UNC Basketball: The shot Brice Johnson wishes didn’t go in
Reflecting on his UNC basketball career, Brice Johnson wishes that this one particular moment would’ve played out differently.
Fans of the UNC basketball program don’t need to be reminded of how the 2016 NCAA Championship game ended.
Kris Jenkins broke the hearts of Tar Heels fans around the world as he drilled a buzzer-beater to secure the national title for the Villanova Wildcats. Due to Jenkins’ heroics, the double-clutch three-pointer that Marcus Paige nailed 4.7 seconds earlier doesn’t get the attention that a heroic shot like that deserves.
Although Paige’s shot was very impressive, Brice Johnson wishes that the situation would’ve played out differently.
The former UNC basketball standout made an appearance on The Better Blue Podcast with James Michael McAdoo, as the topic of this game, and this particular sequence was a focal part of the discussion.
Johnson went on to say that he wishes Paige would have missed the shot, as it hurt much worse having lost the game in that fashion:
"“We got that far, and my hopes got crushed. Sometimes I say to myself, ‘I wish Marcus would have missed it.’ I wish he would have just missed the shot. It’s just me selfishly thinking that. If we had gone to overtime, I am not letting us lose that game. I am doing whatever I’ve got to do. I am getting every rebound. I am putting everything back. We are winning this game. Then that shot happened.”"
Of course, Paige’s heroics gave the Tar Heels a chance to force overtime, but there was too much time on the clock for Villanova to work with. The worst part of it was how it marked the ending of Paige and Johnson’s tenure with the UNC basketball program, as they were two players who deserved a better ending to their college careers.
North Carolina went on to earn redemption the following season, but Johnson didn’t watch much of it. The Tar Heels big man knew that the group in place would finish what they started the season prior.
"“I didn’t watch many games; I knew they were going to win it. There was no need to watch it. I watched both Duke games because I went to one. I knew those guys were going to go back and finish what we didn’t finish. They had the exact same team, minus me and Marcus. Justin Jackson, Theo Pinson, Joel Berry, Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks had something to prove. I watched the Kentucky game (Elite Eight); that was the last game I watched.”"
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