Tar Heels are champs again
North Carolina – 71
Gonzaga – 65

Gonzaga left its first national title game with a pain it had never known; a disappointment that may linger with each player and coach for the rest of his life.

North Carolina knew the feeling better than anyone — and the Tar Heels weren’t going through it again.

One day shy of the one-year anniversary of “The Shot” — Villanova’s Kris Jenkins’ buzzer-beating, championship-clinching 3-pointer — the Tar Heels completed their season-long quest for redemption and claimed the school’s sixth national championship, with a 71-65 victory over Gonzaga Monday night at University of Phoenix Stadium.

This year, the Tar Heels soaked in every second of the confetti shower that felt like acid in Houston. This year, the fireworks sounded like a symphony. The moment they wished had never happened had created an experience even greater than they could envision.

With the win, No. 1 North Carolina (33-7) became just the fourth team to win a national championship after losing the previous year’s title game (1982 North Carolina, 1991 Duke, 1998 Kentucky), while Roy Williams won his first national title since 2009, and third overall, tying him for fourth all-time, with Jim Calhoun and Bobby Knight.