That’s all for now. Thanks for following along with us. Make sure to check out the full report below.
Roy Williams captures his third national championship after leading North Carolina to titles in 2005 and 2009. Only three coaches have won more.
10 — John Wooden, UCLA
5 — Mike Krzyzewski, Duke
4 — Adolph Rupp, Kentucky
3 — Bob Knight, Indiana
3 — Jim Calhoun, UConn
3 — Roy Williams, North Carolina
2 — Denny Crum, Louisville
2 — Billy Donovan, Florida
2 — Henry Iba, Oklahoma A&M
2 — Ed Jucker, Cincinnati
2 — Branch McCracken, Indiana
2 — Rick Pitino, Kentucky-Louisville
2 — Dean Smith, North Carolina
2 — Phil Woolpert, San Francisco
Final: Gonzaga 65-71 North Carolina
And it’s over! North Carolina have won their sixth national championship with a 71-65 victory over Gonzaga!
The Tar Heels survived a foul-filled, back-and-forth second half, scoring the final eight points of the game to pull out the victory.
REDEMPTION IN THE DESERT! #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/P9RTDUDUp8
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) April 4, 2017
Updated
Gonzaga 65-70 North Carolina; 7.4, second half
Williams-Goss spins into the paint and is blocked by Meeks! Quick transition down to Jackson and he dunks it home! Gonzaga will foul but this one looks over!
Gonzaga 65-68 North Carolina; 21.9, second half
Williams-Goss, who has Gonzaga’s last eight points (and appears injured), is staying in the game as Gonzaga inbound trailing by one with just over a minute left. He misses and it’s North Carolina ball. They’ll milk as much time off the clock as they can. Hicks drives on Williams and scores in the paint! The Tar Heels lead by three and Gonzaga immediately call timeout. They’ll inbound from beneath their own basket with 21.9 seconds left.
Gonzaga 65-66 North Carolina; 1.25, second half
At 63-all, Nigel Williams-Goss banks home a jumper. But then Justin Jackson is hacked while making a shot and converts the free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play that gives North Carolina the lead at 66-65. But as Gonzaga walks it down the floor, Williams-Goss comes up limping. He appears hurt, limping badly. They call timeout. Will he come out?
Gonzaga 60-62 North Carolina; 3.31, second half
Hicks makes a jumper that opens a 56-52 lead for UNC, but Collins responds with a bucket that breaks an eight-minute drought without a basket for Gonzaga. Johnathan Williams hits a three-pointer that cuts the Tar Heels lead to 58-57 ... but then Zach Collins is whistled for a foul, his fifth, and he’s been disqualified with 5.03 remaining. Oh dear. Tony Bradley splits a pair from the line to give Carolina a 59-57 lead, but then Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss bangs a three-pointer and the Bulldogs are ahead at 60-59! And now Carolina responds with a three from Joel Berry and they’re back on top at 62-60! After a nightmarishly choppy and foul-filled stretch, we’re back in business with three and a half minutes left in the national championship game!
Updated
Gonzaga 52-54 North Carolina; 7.21, second half
The crowd is getting frustrated as the referees have decided to turn the second half of the national championship game into a disciplinary showcase. They’ve whistled 16 fouls in the first nine minutes of the half, though Gonzaga and UNC aren’t doing much to salvage matters from an aesthetic standpoint by missing a combined 22 of 31 shots. The teams trade a few free throws, I guess. Now the referees are calling fouls and reviewing their own bad calls. This is bad. And quite disappointing after the high quality of the first half. Karnowski sinks a pair of foul shots to make it 52-all, before a Tony Bradley lay-up gives North Carolina the lead heading into the under-eight timeout. Gonzaga is 3-for-19 in the second half and all three of their bigs – Collins, Williams and Karnowski – and somehow they’re only trailing by two points.
It’s not only the fans who are sick of the officiating.
Man I can't watch this anymore man! I would like to see the kids decide who wins the game! I mean Bruh!! Smh
— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 4, 2017
Updated
Gonzaga 46-47 North Carolina; 10.57, second half
The referees have taken over the game and it’s not fun. Here’s Przemek Karnowski, who makes a lay-up on a Killian Tillie assist while being fouled. He misses the foul shot, but now he’s opened his account and Gonzaga lead by three. The Zags they let UNC get out in transition and Pinson deposits a quick lay-up that snaps a four-minute scoring drought and a run of eight unanswered points for the Bulldogs. Perkins, who’s gone cold, misses a three and Hicks makes a jumper that gives North Carolina the lead at 44-43. Now a half-court set for the Zags and they post up Karnowski, who fights through the double team and is fouled but makes both foul shots. Then the Heels respond with a three-pointer from Berry, opening a 47-45 lead. UNC had missed 11 shots in a row from three-point range before that shot following their 2-for-6 start. Williams-Goss splits a pair from the line ahead of the under-12 timeout, but Gonzaga will need to improve their 20% shooting percentage this half to have any hope of winning.
