NCAA Basketball Tournament

Winners and Losers

Ray Holloman — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:45:00 EST

Filed under: Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

It is as the sports Almighty intended it. For every winner, there is a loser (take that and your nil-nil ties, soccer!). For every Tiger Woods, there is a Detroit Lion. For every Isiah Thomas as a player, there is an Isiah Thomas as a general manager, league owner, boss and suspected poor Parcheezi player. And for every North Carolina with its win for the program's ring, there is a Wake Forest, which now hasn't made the Final Four since Carolina coach Roy Williams entered puberty. Check out FanHouse's breakdown of the winners and losers of the NCAA tournament, other than those five-time national champion Heels.

The Winners | The Losers

Ty Lawson -- The last time a digit got this kind of press, it was detached in a cup of chili at Wendy's. That Lawson managed to beat back the press clippings of Tyler Hansbrough, a fella whose fawning press coverage President Obama and Tim Tebow probably have a Facebook page set up to decry, is impressive. That he managed to out-do his own toe was a show in one-upmanship. Lawson deserved every glowing word, handing out 34 assists against just seven turnovers, numbers that would make John Stockton be glad he hung up the short shorts. And besides, we're told one of those seven was the toe's fault.

Tyler Hansbrough -- Hansbrough now has every trophy handed out this side of the VIBE Awards. Knock him for his goofier-than-an '80s sitcom antics, but the senior laid down a royal flush for his career at North Carolina.

Missouri -- Coach Mike Anderson knows everything there is to know about heat, from the blast-furnace defense his team runs to the warm seat he found himself on to start the year. Needless to say, after Missouri's upset of Memphis and fantastic showing in the Elite Eight, Anderson doesn't have to worry about packing his bags against his choosing anytime soon. Anderson may have a problem replicating this success, as his 10-man deep, 40-minute long car crusher of a defense was a matter of calculus more than simple arithmetic, but in a tournament with no Cinderella, Missouri was the darling.

Cleveland State -- For one night, at least, Cinderella wore a Viking helmet. There was so much positive to say about the Vikings' win over fourth-seed Wake Forest that if you started listing everything that went right that night at tip-off, the Deacons' season would've been finished long before you were. Gary Waters earned a helping of redemption after unceremoniously resigning from Rutgers in 2006, capping a three-year turnaround in Cleveland. And the school itself returned to March Madness in the same Cinderella manner it's known for, following its 1986 upset of Indiana with a fitting encore and neatly bridging its legacy over an embarrassing scandalized past.

Durrell Summers' Dunk -- Your highlight of the tournament. Not only did the Michigan State guard slam over Stanley Robinson, he carried the Connecticut forward's palm into the rim, kind of in the way a bug meets the grill of a Mack truck. " I kind of like my chances with a guy back-pedalling and me going straight up," Summers said the next day. "He got a little piece of the ball. I just kind of instinctively tried to overpower it a little bit." Yeah, instinctive. Only if he was a lion and Robinson was a raw side of beef.

NCAA Tournament Action

GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 21: Wayne Ellington #22 of the North Carolina Tar Heels drives against Garrett Temple #14 of the Louisiana State University Tigers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum on March 21, 2009 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Wayne Ellington;Garrett Temple

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: A Washington Huskies cheerleader performs during a break in the action against the Purdue Boilermakers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Manny Harris #3 of the Michigan Wolverines jumps to the basket for a lay up against Taylor Griffin #32 of the Oklahoma Sooners in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Manny Harris

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Zack Novan #0 and Zack Gibson #32 of the Michigan Wolverines vie for the loose ball with Blake Griffin #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Zack Gibson;Zack Novak;Blake Griffin

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Willie Warren #13 of the Oklahoma Sooners makes contact as he goes to the basket with Zack Gibson #32 of the Michigan Wolverines in the first hafl during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Willie Warren

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Taylor Griffin #32 of the Oklahoma Sooners goes up for the short jump shot against DeShawn Sims #34 of the Michigan Wolverines in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Taylor Griffin;DeShawn Sims

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: JaJuan Johnson #25 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a shot over Jon Brockman #40 of the Washington Huskies in the second half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** JaJuan Johnson;Jon Brockman

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Taylor Griffin #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners and Zack Novak #0 of the Michigan Wolverines vie for position to the loose ball in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Zack Novak;Taylor Griffin

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Head Coach Jeff Capel of the Michigan Wolverines yells from the sideline during their game against the Oklahoma Sooners in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jeff Capel

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: Lewis Jackson #23 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a layup as Quincy Pondexter #20 of the Washington Huskies looks on during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Lewis Jackson;Quincy Pondexter

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Arizona -- The Wildcats were winners simply by making the field, their 25th consecutive NCAA tournament, and they now trail North Carolina by just two for the record all-time run. Making a Sweet 16 run, before losing in biblical proportion to Louisville, may have just re-affirmed that the talent was there all along, but in a season of turmoil, the Wildcats still outlasted all of the Pac-10.

Trent Johnson -- The LSU coach's success may be slightly inflated - he inherited a senior-laden team and a healthy Tasmin Mitchell, who missed all but three games of John Brady's final season on the bench - but he's already proved himself to be an infinitely more skilled bench boss than his predecessor. Credit him too, for giving North Carolina its toughest contest. The Tigers were tied with the Heels with eight minutes to play before Lawson switched to a gear no one in college can defend. But putting a scare into the behemoth of this year's tournament is a little like making Clark Kent think twice before hitting the phone booth.

Villanova -- It had been 24 years since the Wildcats last set foot in the Final Four and toppled brawny, undershirt-wearing Georgetown in an upset for the ages. Now Jay Wright has his own shining moment and a program that may be on the way to a continuous apex even Rollie Massimino didn't reach. More impressive was the blue-chip pelts Villanova collected on the way, routing UCLA by 20, Duke by 23 and withstanding Pitt in the best NCAA tournament game in years.

