April 4, 2005: The University of North Carolina wins the National Championship, defeating the University of Illinois 75-70 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis -- "March Madness" nicknamed "Arch Madness."
Illinois, coached by Bruce Weber, and led by current Nets star Deron Williams, had come into the Final at 37-1, having lost only their pretty much meaningless regular-season finale, 65-64 away to Ohio State. And, since St. Louis is across the Mississippi River from the southern part of their State, they sort of had home-court advantage.
But North Carolina had Sean May, Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants. Roy Williams, a former assistant to Dean Smith, and a former coach at Kansas, getting them to a National Championship Game, led them to a 32-4 record going in. Their losses had been to Santa Clara in Oakland in an early-season tournament, away to a Wake Forest team then ranked Number 4, away to a Duke team then ranked Number 7, and to Georgia Tech in the Semifinal of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
The Tar Heels were too strong for the Fighting Illini. They jumped out to a 40-27 halftime lead, and hung on to win, 75-70. May scored 26 points, Felton 17, McCants 14. Luther Head led the Illini with 21 points.
It was the 4th NCAA Championship for the Tar Heels, their 5th title overall, and their 1st since Smith's retirement. Williams had his 1st title, and added titles in 2009 and 2017, giving Carolina 6 NCAA Tournament wins. (They'd won it in 1957 under Frank McGuire, and in 1982 and 1993 under Smith. They have also been retroactively credited with the title in 1924, under Norman Shepard, before the era of national tournaments.)
Sean May was the son of Scott May, who won a National Championship with Indiana in 1976. The Mays are 1 of 4 father-son pairs to both win National Championships, along with Marques and Kris Johnson, Henry and Mike Bibby, and Derek and Lamar Smith.
The Edward Jones Dome has been renamed The Dome at America's Center.
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April 4, 2005 was a Monday, as NCAA Tournament Final nights usually are.
Football was out of season. No NBA games were played. And the NHL season had been canceled. But it was Opening Day in Major League Baseball, and these games were played:
* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 7-6 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. In the bottom of the 9th inning, Austin Kearns led off with a single, Adam Dunn hit a home run to tie the game, and Joe Randa hit another to win it. Dunn had also homered earlier, off Pedro Martínez. Carlos Beltrán, José Reyes and Cliff Floyd each had 3 hits for the Mets, to no avail.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Washington Nationals, 8-4 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. This was the 1st game for the Nationals, after 36 seasons as the Montreal Expos. Brad Wilkerson was their 1st batter, and he singled off Jon Lieber for their 1st hit. Terrmel Sledge hit their 1st home run. Kenny Lofton hit a home run for the Phillies.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-0 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Rodrigo López pitches 6 shutout innings, outpitching Barry Zito, but allows 7 hits, and it takes 3 more pitchers to finish an 8-hit shutout.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 11-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit. Despite Comerica being a pitcher's park, Dmitri Young goes 4-for-4 with 3 home runs and 5 RBIs. He finishes the season with 21 homers and 72 RBIs. But illness and substance abuse curtailed his career, and he retired after the 2008 season, with just 171 home runs. He got clean, and became an advocate for his fellow diabetes patients and recovering addicts.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 1-0 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Mark Buehrle pitches 8 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, and Shingo Takatsu pitches a perfect 9th. Jake Westbrook goes the distance to take a tough loss, the only run coming on an error in the bottom of the 7th inning.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres, 12-10 at Coors Field in Denver. Clint Barmes went 4-for-6 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Aaron Miles went 5-for-6 with an RBI. For the Padres, Xavier Nady went 2-for-4, both his hits were home runs, and he had 4 RBIs.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 16-6 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Derrek Lee went 4-for-6 with a home run and 5 RBIs. Aramis Ramírez went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 4 RBIs.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Richie Sexson went 2-for-3, both hits being home runs, and had 5 RBIs.
* The New York Yankees opened the night before, on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball -- of course, in a showcase game against their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, beating them, 9-2, hardly a revenge for what had happened the preceding October.
* Everybody else debuted the next day, April 5: The Florida Marlins beating Atlanta Braves, 9-0 at Dolphins Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida; St. Louis Cardinals beat the beat the Houston Astros, 7-3 in a Playoff rematch at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston; the Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim; and the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at SBC Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.
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