Updated
Gonzaga 41-40 North Carolina; 15.53, second half
Collins is hacked while taking (and making) a baby hook and he makes the foul shot for a three-point play. Another Justin Jackson missed jumper and now Jordan Mathews cans a three-pointer on a Josh Perkins assist and Gonzaga have the lead again! Six quick ones for the Bulldogs, who are back in business. But right before the under-16 timeout ... Zach Collins picks up his fourth foul. And the replay confirms that it’s a pretty terrible call.
Game changing call here, what a joke. pic.twitter.com/kcxSfH7bTF
— Matt Smith (@SamENole) April 4, 2017
Updated
Gonzaga 35-40 North Carolina; 17.15, second half
An awful start for the Zags as they miss a few shots, the Heels rattle off four quick points to take the lead and Collins picks up his third foul with 18.42 left. Now Meeks scores on a nifty pick and roll and North Carolina lead by three. Another miss by Williams-Goss and Berry scores on a jumper in transition. Eight unanswered points out of the gate for Carolina and Mark Few calls a timeout. The Heels have ratcheted up the defensive pressure in the second half, especially on the perimeter. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs have let the Heels get out in transition after doing such a good job bottling them up in the first half. Need to get it sorted out. And quickly.
Gonzaga’s 7ft 1in center Przemek Karnowski has struggled in the first half. He’s missed all four of his shots, committing three turnovers and going to the bench early with two fouls. But they’ve gotten more than expected from sophomore guard Josh Perkins, whose game-high 13 points is well over his season average of 8.0 points per game.
The Bulldogs have done a great job of limiting Carolina in transition and dominating the offensive glass to limit their second-chance opportunities. They’ve used their size to keep the Tar Heels out of the paint and forced them into a half-court jump-shooting team. The strategy is paying off: ESPN reports that North Carolina is 3-of-18 for 11 points on possessions in which it doesn’t get a paint touch.
A look at the half-time statistics. The Bulldogs are outrebounding the best rebounding team in the nation. North Carolina have only been beaten on the glass three times this year and they lost each of those games.
Gonzaga v North Carolina
40.0% FG% 31.4%
55.6% 3FG% 16.7%
55.6% FT% 66.7%
24 Rebs 23
7 Asts 6
Half-time: Gonzaga 35-32 North Carolina
A bit of a silly foul by Tony Bradley with six seconds left, shrewdly baited by Nigel Williams-Goss. He makes both foul shots. UNC rushes down the floor and Berry lofts a three than rims out. Gonzaga will head to the locker room with a three-point lead after limiting UNC to 31.4% shooting in the first half – a scant 20 minutes from the school’s first national championship in any sport.
Mark Few says Gonzaga will keep going to Karnowski (0-for-4) and hope some of those shots start to fall. #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/2hnfsdNOPI
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) April 4, 2017
Updated
Gonzaga 33-32 North Carolina; 0.12, first half
Gonzaga with a 22-16 advantage in rebounding. North Carolina was only outrebounded in three games this year and they lost all of them. Hicks makes a pair from the line to close it to 28-23, but Johnathan Williams answers with a bucket for 30-23. A Hicks jumper off a Bradley assist makes it 30-25. UNC’s Berry then is fouled while shooting a three and makes all three free throws to close it to 30-28, but Nigel Williams-Goss answers with a three-pointer to open it to 33-28. A Meeks lay-up and a pair of Pinson free throws closes Gonzaga’s lead to 33-32 as the seconds tick down on the first half – and Bulldogs coach Mark Few will call a time-out to set up one final play before half-time.
Updated
Gonzaga 28-21 North Carolina; 3.58, first half
Josh Perkins’ eight points for Gonzaga so far already matches his season average. The sides trade a few empty possession as the pace slows. Zach Collins makes a jumper on Nigel Williams-Goss assist, breaking a two-minute scoring drought for both teams and giving the Zags a 23-19 lead, but Justin Jackson answers with a lay-up for 23-21. Perkins makes a pair of free throws and then bangs a three-pointer. The sophomore has 13 points on 3-for-4 from the floor and 4-for-5 from the line.
