Behind Luke Maye, UNC Casts Aside Last Year’s Tournament Demons


Luke Maye’s shot to beat Kentucky put UNC back in the Final Four. Being on the other end of a buzzer-beater may have been what the Tar Heels needed to put last year’s loss to Villanova behind them.


Joel Berry II is the floor general who keeps the offense in sync from the point.

Justin Jackson is the star forward who was named the ACC Player of the Year after improving his all-around offensive game.

Kennedy Meeks is the enforcer of a tall, athletic group of big men who thrive on gobbling up rebounds and turning them into second-chance points.

And then there is Luke Maye, who did not play in North Carolina’s last-second loss to Villanova in last season’s national championship game. But his game-winner in Memphis on Sunday against Kentucky that put the Tar Heels back in the Final Four was as big as any other in the season for a team that has been set on erasing the painful memory of that title-game loss to the Wildcats. Maye’s shot put UNC on the other end of the ledger this time around, and it gives the Tar Heels a chance to claim the program’s sixth national championship during the NCAA Tournament era.

The former walk-on who grew up a Tar Heels fan hit the winning shot in the 75-73 victory just seconds after a game-tying three-pointer from Kentucky’s Malik Monk, which had to give Tar Heel fans flashbacks to the nightmarish ending against ‘Nova last spring. Although, maybe there was no time to experience such painful memories. UNC fans had to know that head coach Roy Williams would not call timeout, just as his mentor Dean Smith wouldn’t do, so the chaotic final moments allowed for no time to think. Or panic. It simply allowed for an experience of pure bliss when Theo Pinson found Maye and the final shot found the bottom of the bucket.

It was a stark contrast to what UNC experienced in the previous season’s final game last April, when Kris Jenkins lifted Villanova past the Tar Heels in Houston on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to claim its first national championship since 1985. The shot came after a clutch game-tying three by UNC’s Marcus Paige, which highlighted a late rally.

Monk played the role of Paige on Sunday, though the stakes on the evening weren’t quite the same. However, the victory extended UNC’s season and put it one step closer to the national title that slipped away last spring. A small step in alleviating that pain.

Making Sunday’s events more surreal is the fact that Jenkins was at the FedExForum, seated behind the UNC bench to root on Tar Heels guard Nate Britt. Jenkins and Britt bonded as teens after Jenkins’ mother sent Kris to live with the Britt family in Maryland. Eventually, the Britts became Kris’ legal guardians.

Sunday’s outing was Maye’s second consecutive strong performance. He scored 16 points against Butler in the Sweet 16, including hitting 3-of-5 shots from 3-point range. The efforts have come after he averaged just 5.8 points per contest in 2016-17. But March is about magical moments from the unlikeliest of contributors, and Sunday was one for Maye and the Tar Heels.

When Jenkins hit his shot to beat UNC in last year’s final game, he earned a spot alongside the likes of fellow March heroes Keith Smart, Lorenzo Charles and Christian Laettner, who all made big buckets for their teams during March Madness. It also prevented Williams from claiming his third national title.

Against UK on Sunday, not only did Maye take his place alongside Jenkins and Co., but he helped put the Tar Heels one step closer to giving their 66-year-old head coach another crown—one that would not entirely erase the hurt from last season but would certainly provide everlasting joy for a team that is the most complete and balanced unit in the country.

And perhaps no one exemplifies that balance more than Maye, the walk-on hero on a team of former high-star recruits.

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