Scottie Reynolds - So long as there are montages, the Dash for Detroit will always have a place among them. If Summers had the highlight of this tournament, Reynolds had the play, a near halfcourt drive through more defenders than it seemed legal for Pitt to play and that ended with the juniro draining the game-winning shot ato send Villanova to the Final Four for the first time since 1985. There was a half second remaining when the ball went through the hoop, the first half second of the sports eternity that shot will be remembered.

Big East - Everything said about this conference turned out to be as real and brutal as a DeJuan Blair elbow. A record five teams made the Sweet 16 and half of the Elite Eight hailed from the league. A Big East team didn't cut down the nets (in fact, only Villanova cut down any nets as Connecticut bypassed the tradition after winning the West), but there should be no doubt which conference was the nation's best, particularly in its top tier.

Honorable Mention: Chief Kickingstallionsims. The Alabama State center had an awful play-in game, scoring zero points as his counterpart, Morehead State's Kenneth Faried, scored 14 points to go with 21 rebounds, but he'll always have a spot in the NCAA tournament all-name bracket alongside Fennis Dembo, Harold Arceneaux and others. And this time, he won't be in the play-in game.

Also, North Dakota State's Ben Woodside, who scored 37 points in the Bison's loss to Kansas.

Click Here to Continue to the Losers

Winners and Losers originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hansbrough's Legacy Comes in Focus

Greg Couch — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, South Region

DETROIT -- He's overrated. He's awkward. He will be a role player, at best, in the NBA. He cost himself lots of money by coming back to college this year. He's credited as working harder than everyone else, and that's entirely unfair to everyone else, maybe even with a racial hint to it.

I'm pretty sure I still feel all of those things about Tyler Hansbrough, who has touched a nerve to half of college basketball's fans, rubbed it raw. Also, national analysts just never stop forcing him down our throats.

But watching him in the national championship game Monday night, watching him go through his usual annoying things, it all started to come together.

Hansbrough is a national champion now, as North Carolina beat Michigan State, 89-72. His legacy is set, and he gets to move up several notches in Carolina lore, onto the same plane with all the greats. Yes, including Michael Jordan.

It all makes sense now. All of those criticisms about Hansbrough might be true, but at the same time, they also fit together into what truly made him the ultimate college basketball player. It took until his final game for some people -- yes, me -- to realize that.

"This is what I wanted to accomplish,'' he said on the court, just after the game ended. "All the hard work, all the tough practices, all the weight room. That's what Carolina's all about. There's nothing better than this.''

It had something to do with the celebration. They blew off indoor fireworks, and confetti rained everywhere. Hansbrough stood there, and he kept jumping and hugging everyone, and his Dad and brother watched from the front row. His Dad, Gene, thought about him as a little kid, and talked about his young boy growing up to reach his dreams.

"It wasn't a money decision to come back,'' Gene said.

And Tyler's brother, Ben?

"Some people are very rough on Tyler,'' he said. "You stand up for your family. Leave it at that.''

Leave what at that? Apparently, Ben, who will play for Notre Dame next year after transferring from Mississippi State, was in a casino in Detroit the other night when people started giving him a hard time about Tyler. Ben responded. The story goes that security came to stop him.

"I told you I come from a tough family,'' Tyler said.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Hansbrough is still overrated. He doesn't have much of a jump shot. He was national player of the year last year, and would have gone in the middle of the first round of the NBA draft. Now, he'll go toward the bottom of that round. And the "work hard" thing? Well, he really does hustle every second and clobber everyone. But it just seems that that label always hits white players.

But try not to judge him as an NBA player. Worry about that later. When you see him in the national championship game, with all the extra emotion that comes in college, you see what a great fit he is. In fact, he's the ideal. Judge him as a college player, which is what he has been the past four years.

Oh, the hell he took on the road from hecklers. Another great thing about college sports: the crazed passion. It focused on Hansbrough for a reason.

"I love to hate him is what I do,'' Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said the other day. "I hate him because he knocks you on your tail. He's tough as nails. He loves contact.

"There's two kinds of players: seekers and avoiders. He's a seeker. I mean, if you're there, he's going to hit you.''

He's what every college coach wants.

When I connect him to Jordan, don't take that wrong. He wasn't even the ACC's player of the year this year. His teammate, Ty Lawson, was. But Hansbrough has been an All-American in some publications four times, yet there was a sense that this game was make-or-break for his career. At North Carolina, it takes national titles.

For someone to be an All-American four times in this era, well, that's almost a negative. Truly great talents don't stay in college that long.

But he's tied together now with all of the Tar Heels greats because he was the leader of this era, and he's a national champ. If he didn't do it as beautifully as it has been done in the past, then that really doesn't matter.

Hansbrough's title and the whole North Carolina lineage came together so early Monday night. With eight minutes left in the first half, when the blowout was on, I got an elevator heading back to the court. A couple kids were there in North Carolina shirts, and their father in a Michigan State shirt.

And who got on the elevator? Jordan. He told one kid, "Nice shirt,'' looked at the father and said, "You've got a problem, man. Take that shirt off.''

"Yeah, Dad,'' the boy said.

Jordan was already giddy. One kid asked for a photo and Jordan grabbed him lightly on both shoulders, looked him in the face and teased, "You're going to be arrested if you do.'' Then he asked the kid how old he was and whether he played basketball.

Ten and no.

"It's all right,'' Jordan said. "I started when I was 12. Left hand. Work on the left hand.''

So it was a Carolina moment. It was a Roy Williams moment, too, as he won his second title as North Carolina's coach. He used to be known as a choker. Now, he's a legend.

But mostly, I think this was Tyler Hansbrough's moment. He didn't win the game by himself, but scored 18 points, had seven rebounds and did everything he could possibly do every second of the game. It's what you want from your college basketball stars.

