The road of the NCAA Tournament is coming to an end Monday night in Phoenix. The Tar Heels are favored to win it all, and with right. Putting aside that this is back-to-back appearances for the Tar Heels, the most important factor that will decide the game is the play of the big men.
Kennedy Meeks and Przemek Karnowski are both very important to their teams success, but the play of Meeks far outweighs that of Karnowski. Meeks is the true leader of the Tar Heels team, and his teammates know that they can always count on him to do his job.
A factor that outshines the Bulldogs is the Tar Heels guards ablity to get the ball to Meeks inside the paint so effortlessly. They are consistently able to open easy bucket opportunities for the big man, and while Karnowski has been dominant force for the Bulldogs down low, Meeks’ patience in the paint will outsmart the way Karnowski has been able to bully other big men previously throughout the season.
Meeks is also a much better rebounder than Karnowski on both sides of the ball. While he averaged about 9 rebounds during the regular season, he had a career high 17 rebounds against Kentucky in the Elite 8 followed by 14 rebounds Saturday against Oregon. Karnowski has nowhere near this in rebounding ability, so on paper we can expect that Meeks will win this matchup against Karnowski in dominating fashion.
After Meeks’ performance on Saturday, Roy Williams had this to say about his star forward’s playmaking down the stretch of the NCAA Tournament:
“I want the guys to have that kind of focus, but I think it’s two completely different games. I thought we had a big advantage inside….”
Karnowski averaged just under 6 rebounds per game, and only had 5 on Saturday against the Gamecocks. Expect the game to be decided inside the paint and not with perimeter shooting, which means this will be the Kennedy Meeks show and not a repeat of the disappointment of the 2016 season for the Tar Heels.