St. Louis - North Carolina forward Jawad WiIliams had been missing.
One of the more consistent players early this season, Williams only scored more than 10 points once in the past eight games.
Williams was one of the Tar Heels seniors that survived an 8-20 season and a big coaching change during his four years.
But he exploded for 20 points and eight rebounds on Saturday in the 87-71 win against MSU. Williams nailed jumpers all over the floor off of his penetration and hit 9-of-13 shots.
"I just went out there and played my part," he said. "We have a team where guy's roles can change at any given time. My role changed."
Williams struggled with injuries throughout his career and disappeared in the scoring category in the tournament, but he said he never made excuses.
"The only thing I really went through was people trying to make excuses for me," he said. "I never made excuses, and I never will."
But it was the best time to pull out a big game.
"I went over to Jawad and told him, 'The reason we won this game is because of your heart,'" Carolina center Sean May said.
Halftime speech
After struggling in the first half, head coach Roy Williams gave a fiery halftime speech to get his players going.
The Tar Heels were outrebounded, turned the ball over nine times and were outhustled, he said.
"I didn't think we competed the way we have all year long," Roy Williams said. "We didn't rebound the ball, we didn't dive on the floor, we didn't take charges, we didn't do all those little things that make a difference."
But something clicked for the Tar Heels because, in the second half, they shot 57.1 percent and held MSU to a season-low 29.4 percent.
"From a basketball standpoint, we wanted to attack, and we didn't do that as much in the first half," Roy Williams said.
They gained back the rebound edge and dominated MSU in transition defense and found open guys for easy dunks.
"He got the point across, let me put it that way," guard Raymond Felton said.
Like father, like son
May and his father Scott will be the third father-son duo to reach the championship game. Scott May was on the 1976 Indiana team. The others were Henry (1970-72 at UCLA) and Mike Bibby (1997 at Arizona) and Marques (1974-76 at UCLA) and Kris Johnson (1995 at UCLA).