Psycho-T, they call him for his effort.

I used to roll my eyes at that.

Championship Routs

By the time they were midway through the first half, the Tar Heels were playing only against history. Their 17-point blowout of Michigan State is tied for the ninth largest margin of victory in championship game history. Click through the gallery to read about the other nine one-sided romps.

Paul Sancya, AP

1992: Duke 71, Michigan 51 The Fab Five's first trip to the Final Four was a bit of a Cinderella story, but it ended in a rout as the Blue Devils become the first team to win back-to-back titles since John Wooden's UCLA dynasty

Jim Mone, AP

1990: UNLV 103, Duke 73 But the Blue Devils knew intimately what it was like to wind up on the wrong side of a laugher. Two years earlier, a UNLV team led by Anderson Hunt, Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon routed Duke by 30, far and away the biggest romp in finals history.

Eric Risberg, AP

1976: Indiana 86, Michigan 68: The last undefeated national champion in college basketball history did it with an exclamation point at the end. Even more impressive, the Hoosiers actually trailed by six at the half. This would be the second title game rout for Indiana, which drubbed Kansas 60-42 in 1940.

1973: UCLA 87, Memphis 66 How could it not have been a runaway victory when UCLA star Bill Walton was this good? The center score a still championship game record 44 points as the Bruins won the last of seven straight titles and the ninth of John Wooden's career, humbling relative upstart Memphis State.

1969: UCLA 92, Purdue 72 Not only could no one stop the UCLA dynasty with Lew Alcindor in the center, no one could even come close. The Bruins won three title games with Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, by an average of 19 points. Alcindor score 37 in his farewell in 1969.

1968: UCL8 78, North Carolina 55 This time, the Tar Heels finished on the wrong side of a historic drubbing. Dominated by Alcindor, who scored 34 points in his junior season, Dean Smith's second Final Four team trailed by 10 points at the half and gave up 46 in the second stanza.

1960: Ohio State 75, Cal 55: The Jerry Lucas-led Buckeyes jumped out to an 18-point halftime lead in this halftime drubbing. The best seat in the house belonged to a future coach. Reserve Bob Knight missed his only field goal attempt for the Buckeyes and picked up a single foul.

1952: Kansas 80, St. John's 63: Led by Clyde Lovellette, one of the great big men in NCAA history, the Kansas Jayhawks won their first national time in dominant fashion. The 6-foot-10 tower Lovellette scored a then-record 141 points in the tournament. But despite the rout, Jayhawk reserve Dean Smith didn't register a single field goal attempt.

Hansbrough's Legacy Comes in Focus originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Carolina's Blue Is Gold Standard

Jay Mariotti — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:45:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, South Region

DETROIT -- They celebrated together, arm in arm, bouncing and hugging and laughing and ultimately crying as the confetti buried them. It isn't the best time for traditional brand names in America, with even the surest things reduced to chilling vulnerability in a volatile, wacky world. But the North Carolina basketball name, a constant for ages in this country, remains safe and secure.

You might have been bored by it all Monday night, driven to beddy-bye by one of the most lopsided national championship games ever. You might have been bummed that Michigan State, backed by 60,000 fans in a geographically convenient love-in, didn't complete the mission of soothing the collective psyche of a battered city and state. You might have been worn down by the familiar sight of Carolina Blue prevailing again -- ho hum, ad nauseum, bring on baseball and Tiger Woods at the Masters -- and annoyed by the thought of President Obama trash-talking that he picked the champion in his Barack-O-bracket.

Me? I was mesmerized, gobsmacked, blown away.

In a sport of stretched-out parity, no one should dominate a title game the way the Tar Heels dominated a 89-72 romp, minimizing the partisan noise to a shellshocked whisper. "The perfect storm,'' marveled Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who was rendered helpless. Carolina had me at the opening tip, which had to be re-done when Tyler Hansbrough -- the all-encompassing symbol of this tale -- tied up Michigan State's Travis Walton for a loose ball and jumped right back up as if possessed. It was obvious, then and there, that no one was beating Psycho-T and the Heels. "He got his nose busted two years ago, when blood was coming down his face,'' Walton recalled. "So me and him tying up for a basketball and falling to the ground, I'm pretty sure he's gonna jump up real fast. It's the national championship game.''

If you blinked, you missed all the drama. Ty Lawson, playing with a jammed toe the last month, attacked Michigan State for seven first-half steals en roue to 10 for the night. Hansbrough was his physical, efficient self. Wayne Ellington was open and draining jumpshots. The first man off the bench, freshman Ed Davis, played like a force who might be an NBA lottery pick, which is all you need to know about this team's amazing depth. Barely four minutes into the game, Carolina had scored 17 points against an Izzo-coached defense. Soon enough, it was 24-8 ... then 32-11 ... then 43-20 ... then 55-34 at halftime, a gap punctuated by 14 MSU turnovers.

"Stage fright,'' said a disappointed Michigan State guy, Magic Johnson.

"I did feel a little deer-in-the-headlights look,'' Izzo admitted.

Actually, this was about Roy Williams accumulating the nation's elite talent, coaching the dickens out of it -- to use one of his corny words -- and overcoming injuries and doubts from the national peanut gallery to win Carolina's second national title in five years. If anyone doubted it last year, when the Tar Heels laid an egg in the semifinals against Kansas, this is the gold standard of college hoops programs. Everyone else hopes to reach the Final Four. North Carolina expects it. "You've got six NBA players who could be drafted in the first round or early second," said Walton, who committed four turnovers while teammate Kalin Lucas was committing six. "You're really looking at a team that could probably beat the worst team in the NBA."

