• North Carolina gets redemption by winning national title

    North Carolina gets redemption by winning national title

  • Locker room reactions: UNC downs Gonzaga for title

    Locker room reactions: UNC downs Gonzaga for title

  • Gonzaga didn't play its best game in championship

    Gonzaga didn’t play its best game in championship

  • Fans arrive for NCAA championship game

    Fans arrive for NCAA championship game

  • Shot Clock: Breaking down UNC-Gonzaga

    Shot Clock: Breaking down UNC-Gonzaga

  • Six strange story lines in the national championship

    Six strange story lines in the national championship

  • The rowdiest student section at the Final Four isn't even in the game

    The rowdiest student section at the Final Four isn’t even in the game

  • North Carolina on what it will take to defeat Gonzaga

    North Carolina on what it will take to defeat Gonzaga

  • Gonzaga's Nigel Williams-Goss on their status against North Carolina

    Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss on their status against North Carolina

  • Road to the Final Four means a lot of miles traveling

    Road to the Final Four means a lot of miles traveling

  • Oregon reacts to heartbreaking loss in Final Four

    Oregon reacts to heartbreaking loss in Final Four

  • North Carolina on advancing to 2nd title game in a row

    North Carolina on advancing to 2nd title game in a row

  • South Carolina on tough loss to Gonzaga

    South Carolina on tough loss to Gonzaga

  • Gonzaga reacts to Final Four win over South Carolina

    Gonzaga reacts to Final Four win over South Carolina

  • North Carolina-Gonzaga will be throwback national title game

    North Carolina-Gonzaga will be throwback national title game

  • Semifinal games come down to final plays

    Semifinal games come down to final plays

  • Gonzaga fans in Glendale react to win over S. Carolina in NCAA semifinal

    Gonzaga fans in Glendale react to win over S. Carolina in NCAA semifinal

  • Fans pack University of Phoenix Stadium lawn for Final Four

    Fans pack University of Phoenix Stadium lawn for Final Four

  • Top players to watch in the Final Four

    Top players to watch in the Final Four

  • Gamecocks explain what a gamecock is

    Gamecocks explain what a gamecock is

  • North Carolina on being back to the NCAA Final Four

    North Carolina on being back to the NCAA Final Four

  • Oregon on counting their blessings

    Oregon on counting their blessings

  • Gonzaga on rising to the moment

    Gonzaga on rising to the moment

  • Piece by piece, the court for the NCAA Final Four tournament is put together in Glendale

    Piece by piece, the court for the NCAA Final Four tournament is put together in Glendale

One Shining Moment, or three shining whistles?

If the screech is the soundtrack to North Carolina’s championship, Theo Pinson doesn’t care a bit.

After the confetti fell Monday night at University of Phoenix Stadium, the guard heaved the ball, scanned the crowd and ran to his father in the stands.

“I told you we’d do it!” he said. “I told you we would win it all!”

He father, Theo Sr., shook his head in awe.

“Sometimes you fall and then you get back up,” he said, eyes teary as he scanned the building. “And this is where you land.”

“This” is rarefied air, where a team secures a title after losing it a year earlier in heartbreaking fashion. The Tar Heels won their sixth championship with a 71-65 over Gonzaga, surviving a foul-marred competition by scoring five points in the final minutes.

RELATED: UNC secures sixth national title with win over Gonzaga in Glendale

The game provided drama at the end but it was a slop-fest early on and didn’t match the quality of play of the two semifinals.

Twenty-seven fouls were called in the second half. And while many were legitimate, it also felt like a contest called too tightly. It certainly cost playing time for Gonzaga’s 7-footers, Przemek Karnowski and Zach Collins, the latter eventually fouling out.

Credit the Tar Heels with rebounding from a 2016 title loss to Villanova. Players insisted they had put the experience behind them, but also admitted to a season-long group text message group they called “redemption.”

Coach Roy Williams insisted he had moved on but also confessed to not watching the replay of Villanova’s game-winning shot the entire season.

It was redemption, in the the most gritty, hard-fought form.

BOIVIN: Phoenix again delivers on big stage in Final Four

Only seven other teams have bounced back from title-game losses to capture it all. It’s a difficult feat. Lineups change, egos fracture, coaches struggle.

But Williams knew how to channel the heartbreak into success. And it was his heartbreak, too. Remember his televised postgame interview last year?

“I’ve been a head coach for 28 years and the worst thing is in a loss like this I feel so inadequate because I don’t know how to make it better,” he said.

He made it better.

It’s quite an accomplishment when you consider the challenges this program has faced.

Controversy never escapes big sporting events. Williams couldn’t get through a press conference this past week without being asked about academic fraud allegations directed at his university.

During a symposium at Arizona State’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Monday, Bradley University president Gary Roberts said he thought it was “terrible” that North Carolina was allowed in the championship game for the second straight year and called its presence “unbelievably treasonous.”

No coach or player on this team has been accused of being involved, but with the depth of the fraud, debate ensues about how to punish a program for indiscretions of the past.

That wasn’t on the team’s mind Monday night.

“They wanted redemption,” Williams said. “But I put it in the locker room up on the board, one of the things we had to be tonight was tough enough, and I think this group was tough enough tonight.”

It was close much of the evening, but the final minute defined it.

With 22 seconds left and Gonzaga trailing by three, the Bulldogs’ Nigel Williams-Goss drove the lane but his shot was blocked. A subsequent dunk by Justin Jackson secured the victory.

It won’t go down as a classic.

North Carolina and Gonzaga shot 36 percent and 34 percent, respectively, with Jackson going 0 for 9 from 3-point range.

BICKLEY: Valley big winner in first Final Four

Karnowski went 1 for 8 and even his shots inside lacked touch.

And those whistles. Everybody noticed.

LeBron James tweeted: “Man I can’t watch this anymore man! I would like to see the kids decide who wins the game! I mean Bruh!! Smh”

And Dwyane Wade: “Let these kids play. Put the whistles away.”

Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who has put together a dominating program in Spokane, struggled for perspective after the loss.

“I’m hoping it will settle in and we will feel better tomorrow and in the days to come,” he said. “It doesn’t feel that great right now for a couple reasons. You’re right there on the brink of a national championship.

“You want to give that to your team and your program. But at the same time, the other thing that just crushes you is that you don’t get to coach these guys ever again. That was going to happen whether we won or lost, so that’s the one that kind of really hurts. But I couldn’t be prouder.”

MORE: North Carolina beats Gonzaga: What we learned

He should be.

And so should the Valley for successful putting on another large-scale event.

This one infiltrated the Valley with good-old fashioned college rah-rah and introduced out-of-towners to life in the desert.

“I came for the basketball and left with a piece of jumping cholla in my leg,” said Jared Francis, 19, of Fayetteville, N.C. “I wouldn’t trade it for  anything.”

The Cardinals’ home was made over into a party room for 77,000, a 700-ton suspended scoreboard playing the role of disco ball.

Monday the party got a little sloppy. But it was still fun.

Reach Paola Boivin at [email protected] and on Twitter at Twitter.com/PaolaBoivin. Listen to her streaming live on “The Brad Cesmat Show” on sports360az.com every Monday at 10:30 a.m.

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