Written by Michael Rosenberg at SI.com
Go ahead: call it a miracle. It sounds right, doesn’t it? Luke Maye, who walked on to the North Carolina basketball team, responded to a game-tying three-pointer from Kentucky’s Malik Monk with a game-winner of his own, sending the Tar Heels back to the Final Four. It stunned the crowd here and made Maye the talk of the nation, but you know what? North Carolina does not really believe in miracles.
Luck, sure—Roy Williams tells his team sometimes that you need a little luck. But mostly, North Carolina believes in basketball. Smart, complete, fundamentally sound basketball. That’s what Dean Smith taught Roy and what Roy teaches his team every year, and it’s what you saw here in the final seconds.
The two most storied programs in the sport had played a wild game, occasionally sloppy but always riveting, and then Monk had drained a game-tying three-pointer, because he is Malik Monk and this is what he does. Monk could sink three-pointers with his eyes closed and handcuffs on while undergoing a root canal. His shot tied the score at 73–73.
Kentucky fans went crazy, but North Carolina players knew what North Carolina players have known for five decades: Their coach would not call timeout. Dean didn’t. Roy doesn’t. Why give the defense a chance to set up? Take advantage of the chaos.
North Carolina inbounded to Theo Pinson. He had missed the last game these teams played, a 103–100 Kentucky win, and here was Pinson’s chance to be the hero. But he didn’t think about being a hero. He thought about the right basketball play, and he saw right away that Kentucky was scrambling. Isaiah Briscoe had been guarding Pinson, but when the ball was inbounded, he was too far away from Pinson. Wildcats freshman De’Aaron Fox picked up Pinson and shadowed him down the court.
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