Championship Routs

Paul Sancya, AP

Jim Mone, AP

Eric Risberg, AP

And while Hansbrough, Lawson, Ellington, Danny Green and maybe Davis skip off to the NBA, be fairly certain that Carolina will be back soon. Williams simply reloads because top players want to play in Chapel Hill. Duke? It's no coincidence that Williams has won two national titles and reached three Final Fours in his six years while Mike Krzyzewski hasn't been to a Final Four in the last five years. Roy has defused the power of Coach K, though he wasn't about to take much credit after midnight in his aw-shucks mode. Never mind that he becomes only the fourth active coach to win multiple championships, joining Krzyzewski, Jim Calhoun and Billy Donovan.

"Somebody told me if I won, I'd be the 13th coach (ever) to have more than one. I have a hard time believing that,'' Williams said. "I mean, I really do. Roy Williams is not that good. But, boy, old Roy has got some big-time players, and that's what it takes.''

The legendary Dean Smith had even better players, including a certain fan in the stands named Michael Jeffrey Jordan. And Williams now has as many titles as Smith in a much shorter time span. Is it possible Roy is better than Dean? Do we dare suggest it? "Roy Williams and Dean Smith don't fit in the same sentence,'' he said. "I really believe that. I'm not being humble. I just don't believe that. I've got an unbelievable staff. I mean, we've been to five Final Fours in the last eight years (including Kansas). When I'm about to mess up, they take care of me. They give me great suggestions, and I get to make decisions.''

Williams isn't the romantic figure here. What's impressive about Carolina is how Hansbrough and others who could have opted for the NBA last spring, as the vast majority of good players do, chose to reunite for one final try. "As I walked off the floor, I told Hansbrough that it was really nice to see a bunch of guys that stayed in school and put winning above everything else,'' Izzo said. "Even though we did have a cause -- we had a bunch of causes -- they had a cause, too, and I was pretty impressed by that.'' In Hansbrough's case, he may have lost money because his pro stock has dropped somewhat this season, but no one was more emotional during the celebration than the most-maligned player in the land. Why people don't like him, I really don't know, but you don't have a heart if you didn't take a look at his tears and smile.

"Sounds like I made a pretty good decision. This is the best feeling in the world,'' Hansbrough said. "It's the greatest way to go out. I mean, what we've been through as a team? But we stuck to it and climbed, and we did it.''

Old Roy loves all his players. But he has a special affection for Hansbrough, a self-made player who has ignored the taunts and crank phone calls to become the quintessential college basketball player. Williams almost broke down and wept when talking about him, but he somehow kept his emotions together. "I can say this, and you guys can choose to believe it or not,'' he said. "I wanted this championship for Roy Williams, yes. And I'm extremely, extremely satisfied. But I desperately -- and it's not war and it's not the economy or anything -- but I desperately wanted this championship for that young man. I know that's corny. But, hello, that's who I am. Let me explain it this way. Yes, I earn a good salary, but if you put $10 million in a pile, and say, 'Roy, you can have that $10 million, but if you take it, you'll forget that feeling you had when that big rascal came over and hugged you,' you guys can split that $10 million because I wouldn't give $10 million for the feeling I had at that moment.''

Latest Tourney Cheerleader Photos

DETROIT - APRIL 06: A cheerleader for the North Carolina Tar Heels performs against the Michigan State Spartans during the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship game at Ford Field on April 6, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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DETROIT - APRIL 06: The North Carolina Tar Heels cheerleaders perform during a break in the game against the Michigan State Spartans in the first half during the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship game at Ford Field on April 6, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

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DETROIT - APRIL 06: A cheerleadeer for the Michigan State Spartans performs against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship game at Ford Field on April 6, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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The Connecticut cheerleaders perform during the first half between Connecticut and Stanford in a semifinal of the NCAA women's college basketball tournament Final Four on Sunday, April 5, 2009, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Stanford cheerleaders perform in the first half of Stanford's semifinal against Connecticut in the NCAA women's college basketball tournament Final Four on Sunday, April 5, 2009, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

The Oklahoma mascot performs with the cheerleaders in the second half of a semifinal against Louisville at the NCAA women's college basketball Final Four on Sunday, April 5, 2009, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Louisville cheerleaders entertain the crowd in a semifinal against Oklahoma in the NCAA women's college basketball tournament Final Four on Sunday, April 5, 2009, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

DETROIT - APRIL 04: A cheerleader for the North Carolina Tar Heels supports her team against the Villanova Wildcats during the National Semifinal game of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship at Ford Field on April 4, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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University of North Carolina cheerleaders cheer for their team against Villanova during their NCAA men's Final Four semi-final basketball game in Detroit, Michigan, April 4, 2009. REUTERS/Mike Segar (UNITED STATES SPORT BASKETBALL)

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DETROIT - APRIL 04: A North Carolina Tar Heels cheerleader gets thrown in the air against the Villanova Wildcats during the National Semifinal game of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship at Ford Field on April 4, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

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For a program known as a stoic blueblood, it's remarkable how many tear ducts were tortured. At haltime, when the public-address announced barked, "One of the most recognizable figures in the world ....'' most of the 72,922 fans in Ford Field began to roar. In a shock of unprecedented proportion, Jordan's election to the Basketball Hall of Fame had been announced earlier in the day. He waved to the crowd with the others in his class, including John Stockton and David Robinson, but if you looked closely, you could see his eyes filling up with tears. For most, the Hall of Fame election is a joyous occasion. For Mike, the ultimate competitor, it's killing him.

"This is not fun for me," Jordan said. "I don't like being up here for the Hall of Fame, because at that time, your basketball career is completely over. That's the way I look at it. I was hoping this day was coming in 20 more years, or that I'd actually go in when I'm dead and done. Because the way you always look at it, you can always go and put shorts on and play. Now you get into the Hall of Fame, what else is there to do?

"Look, it's a great accomplishment. It's great the respect everyone is paying. But for me, I always want to have you thinking that I can always go back and play the game of basketball. As long as you have that thought you never know what can happen. You never know what my abilities can do.''

