NCAA Tournament 2017: Tar Heels Motivated From Last Year’s Defeat

The North Carolina Tar Heels come into the NCAA Tournament 2017 with one thing on their mind: revenge.

After being seconds away from winning their first national championship since 2009, the Tar Heels are looking to make another run towards the NCAA Tournament 2017 title, but this time, win it.

It’s been 346 days since the Tar Heels walked off the hardwood in Houston in complete shock. It wasn’t a good shock, though. Kris Jenkins had just ended the Tar Heels’ National Championship dreams in 5 seconds or less. That shot still affects guard Joel Berry in his everyday life, as he told the Oakland Press.

"I just think about it all the time. Four seconds made a difference in my life. I wish I could get those four seconds back, but I can’t. . This is the time where we just have to lock in, and every time we go out, whether it’s practice, whether we’re just shooting around, no matter what it is, we’ve got to remember that four seconds."

Just 4 seconds defined the entire season for the Tar Heels. The ACC Tournament Championship, the astounding run to the National Championship, it all seemed to escape the mind of the Tar Heels as they took the long walk of shame off the court and into the locker room.

For most teams, a trip to the Elite 8, Final Four, and National Championship game is something that they pride themselves on for years to come, regardless of whether they win it all or not. The Tar Heels aren’t one of those teams.

At a program with such success, such as North Carolina, if you don’t walk off the court in April with a National Championship, the entire journey there seems to be erased. For the Tar Heels, it took just 4.7 seconds for their entire season to be erased. Despite the heartbreak that still hangs over the heads of the Tar Heels, Justin Jackson spoke with the Associated Press to talk about how the uses it for motivation.

"For me, the motivation I use is the feeling that we had when that confetti came down and it wasn’t for us. It felt simultaneous whenever he hit the shot and the confetti was coming down. It wasn’t a feeling of upset, it wasn’t a feeling of sad, it was just a feeling of, ‘Did that really just happen?’"

Gone, just like that–in less than the amount of time that it takes you to read this sentence, the Tar Heels went from hopeful to defeated. Those 4.7 seconds are something the Tar Heels still haven’t lived that down, and probably never will. It’s just unavoidable, according to USA Today.

"Any time they start talking about the tournament, boom, the shot’s on,. For about a month and a half, that’s all that was on SportsCenter, all that was on ESPN. So it’s hard to get away from it."

This season, the Tar Heels have a chance to rewrite last years ending with a new one, and history is on their side. Take a look at this chart from the Twitter account of Heel Athletics:

Coincidence? Destiny? Either one will work for the Tar Heels as they look to make a run deep into the tournament.

The #1 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels’  journey to Phoenix begins today, at 4:00 PM/EST when they take on the #16 seeded Texas Southern Tigers. The game is set to tipoff after the conclusion of the Seton Hall-Arkansas game, which gets started at 1:30 PM/EST.