"The Stack" 4-4-17
UNC won their sixth national championship last night in a 71-65 foul fest win over Gonzaga last night. The referees stole the show, but UNC's poise down the stretch helped them cut down the nets in the desert.
March Madness is done. Another year, another good tournament. The Stack has reaction to the championship game plus another topic or two so let’s get right to it and see what’s in “the stack” for today, Tuesday, April 4th:
UNC wins national championship
It was not pretty, actually far from it, but the North Carolina Tar Heels overcame poor shooting to take down Gonzaga 71-65 to win their sixth national championship. They also got redemption from last year’s heartbreaking 77-74 loss to Villanova. The game started out good right away with both teams going back and forth. UNC had an 8-7 lead before Gonzaga would grab the lead for the rest of the first half. UNC was out of sorts early. They didn’t try and post up down low. Instead they settled for jump shots and they weren’t falling. Kennedy Meeks tried a jump shot and head coach Roy Williams pulled him. Justin Jackson was terrible from beyond the arc. He didn’t make a single three pointer and he kept trying bless his heart. He tried nine of them and a lot of them seemed forced. In fact, UNC as a team was just 4-for-27 from three point range and Joel Berry II, the MOP (Most Outstanding Player) of the Final Four, made all four of them. Has Libmans been named the official sponsor of that award yet? Probably not, but they should.
Gonzaga had their own issues though. Przemek Karnowski missed so many easy shots down low. They wondered on the broadcast if it was fatigue. It very well could have been. A lot of guys on both sides seemed tired, but Karnowski could just not get his shot to fall. Josh Perkins helped step up for Gonzaga in the first half with 13 points. Gonzaga had a seven point lead multiple times in the first half only to see UNC chip away, but never regain the lead. They went into the locker room up 35-32 at halftime.
The second half was very difficult to watch because the officials wanted to take over. They didn’t swallow their whistle. Overall there were 44 fouls called in this game. UNC came out of the locker room fired up and Gonzaga came out a little lackadaisical. Gonzaga had a couple of early turnovers and UNC scored the first eight points of the half. Gonzaga called a timeout and responded with the next eight points. The officials though wanted to get in on the act. Whistle after whistle. Foul after foul. Gonzaga was in the bonus midway through the second half. That was the whole reason why they were staying in the game since they shot extremely poorly in the second half. At one point it was 18 percent. It may have been worse to be honest with you. The game reminded me of Gonzaga’s Sweet 16 win over West Virginia when the officials also blew a whistle every possession it seemed like. Gonzaga would take the lead and UNC would answer. With the score 66-65 UNC with under a minute to go, a very big missed call appeared to happen when a scramble underneath the Gonzaga basket happened and Kennedy Meeks’ hand touched out of bounds briefly as it looked like the ball was touching him. No call though. It ended up being called a jump ball. It’s a non-reviewable call anyway if Meeks touched the out-of-bounds line or not. Hopefully the NCAA changes that rule in the offseason. UNC scored on the next possession to take a three point lead and then Meeks came up with a huge block on Nigel Williams-Goss and that led to a fastbreak dunk by Jackson to give UNC a 70-65 lead. That would essentially be it. UNC won 71-65 to win their sixth national championship which is good for third all-time. Again this was far from a pretty game and that’s a shame. At least it was close. Gonzaga was so close to winning their first national championship, but maybe they will be like UNC and want to use the word “redemption” for next year. Maybe Williams-Goss will come back and Zach Collins will stay. They have some McDonalds All-Americans coming in next year. That will surely help. I hope Justin Jackson returns for UNC next year to help lead UNC to back-to-back titles. That would be great. It was a great college basketball season and I can’t wait until next year.
Patrick Ewing hired at Georgetown
Georgetown has found their head coach and they didn’t go outside of the John Thompson influence to get him much to the chagrin of some Georgetown fans out there. Georgetown has hired Patrick Ewing as their head coach. Ewing will be introduced at a Wednesday press conference. Ewing had a stellar career during his playing days at Georgetown and is arguably (maybe there is no debate) the best player ever to put on a Georgetown Hoyas uniform. He led the Hoyas to three straight national championship appearances and one championship before having a hall-of-fame career with the New York Knicks in the NBA. Ewing perhaps never got the head coaching opportunity he deserved in the NBA while being an assistant head coach for over a decade now. This will surely make some Georgetown fans happy as they get one of the greatest of all time to come and resurrect their program. Some though wanted a fresh start which is why I thought Shaka Smart at Texas might make some sense. Maybe Georgetown needs a fresh perspective. With Ewing they are getting a guy who has never coached in the college ranks and hasn’t been in the game since his days at Georgetown. Chris Mullen with St. John’s (a Big East rival of Georgetown) also received the same sort of treatment with Red Storm fans hoping the former great can restore St. John’s back to their glory days. I have no doubt Ewing will do whatever it takes to put together a great staff and his basketball knowledge is extremely high. He’ll be able to attract some top recruits. It’s just putting it all together that is going to be the real challenge, one I don’t know if Ewing will be able to take down. Georgetown fans are getting impatient. Hopefully they give Ewing a few years and Ewing will reward them by making Georgetown a force again and have a consistent presence in the NCAA Tournament.
NHL not participating in 2018 Winter Olympics
For the first time since 1998, NHL players will not be going for gold at the Winter Olympics. The NHL announced Monday that they will proceed with making next year’s schedule without a break for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The NHL Players’ Association is not happy about this. Playing for your country is a huge pride for these players. The NHL owners though do not like the long break that occurs during the season. They were looking for concessions from the International Olympic Committee and the NHLPA, but ultimately didn’t receive it. This is not a good move by the NHL in my opinion. The Winter Olympics help hockey’s popularity immensely as seen in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. That leads to increased ratings and more fans. The NHL botched this one royally. Where will the players come from? The AHL? The UHL? College? High school? Bad decision by the NHL. They will realize their mistake next February. Hopefully NHL players will be back on the ice for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Tony Romo retires, will join CBS
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is calling it quits on the football field…for now. Romo announced he is retiring today and almost immediately signed a deal with CBS. Speculation out there for weeks has been that CBS wants to pair Romo with Jim Nantz on the number one team. Would that mean that Phil Simms gets bumped down to two or three or that he is out at CBS all together? FOX has an opening with John Lynch leaving and Simms would be an upgrade to some of the talent calling NFL games for FOX. I know a lot of people aren’t huge Simms fans, but he has to be a little better than some of the guys on FOX. Enough speculating on Simms though. While Romo’s assignment hasn’t been announced yet, the decision for him to retire is both surprising and unsurprising all at the same time. It’s surprising from the standpoint that you would have thought Romo would want to play one more season to see if he could get to the Super Bowl and win one. Denver and Houston made a lot of sense. Plus no athlete wants to leave because they got injured. Speaking of injuries though, that’s why it isn’t a surprise that Romo is hanging up the cleats. Romo has dealt with a lot of injuries especially to his back throughout his career. He probably wasn’t as healthy as he wanted to be and knew he couldn’t make it a full 16 game season. So now the Dallas Cowboys are fully Dak Prescott’s team and Romo is retired. We’ll see if the retirement is for good or not.
Coming up Thursday: Masters preview plus other top stories and headlines in sport