Please. God, no. He wasn't thinking about coming back again, was he?

"No," Jordan said. "But I'd like for you to think that way.''

It was a milestone day in his life, His youngest son, Marcus, committed to play at Central Florida weeks after winning an Illinois state championship. In Chicago, Jordan was shown on a video used by 2016 Summer Olympics organizers to sway visiting members of the International Olympic Committee. Yet all he could think about was playing ball again. Hey, why not a one-on-one, Carolina vs. MSU warmup between Jordan and Johnson?

"You really think he can beat me?'' Jordan shot back. "He couldn't beat me in the (NBA) Finals at all.''

Soon enough, deep into the night, His Airness was celebrating with Old Roy, the current players and former greats like Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison. If it felt like North Carolina is the essence of college basketball, the class of the sport, reality simply was sinking in. Accept it and move on to next year, when, surely, the Tar Heels will be ready to win again

Carolina's Blue Is Gold Standard originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spartans Lose Handle on Everything

Chas Rich — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:42:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, Midwest Region, South Region

There's no real secret as to what did in Michigan State in the NCAA championship game. Yes, there was the superior talent on North Carolina. The Tar Heels shot really effectively in the first half. North Carolina could actually make free throws. The issue for Michigan State, though, was their inability to hold onto the ball.

The Spartans turned the ball over 21 times in the game. The poor ball-handling made it easier for North Carolina to go on runs big runs and stopped Michigan State attempts to come back cold.

North Carolina's Ty Lawson, was a big reason for the Michigan State turnovers with eight steals, but Michigan State had plenty of self-inflicted damage. They found themselves unable to control the pace for the first time in the Tournament and threw the ball away numerous times trying to outrun North Carolina in transition.

In their two previous games against UConn and Louisville the Spartans turned the ball over a total of 23 times. They nearly equaled that facing North Carolina. In the first half, the turnovers absolutely killed any chance of Michigan State's chances to stay close with North Carolina. The turnovers continued in the second half, preventing Michigan State from ever closing the gap with the Tar Heels. Even as the Spartans tried to come back, they could not consistently hold onto the ball.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Spartans Lose Handle on Everything originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:42:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tar Heels Dominate in Detroit

Dan Graziano — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:50:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, Midwest Region, South Region

This certainly wasn't the same Michigan State team we watched the past two weekends. But it was the same North Carolina team we all thought, back in November, was the best team in the country by a mile.

If ever a national championship game felt like a coronation, it was 2009.

There were reasons, over the past three months, to doubt these Tar Heels. There was Ty Lawson's bum toe. There was that weird and inexplicable loss to Boston College. There were memories of the way they went out, too soon, in the tournament the past two years. The 2007 collapse against Georgetown. The 2008 pasting by Kansas.

But really, this was something we should have seen coming.

This North Carolina team has been building to this all along. It's the same basic core of guys that gave up the game against the Hoyas two years ago in the regional final, and got run out of the building by the eventual champs in last year's Final Four. But what's different now is that all those ways North Carolina used to lose to seemingly inferior teams...they no longer show up.

Gone are the days when the Tar Heels didn't seem to care on defense, when there was no team they wouldn't let hang around. When they'd get out 20-8 on, say, Georgia Tech and then all of a sudden be down 31-30. These Tar Heels played defense as if they were crime scene tape, and they didn't lapse. A Spartans team that tried, foolishly, to run up and down the floor with the more athletic Heels couldn't find a decent shot in the whole first half.

Gone are the days when the Heels would be out-toughed on the boards. If there was a team that should have been able to do that tonight, it was this Michigan State team, which rebounded all tournament as if it were starving and the ball was made of ground beef. But UNC closed off that potential option, first by not missing any shots and later by boxing out and using its superior size and strength to win the board battles when they still mattered.

Gone are the days when the Heels would go six minutes without scoring. Now, when that starts to happen, Lawson makes a play. Or Wayne Ellington or Danny Green makes a shot. Or Ed Davis, who looks like the foundation of a title defense no matter who leaves for the draft, shows off some game and makes you wonder if there are any weak spots.

Gone are the days when Roy Williams seemed overwhelmed by the talent he had at his fingertips -- almost as if he were afraid to coach these incredible athletes for fear of messing something up. Williams now watches with the calm eye of a man who knows it's going to turn out right, because the holes of the past couple of years have been closed. He's always known, since he got to UNC, that his teams would be unbeatable if they played their best for 40 minutes. What he didn't know in 2007 or 2008 or even back in January of 2009 was whether they would.

NCAA Tournament Action

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The past three weeks, they did it every game. They never let up. They played like a team that knew it was better than any it was going to face -- a team that had already answered every question to itself and now was going through the formality of answering those questions in public.

They played like national champions. And it's hard to remember the last time anybody claimed that title quite so convincingly.

There used to be doubts about North Carolina. But not anymore.

Tar Heels Dominate in Detroit originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NCAA Championship Chat

Chas Rich — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:43:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, Midwest Region, South Region

This is it. The last game of the 2008-09 basketball season. Whether you're rooting for Michigan State or North Carolina join is for a live chat at 9 PM ET and stick with us through the night. We'll be talking about the game, how the teams got here, the Arizona and Memphis quests to find someone to take their job, and anything else that comes to mind.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;altcast_code=cdaf773ac0" &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;NCAA Title Game 09&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

NCAA Championship Chat originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:43:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Repeat Performance on Tap?

Ray Holloman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:18:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big Ten, Midwest Region, South Region

In life, you may never get a second chance to make a first impression.

But if you bomb it as badly as Michigan State did in its 98-63 loss to North Carolina in December that was godawful embarrassing even by the standards of a stadium that hosts the Lions, you'll get months, if not a lifetime, to explain exactly what went wrong.

And if you're the Spartans, you get a second chance to make it right.

