The Tar Heels return to the National Championship game for the first time since last claiming the crown in 2009, punching their ticket with a decisive 83-66 victory over an underdog Syracuse squad in the Final Four. North Carolina has tallied five consecutive straight-up wins by double digits, building on the 10-game winning streak they ride into Monday night’s Wildcats versus Tar Heels betting matchup at NRG Stadium in Houston. The Tar Heels now are on an impressive 21-5 run in NCAA Tournament action dating to their 2009 national championship run, and they have bested the Wildcats in three tournament clashes since 2005, covering the spread in two of those meetings, according to the Odds Shark College Basketball Database. Villanova, meanwhile, is getting its first shot at a national championship since last winning a title in 1985. But Villanova now is firing on all cylinders, going 5-0 SU and ATS while outscoring opponents by 24 points per game in this year’s tourney, including a 95-51 demolition of Oklahoma on Saturday, smashing the record for the largest margin of victory in a Final Four game. The Wildcats rocked the tournament with a 64-59 victory over Kansas in the Elite Eight, knocking off the national championship favorite Jayhawks as 2-point underdogs. HOUSTON — if this season has taught anything, it’s that greatness cannot be anointed or projected or wished for.

It must be earned.

After all the talk throughout the year about the lack of a great team, there turned out to be two. Villanova and North Carolina didn’t reach Monday night’s The National Collegiate Athletic Association title game because their rosters are filled with NBA stars-in-the-making or they got lucky. They are the last ones playing because they were two very good teams that transformed themselves into great ones, through hard work and a few equally hard knocks. North Carolina began the year atop the rankings, but any idea that the Tar Heels might be invincible was erased with a loss to Northern Iowa four games in. A span in which they lost four times in nine games — three of those to ranked teams — only raised more questions. Villanova became the sixth team to hold the No. 1 ranking after a two-month span in which it won 16 of 17 games. But the Wildcats seemed to be more opportunistic than dominant, not even the best team in the Big East. A loss to Xavier only confirmed those suspicions. “We were a young team. Those were part of the growing pains,” Villanova forward Darryl Reynolds said. “We had to learn, we had to grow up and overcome certain. We had to learn a lot to get over ourselves and get out of our own way.” Since that rough patch in February, North Carolina has won 10 in a row. It’s won all five of its NCAA tournament games by 14 points or more. Marcus Paige has been transcendent while Brice Johnson has forced himself into the conversation about potential first-round picks in the NBA draft. After a surprise loss to Seton Hall in the finale of the Big East tournament, Villanova has ripped through the NCAA tournament. It beat a very good Miami team and then took down overall No. 1 seed Kansas. It played about as close to a perfect game as you can get against Oklahoma, shooting 71.4% from the field and making Buddy Hield irrelevant. Its 44-point victory was a Final Four record. Both teams have dominated when it mattered most because that is what great teams do.

It the end Villanova and UNC were neck and neck tearing and ripping at each other like lions eating prey, from the jump of the game both teams attacked. For the First half UNC kept hitting shots and got hot built a 39-34 lead going into the second half. Then Nova sparked a streak and they just wouldn’t miss, it started with Phil Booth hitting everything from a hop step jump shot to a crossover size up three. But UNC was out of it yet, the game was 71-74 Nova up with minutes left to go here comes “The Tar Heels had just put the Wildcats on their heels, storming back from 10 points down in five frantic minutes, tying the game on a circus 3-pointer by the iron-willed Marcus Paige, and breathing new life into a game that seemed to have long since slipped away from them” according to ESPN. Then as the ball went into the hands of “the Wildcats senior Ryan Arcidiacono, who raced up court, turned and flipped the ball backward to Kris Jenkins, trailing the play. His shot rattled through the rim as time expired. Confetti rained. Players dogpiled. It had been 31 years since Villanova’s last national title, in 1985, but the Wildcats had delivered again, 77-74, over the Tar Heels, a No. 1 seed, at NRG Stadium in front of an announced 74, 340 fans who exited in delirium or disbelief.” ESPN coverage of the Villanova Wildcats victory last night.