-81 win one month later in the final home game of Krzyzewski’s career.
The threads all coming together — this historic rivalry moving into the NCAA Tournament for the first time, the possibility that it serves as Krzyzewski’s last game, the matchup of a rookie coach against a legend — will combine to place a spotlight on UNC unlike any the Tar Heels have faced in reaching the Final Four.
Having reached this unexpected destination, how they respond to the pressure will determine whether the Tar Heels advance to Monday night.
“We keep our eyes straight ahead and we ignore all the noise,” said Davis. “And I consistently tell them to turn down or turn off the noise of the phone, family and friends. If you do that — just focus on our preparation and our practice and if you do that, then our play will be good. And that’s what we’re going to do this upcoming week.”
Follow colleges reporter Paul Myerberg on Twitter @PaulMyerberg
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Final Four: UNC isn’t supposed to be here. Don’t tell Tar Heels that