At least after you explain. And explain. And explain.

"We're a lot different," said Raymar Morgan, noting that Goran Suton didn't play and Delvon Roe wasn't healthy. "We just had a lot of ups and downs."

"We were a little beat up," offered coach Tom Izzo, in his most optimistic post mortem of the game. "That's the truth. We came off that three games in four days. Even Roy [Williams] said to me after the game, we're hanging in there with five, six minutes to go."

"It was hard watching these guys play and not being there that time," Suton said. "But we have got a chance. I think it's going to be a totally different game."

But Suton might be as much of a minority as those who only buy American cars. North Carolina is the favorite tonight, should be the favorite tonight and has probably already choreographed a little "One Shining Moment" dance.

Somewhere between truth and good coaching, Izzo has blown enough smoke over the Tar Heels to set off fire alarms all across the Midwest.

When asked how he could beat North Carolina, he joked about getting Magic Johnson's final two years of eligibility restored.

When asked how the result would've been different if everyone was healthy, he said blankly that they might've lost by 20 had they played as they did with a full roster, instead of losing by 35.

And when asked about the Tar Heels and their former national player of the year, their reigning ACC player of the year and their other pair of scorers capable of posting a back-snapping stat line, Izzo was blunt..

"I keep saying one-on-one, we're not as good as North Carolina," he said. "I don't feel bad about saying that. I don't feel like I'm demeaning my team. I'm realistic. I'm semi-intelligent. I've watched enough film.

"If we play good and they play good, we're losing."

And Izzo is probably right. Monday night's championship game could be different than the ACC-Big Ten Challenge debacle, but probably only in margin and date. It's just as likely Michigan State ends up in a world of hurt even the Big 3's accountants would wince at.

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Yes, Suton is back. But will it matter in any way other than an extra name in the stat sheet? North Carolina has 28 feet of interior presence to rotate on Suton. The Heels locked down Gonzaga's Josh Heytvelt in the Sweet 16, and when Oklahoma's Blake Griffin turned the Heels interior defense into a pile of light blue kindling wood, North Carolina still won. By 12.

Is Suton going to do better than Griffin? Is he going to do a better job of drawing North Carolina's big men out of the paint than Duke's Kyle Singler did when the Tar Heels twice bounced the Blue Devils?

Can he defend Ty Lawson, the point guard whose sneakers seem to run on the same stuff they put in fighter planes?

And then there's home court advantage, the fight for Detroit.

"It's a storm in the city," said Kalin Lucas, making his point meteorologically. "So we're trying to bring sunlight in."

But is home-court advantage going to matter to a team that's gone into Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, kicked its feet up, enjoyed a hot dog and beat the Blue Devils four straight times for dessert? Will 72,000-ish fans add anything more than the 9,314 at Cameron except longer lines in the rest room? The 25,000 or so that showed up for the first event definitely didn't help.

"You know if we're playing against the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan, they out number us," Williams said. "We don't have as good a chance at that one. ...So for us, we're playing Michigan State. I do realize they have a cause. Well, we also have a cause. We want to win a national championship, period."

Will Roe's health matter? The freshman played the first game not long after coming off a nine-month layover following a knee injury suffered in December, 2007. Roe, heavily recruited by these same Heels, is a superb offensive rebounder, but Villanova gouged North Carolina on the offensive boards in the Final Four and still lost by 14. Rebounding alone won't change the outcome.

And there's the idea that Michigan State has improved much more than North Carolina since their meeting, which may be true. But the Heels had the kind of head start that would let Barkley beat Bolt in a 100-meter dash.

And these Heels have improved. Don't think so? Check out the way their defensive efficiency has improved this season, like a steady climb inverse your stock portfolio. They're 16th in the nation now, plenty respectable for a national champion. And that perimeter defense which was cut to ribbons by Tyrese Rice, Jeff Teague, Toney Douglas and Greivis Vasquez at points this season is now sea-worthy tight. Look at those horrific shooting percentages by Villanova and Oklahoma's guards. Look at that fat zero in Matt Bouldin's assist column in the win over Gonzaga.

Of course, in a one-and-done environment, anything is possible and like everyone outside of the Tar Heel state, we'll be hoping the Spartans' moment shines another night.

But Michigan State has to play just about perfectly. And perfect is North Carolina's game plan.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. But you always get plenty of chances to re-affirm it.

Repeat Performance on Tap? originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:18:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tough Carolina Digs Its Heels In

Kevin B. Blackistone — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 02:29:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, South Region

DETROIT -- If you really think about it, to call the North Carolina basketball team Tar Heels has always been more of an oxymoron. Michael Jordan. Walter Davis. Bob McAdoo. Vince Carter. James Worthy. On and on. You think of them and you think smooth. You think finesse. You think of a pretty way of playing.

It isn't that Jordan and Carter and lots of other North Carolina basketball players weren't tough, but you don't think of them as the 19th century North Carolinians who burned trees into black muck, or tar, that they then spread on the bottom of boats. You don't think of them as part of that North Carolina Civil War lore -- the wrong and losing side, by the way -- where a Confederate troop leader pleaded with his boys to fight with the toughness of those North Carolinians he'd heard about, those Tar Heels.

At least not until now.

North Carolina 83, Villanova 69: Recap | Box Score

There are a lot of reasons the current edition of the Tar Heels' basketball team advanced Saturday night, with a relatively easy 83-69 win over Villanova, to Monday night's national title game in Ford Field against Michigan State. They have an outrageously efficient point guard in the nifty Ty Lawson. They have last season's player of the year, Tyler Hansbrough, manning the middle. They have shooters galore including Danny Green and Wayne Ellington. They have depth at every position and plenty of height.

And they are tough, resilient when need be.

Their toughness is embodied mostly in Hansbrough, a player whose prodigious production is anything but pretty to watch. He is about as fluid as a rock slide but just as destructive to whatever is in his way.

