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GLENDALE, Ariz.—The specter of heartbreak loomed over North Carolina all season long, hovering over perhaps college basketball’s most storied program like a shadow, an inescapable reminder of its disappointment from a year ago.

As much as these players tried to suppress the memory, the image of Kris Jenkins’s buzzer-beater dropping through the hoop and Villanova storming the court in celebration kept replaying in their minds. One revolution of the calendar doesn’t eliminate the pain caused by coming so close to…