Josh Perkins already has 13 points and 3 trifectas! #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/nhkytlOZNh
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) April 4, 2017
Gonzaga 21-19 North Carolina; 7.53, first half
Gonzaga’s Johnathan Williams hits a jumper that stretches the lead to seven points. Another miss by Carolina and the Bulldogs have a great look for a three that would extend it to double digits but it misses the target. Gonzaga then miss yet another wide-open look. The Heels are having trouble keeping up with Gonzaga’s players on the perimeter but the Bulldogs miss a pair of chances to make them pay. The Heels are shooting a frigid 33% from the floor and just hanging on, but now Joel Berry hits a much-needed three while getting fouled. He misses the foul shot and chance for a four-point play, but Gonzaga miss on their turn and UNC answer with a Jackson jumper for 21-19. A quick five unanswered points for the Heels after a 7-0 run by the Bulldogs.
Gonzaga 19-14 North Carolina; 10.39, first half
Mathews hits a three while getting fouled by Nate Britt, but misses the free throw and a chance for a four-point play. UNC’s Tony Bradley makes it 10-all on a lay-up. A couple of Gonzaga baskets give the Bulldogs their biggest lead of the day at four, but North Carolina tie it up at 14-all on buckets from Jackson and Britt. Eleven baskets by 11 different players! Up-and-down, wide open basketball played at a fast tempo. This is great stuff in the early going! Now Gonzaga is pushing the tempo. Nigel Williams-Goss makes a jumper and Josh Perkins bangs a three after a Carolina miss. Ominous sign for the Tar Heels: Carolina is getting killed on the offensive glass with only two offensive rebounds and one second-chance point on their 10 misses.
Updated
Gonzaga 7-8 North Carolina; 15.33, first half
North Carolina wins the tip and opens the scoring on a Theo Pinson dunk off a Justin Jackson assist. Gonzaga’s Perkins makes a pair of free throws, but a Kennedy Meeks jumper makes it 4-2 to Carolina. Another Gonzaga miss and UNC’s Isaiah Hicks is fouled while shooting and splits a pair for 5-2. Carolina is clearly trying to run the offense through Hicks to try and shake him from his slump. Few makes the first substitution, going back to the two-center lineup with Karnowski and Collins that worked so well against South Carolina in the semis. Perkins makes a three pointer to give Gonzaga their first lead of the game at 7-5, but Carolina answers with a three from Berry and North Carolina leads 8-7 at the under-16 timeout. An email from Simon McGrother:
Watching in the triangle of NC. Very excited.
Chance to mend last year’s broken hearts.
I think it might come down to Berry’s ankles.
Updated
What a coaching matchup. Tonight’s game features the two head coaches with the highest active winning percentages in college basketball – and two of the six best all-time – in Mark Few (third at .818) and Roy Williams (sixth at .790).
Here are their final words before tip-off. First Gonzaga’s Few ...
Mark Few says Shem's eye and Nigel's ankle and hand are all good. #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/a08fhJgYuf
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) April 4, 2017
... then North Carolina’s Williams.
Roy Williams says Joel Berry is still dealing with ankle injuries. #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/h16k6iuDJC
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) April 4, 2017
The national anthem is done and dusted. Now Jim Nantz is announcing the starting lineups. Tip-off is less than five minutes away. The most decorated Olympian ever is here. We’d imagine another great Michael is in the building as well.
The GOAT is here. https://t.co/5RzpcFTigN pic.twitter.com/R2sio1rMHC
— Dana O'Neil (@ESPNDanaOneil) April 4, 2017
Tonight's starting lineups
Here’s a look at tonight’s starters.
Gonzaga
G Josh Perkins, sophomore, 6ft 3in, 8.0ppg
G Jordan Mathews, senior, 6ft 4in, 10.8ppg
G Nigel Williams-Goss, junior, 6ft 3in, 16.9ppg
F Johnathan Williams, junior, 6ft 9in, 10.2ppg
C Przemek Karnowski, senior, 7ft 1in, 12.3ppg
North Carolina
G Joel Berry II, junior, 6ft, 14.5ppg
G/F Theo Pinson, junior, 6ft 6in, 6.1ppg
F Kennedy Meeks, senior, 6ft 10in, 12.7ppg
F Isaiah Hicks, senior, 6ft 9in, 11.8ppg
F Justin Jackson, junior, 6ft 8in, 18.3ppg
Game officials: Michael Stephens (R), Verne Harris (U1), Mike Eades (U2)
All NCAA championship games are momentous affairs, but not all title game matchups are created equal. This one is truly a dandy. Gonzaga will be looking for their first ever team national championship in school history in any sport, while North Carolina will be looking for their 48th.
Some other fun facts and newsy notes:
- The distance between Gonzaga’s campus in Spokane and UNC’s campus in Chapel Hill is 2,567 miles. That is the farthest distance between opponents in a national title game since 1971 when UCLA faced off with Villanova, two schools with 2,713 miles between them.
- Gonzaga will attempt to become the first school from the Pacific time zone to win a national title since Arizona in 1997. Arizona is in the Pacific time zone from March to November.