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But the Tar Heels' toughness is born out in a most-overlooked aspect of their game: defense.

With all their fine shooters and their high-octane offense, it is understandable that most of us don't notice North Carolina's desire and success at shutting down their opponents, but they've done just that as well as anybody the past few weeks. Guarding shooters. Rebounding. Getting loose balls.

"When I watched Villanova's tapes of the Pitt game, the UCLA game, the Duke game, they had tremendous sense of urgency and chased down everything," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said after beating Villanova. "There was one play in the UCLA game where they were up 23 with like six minutes to go, and [Dwayne] Anderson came from behind and dove and slapped the ball loose. I showed that to my team [Friday] night. That's the way we've got to play.

"We talked about it [Friday] night ... about we can't allow somebody to outcompete us on this stage."

They haven't. No team has come close.

Look at what Williams' Tar Heels did Saturday night to Villanova. Look at what they did to Oklahoma last weekend.

Once would be an aberration. Twice is a trend.

Villanova was known for the marksmen it employed from beyond the three-point line, like guards Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher. All told, Villanova made five of 27 attempts from beyond the arc. A weekend ago, Oklahoma came into its game against North Carolina after having shot the lights out against Syracuse. Against the Tar Heels, they shot as if the lights actually were out.

Villanova on Saturday was held below its averages in almost all offensive categories. The same was true of Oklahoma a weekend ago.

Offense isn't the reason these Tar Heels are the first Tar Heels tournament team ever to beat opponents by an average of at least 12 points. Defense is the reason.

Case and point: After the Wildcats quickly clawed out of a double-digit hole they'd been in most of the game early in the second half, the Tar Heels responded most pointedly with their defense. They forced a turnover from Wildcats guard Reggie Redding, successfully contested a layup by Reynolds and allowed the next few shots the Wildcats got off to come from no closer than the three-point line. They all went astray.

The next thing the Wildcats knew, they were staring up at a mountainous lead the Tar Heels had built again. They never mounted another challenge.

"What it really came down to is we got stops and got the lead back up to where we wanted it to be," Ellington said of halting the momentary bleeding.

There was some real blood from the Tar Heels on Saturday, too. Hansbrough -- who most famously bled two seasons ago after a flagrant elbow from Duke's Gerald Henderson broke his nose -- left the game briefly to have a cut hand treated. It was amazing he didn't suffer more such injuries from the times he was knocked or tossed down. Still, he finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and a game-high four steals. Eight of his points came from trips to the free-throw line, something he's done more than anyone in the country this year. That's tough.

The Tar Heels couldn't be drawing on this resolve at a more opportune time. It isn't just that they are doing so in the tournament. It is that they are doing so as they prepare to go into the ultimate game against a team that may be the toughest of all, Tom Izzo's Spartans, which Izzo happily calls a blue-collar team than represents their blue-collar state where this Final Four is being held.

We already knew the Tar Heels were talented enough to win this whole thing. They've proved now they are tournament-tough enough, too.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.

Tough Carolina Digs Its Heels In originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sun, 05 Apr 2009 02:29:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Villanova Can't Hit 3-Pointers

Chas Rich — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:43:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, South Region, East Region

Whether it was an off night, the size and length of North Carolina's defense bothering the smaller Villanova guards, it all added up to the same thing: a crate load of bricks. When the Wildcats shoot a hideous 5-of-27 on 3-pointers (18.5 percent), they do not have much of a chance. There is not much to decipher.

Villanova gave up size all over the court, so they needed to hit some of their jump shots to have a chance, to open up lanes for penetration to the basket and to give Dante Cunningham a little space inside to work.

It never happened.

Scottie Reynolds was 3-of 11 on 3-pointers. Dwayne Anderson, Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes combined to miss all 13 of their attempts from the outside. The Wildcats were held to their lowest shooting performance of the season, going 26-of-79 from the floor (33 percent).

Instead, it was UNC that jumped all over Villanova on the perimeter. Wayne Ellington for North Carolina drained several threes in the first half, and that only accelerated the need by Villanova to shoot threes.

The Wildcats had to get some offense to stay with North Carolina. That never occurred. The longer the game went, the more desperate Villanova became to get some scoring. That never happened. But the bricks certainly did. Again and again.

Villanova Can't Hit 3-Pointers originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:43:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Live Updates from Carolina Country

Pat Lackey — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:07:00 EST

Filed under: Tourney Fans, South Region, East Region

I'm here at a bar deep in Tar Heel country surrounded by powder blue and tangible energy. The packed masses here hope to see UNC defeat Villanova in this Final Four contest and advance to the NCAA tourney final. Win or lose, I'll be providing on-site updates and commentary. Join me after the jump.

Live Updates from Carolina Country originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:07:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Four Live Blog

Chas Rich — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:10:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

This is what we have been waiting all week for, through non-stories like Ty Lawson legally playing craps, through analysis beaten into the ground, through the cycling of the coaching carousel. Well, Michigan State and UConn tip off at 6:07 PM EST. We will start the live blog at 6 PM ET. Join us after the jump.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;altcast_code=117bd8c793&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;FinalFour09&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Final Four Live Blog originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In Detroit, Question Is Who to Cry For?

Kevin B. Blackistone — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: Tourney Fans, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

DETROIT -- In an earlier journalistic life, Friday would've been a really big day for me. The reason: the government, each first Friday of the month, issued its most-important piece of economic news -- the unemployment report -- and I covered economics. The report it issued this Friday was an instant Page 1 story, which is what they called the first thing you saw on this thing I worked at forever called a newspaper. Friday's report revealed the recession we're in pushed the unemployment rate to its highest mark in a quarter century, 8.5 percent.

Ground zero of the misery, the report indicated, was Michigan -- 12 percent unemployment -- where I arrived Thursday for the Final Four. I'm staying in a hotel next door to GM headquarters, a poster company for our worst economic collapse since maybe the Great Depression.

