UNC Wins National Championship

For those of you that haven't heard yet:

UNC WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP LAST NIGHT!!!!

What a game! It was thrilling to watch as the Heels spanked Michigan State. And (in part to spite certain hateful friends who read this blog) it was truly a joy to see Tyler Hansbrough, a player I've been following diligently for the last 4 years, cut the net down. Congratulations are definitely due to the entire team. 

This was a group of guys who are good at what they do and have been good people about it, so it was easy to get behind this team even more vehemently than I usually am. I've been rooting for them for the past 4 years, convinced that before they graduated, they would have a national championship under their belts, and it's good to know that they do. So, congratulations, guys. 

Some facts for your viewing pleasure:

• 72,922 people packed into Ford Field to watch the game, the most ever to view an NCAA tournament finals. Most of them were Michigan State fans. They were very quiet through most of the game.
• At the 4:25 mark, the game was 17-7, and that was the closest the Spartans ever came to catching the Heels.
• In the first half, the Spartans had 14 turnovers... and only 12 baskets.
• This team was the first UNC team to start and end the season ranked at No. 1 since 1982 (that's before I was born, and that was the team on which Michael Jordan played).
• UNC's 21-point halftime lead was a championship-game record.

Last night was indeed a great night to be a Tar Heel fan.

Let me tell you a story. I've been a basketball fan for a number of years now, and I've been a Tar Heel fan since the beginning. I have no particular reason for it, per se, but the first game I ever watched when I started watching NCAA hoops was UNC vs. Duke, and I ended up rooting for UNC. That game was so amazing (as any good rivalry game should be) that it forever made a college hoops fan out of me. After that, I started following UNC regularly, and that ended up evolving into fully-fledged fandom. 

Enter the first peice of the current UNC puzzle, Roy Williams. I've liked Roy since about the day they announced him as the new head coach. He strikes me as a good guy and he brings a lot of heart to the table as a coach. He immediately led the Tar Heels to a national championship, cementing his place at UNC. 

The following year, he started bringing in his own recruits, and that started with his new centerpiece, Tyler Hansbrough. I was captivated with this kid from the moment I saw him play his first game. He oozes passion - he is not the person who plays basketball to get money or sponsorships and what have you, no, Hansbrough was here because he genuinely enjoyed the sport, and that much was obvious to me immediately. The sports writers wrote about how quiet, modest, and polite he was; the players on the team talked about how he changed on the court. I had a feeling that he could go all the way.

Of course, as with any great player, he polarized the country between Hell fans and Heel haters. The criticisms, taunts, prank calls, etc started coming in as Hansbrough started making a name for himself in the college world. Add to that the fact that Hansbrough and UNC suffered three heartbreaking tournament losses in the previous three years, and not only was it looking like maybe UNC wouldn't get the title while Hansbrough was still around, the criticisms started coming in all the more. 

From ESPN: 

Through four years and three crushing losses in the NCAA tournament, Hansbrough has endured more heat and taunts than anyone this side of Christian Laettner.

He handled it with grace, maintaining his stoic demeanor amid the din ... which, of course, served only to incite the rabble-rousers even more.

This weekend, he spent the bulk of his time defending his own legacy, insisting he didn't need a national championship to legitimize his career.

Maybe he didn't.

Everyone else did.

The four consecutive spots on the All-American team -- a first by anyone in an ACC uniform -- the rewritten league and NCAA record books, all of it would have been nice fodder on a solid résumé but the 10 ringless fingers would have been the only digits anyone remembered.

Personally, I have never understood the criticisms that said he was unemotional when he played. I certainly picked up on his passion for the sport very quickly, as did his team and those who are close to him. In fact, it's been a really long time since I've seen a team rally around a player quite like the Heels have rallied around Hansbrough. Yes, Lawson was the more talented one this year, but Hansbrough was quite obviously the heart of the team.

As Sports Illustrated puts it: 

That's why his [Hansbrough's] teammates smiled so wide when they saw him climb that ladder, snip that net and punch the sky with a pair of gold-plated scissors. "He's going out the right way," forward Deon Thompson said. "For all the things he's accomplished in his career, this was the only thing missing. Now, he's a legend."

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, critics! 

Anyway, in that same vein, here's an interesting thought from Roy Williams, one that really shows both his heart and what Hansbrough meant to that team: 

When Carolina coach Roy Williams inserted his walk-ons with 1:03 remaining, Hansbrough walked off the court and wrapped his coach in a bear hug. Williams will cherish that hug forever. "I earn a good salary, but if you put $10 million in that pile right there, and say, Roy, you can have that $10 million, but if you take it, you'll forget that feeling you had when that big rascal came over and hugged you," Williams said, "you guys can split that $10 million, because I wouldn't give $10 million for the feeling that I had at that moment [...] I desperately wanted this championship for that young man. I know that's corny, but that's who I am."

So, once again, my heartfelt congratulations go out to the Tar Heels. I might actually have to start following the NBA just to see what Hansbrough, Lawson, and the rest of the team end up doing.