- North Carolina has advanced to the national championship game for the second tournament in a row. (Who could forget how they lost in last year’s final?) The last team to play in two straight title games was Butler in 2010 and 2011. The Tar Heels played in back-to-back national title games in 1981 and 1982, losing to Indiana in the first and beating Georgetown in the second.
- The Tar Heels are the eighth team to reach the title game after finishing runner-up the previous season. The last to win was Kentucky in 1998.
- The last time a team with at least five national titles in men’s basketball played for the championship against a team with zero titles was 2006, when Florida (the team with zero titles) beat UCLA. Additionally, the last time a team with at least five national titles faced a team that had never even been to the national championship game was 2002, when Maryland (the team that had never even made the title game) beat Indiana.
Updated
Welcome to tonight’s national championship game between the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. The NCAA tournament tipped off three weeks ago with 68 teams. Sixty-six games later, we’re down to the final two. And what a delicious matchup awaits between teams with impressive yet highly dissimilar pedigrees.
North Carolina are playing in the championship game for an 11th time and looking for their fifth national title after previous wins in 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005 and 2009. The No1 seed in the South region made it to tonight’s final with a 103-64 win over No16 seed Texas Southern, a 72-65 win over No8 seed Arkansas, a 92-80 win over No4 seed Butler, a 75-73 win over No2 seed Kentucky and a 77-76 win over No3 seed Oregon in Saturday’s national semi-finals.
Gonzaga are making their first ever appearance in the title game, having never made it to the Final Four before this year despite their ongoing streak of 19 consecutive tournament appearances, a spell that’s included eight trips to the Sweet 16 and three Elite Eight runs. The tiny Catholic school from Spokane is the first West Coast Conference team to play in the Final Four since Bill Russell’s San Francisco side in 1957 – and the first team from the state of Washington to make it here since Seattle University in 1958. The No1 seed in the West region made it here with a 66-46 win over No16 seed South Dakota State, a 79-73 win over No8 seed Northwestern, a 61-58 win over No4 seed West Virginia, an 83-59 win over No11 seed Xavier and a 77-73 win over No7 seed South Carolina on Saturday night.
They’ll meet tonight at University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Tip off is 6.19pm local time (9.19pm ET and 2.16am BST) or roughly an hour from now. Plenty more to come between now and then.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a look at how the Associated Press sees tonight’s national title game:
Two No1 seeds, one in its first Final Four, the other a perennial contender, will meet for the NCAA national championship and it could be quite a brawl.
When Gonzaga (37-1) meets North Carolina (32-7) Monday night, it’s a matchup of marauding big men in the middle and deep rosters.
“They’re big just like us and they match up with us pretty well,” North Carolina’s Theo Pinson said. “Their guards are really good. We just got to play the game and execute.”
The centers are beastly.
Gonzaga brings 7ft 1in, 300lb Przemek Karnowski. He will have 3in and 40lbs on the Tar Heels’ 6ft 10in, 260lb Kennedy Meeks, who may have had the best game of his career in Saturday night’s 77-76 win over Oregon.
Meeks matched his career high with 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, the last to preserve the victory after the last of North Carolina’s four missed free throws in the final 6 seconds.
“Kennedy, I thought, was awesome,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. “I thought he controlled everything inside – 25 points, 14 rebounds, 11 of 13 (shooting).”
Karnowski will be a load, as he is with every opponent. He was one of the main reasons that Gonzaga regrouped after blowing a 14-point second half lead to beat South Carolina 77-73.
But the Zags also have 7ft, 230lb Zach Collins, whose 3-pointer gave Gonzaga the lead. Collins had 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots to help propel Gonzaga – in its first Final Four – into the title game.
“I’m really happy for him,” Karnowski said. “His work ethic is awesome. He’s been playing well for us the entire season. Whenever I go to the bench he gets in, and basically our team doesn’t drop a bit. So he’s been huge for us.”
North Carolina, the No1 seed in the South, will be seeking its fifth national title. Gonzaga, the No. 1 seed in the West, finally has made it after knocking on the door so many times under coach Mark Few.
“I’ve had some really, really tough teams,” Few said. “I’ve had some really close teams. I’ve had some teams that have been crazy efficient on the offensive end and ones that have been pretty darned good on the defensive end that probably didn’t get credit for it. These guys are all of that. All of it.”
North Carolina comes at opponents in waves, and Williams – in search of his third NCAA crown, has a veteran bunch. He starts two seniors and three juniors.
Gonzaga doesn’t generally get one-and-done elite stars, so it’s an experienced group, too – two seniors, two juniors and a redshirt sophomore.
In many ways it’s a throwback to those days when the best of the best would stick around in college for a little while.