It is enough to make me want to violate one of the rules of my current journalistic life as a sportswriter and root from press row Saturday night for the Final Four participant from Michigan, Michigan State. What a nice balm, no matter how temporary, a national title for one of Michigan's state schools would be for economically suffering Michiganders. Unless you're from any part of North Carolina except Durham, or from the Philadelphia area, or Connecticut, I began to think, you'd be hard pressed not to root for the home-state team in this weekend's Final Four.

But not only would doing so be against the rule of no cheering in the press box, it also would be insensitive. North Carolina is represented here, too, and it is like Michigan, one of seven states with a double-digit unemployment rate, just over 10 percent. How about cheering for the Tar Heels to provide some salve for its hurting home-state fans?

Upon closer review, there is so much misery around that it is impossible to pick one team to cheer for -- or cry for -- more in this Final Four. Villanova hails from the Philadelphia area where unemployment is just under 10 percent. Connecticut just suffered its largest job loss since the recession officially was called four months ago.

What played out Friday in Detroit at Ford Field when the home-state team came out for practice, and what played out afterward in Troy, Mich., where Michigan State held a pep rally, probably would've been replicated in North Carolina, Philly and Connecticut , too, if this Final Four was in those locales. Everybody could stand a little feel-good in these times.

Someone said the Michigan State crowd that turned out for the Spartans' practice at Ford Field numbered at least 30,000, the largest crowd one reporter familiar with Michigan State said he'd ever seen. Undoubtedly, some of them were there because, sadly, they hadn't anything else to do in the middle of a workday at the end of a work week.

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Spartans sophomore guard Durrell Summers from Detroit was asked whether anybody close to him had been hurt by the recession.

"Oh, yeah," Summers said simply. "My mom, my dad, my uncles. I could go on. I know a lot of people who've been touched by it.

"They got laid off and had to get smaller jobs for the time being, looking for other jobs and still trying to support families and things like that," Summers explained. "My dad used to work at General Motors. He's working at a post office. My mom used to work at Receiving Hospital as a lab assistant, and she's also at the post office."

"They're trying to see when the next thing is coming in," he continued. "Even through the bad times, they're constantly excited and cheering me on, telling me not to worry about it and keep doing what I'm doing. I've been kind of helping them through it as well, but this is big for them. They were just speechless and in tears, [with my team] making it this far.''

After their 50-minute practice and interview session, Summers and his teammates headed from Ford Field to Somerset Collection, a mall in Troy, where of upwards of 7,000 Michigan State fans in green crowded every inch of an atrium on three levels for a pep rally to spur on their Spartans. The Detroit News reported that Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon called Somerset Collection "Spartan Land" for the day and praised the Spartans as examples in rebounding that the state of Michigan could emulate as it tries to get back on track economically.

Of course, there is nothing a college basketball team can do to stem the hemorrhaging of jobs and money in this hardest-hit state or anywhere else in the country. But if sports can ever be a diversion, this is the time and this is the place.

All you had to do was hear coach Tom Izzo address the pep rally crowd in his typical late-season raspy voice, which this time cracked with undeniable emotion.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would be able to put on a show like this for all of you," Izzo told the crowd. "You made this the proudest day of my life, no matter what happens tomorrow."

Moments later a television reporter pulled Izzo aside and asked him about the afternoon.

"This is a dream come true for me," the Michigan-tough coach said before he wiped away his tears.

This can be a momentary awakening from a nightmare for so many here and elsewhere, too.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.

In Detroit, Question Is Who to Cry For? originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Casinos and Nosebleed Seats

Jay Mariotti — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:15:00 EST

Filed under: Tourney Gambling, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

DETROIT -- If Jim Nantz utters even one mushy word about the innocence of the Final Four, please muzzle him. As it is, the games will be contested inside a bubble of greed, a football dome that wraps 72,000 mostly bad seats around a basketball court positioned at midfield. As it is, the NCAA has joined marketing hands with the International Management Group, a firm that represents college coaches and pro athletes and only invites conflicts of interests. As it is, the idea of "student-athletes " playing in an amateur environment is farcical.

But all assertions of purity officially vanished the other night. That's when North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson, maybe the most important player left in the tournament, wandered into one of downtown Detroit's three casinos and won $250 playing craps for an hour. I realize Lawson did nothing illegal because he's 21. I realize he's technically not violating any NCAA rules. Yet I wonder with considerable alarm why he was in a casino when the poisonous bane of college sports always has been gambling, specifically point-shaving. The NCAA fears such scandals like nothing else, to the point of regularly issuing stern warnings to athletes, asking past point-shaving violators to speak to teams and coining a slogan -- "Don't Bet On It " -- that sums up its sweeping anti-gambling stance.

Apparently, no one told North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who has been in the sport forever and really should know better. He gave his team a 1:30 a.m. curfew -- not the smartest plan, either, in a troubled city that isn't exactly Charlottesville, Va. -- and didn't warn his players about the casinos. Seems Williams doesn't have much of a handle on his team; Lawson, for one, says he gambles in casinos often and added that his UNC teammates previously joined him for a gambling adventure in Reno, Nev., where the Tar Heels didn't fare as well as they did in winning the South Regional last weekend.

"We got in last night, and Coach gave us a curfew of 1:30," Lawson revealed Thursday. "I went over to Greektown and won about $250. So I already had my time there. It's probably the last time I go there before the games start."

Probably, he said.

"The only time I lost was in Reno; that's when everybody on the team lost," Lawson continued. "It's the only place I lost. The other five or six times I did gamble, I won at least $500."

Well, congratulations on that, Ty.

As for Williams, he hopped on his elitist horse Friday, choosing to mock anyone who didn't see Lawson's wagering as harmless fun. Never mind, of course, that the Carolina program is supposed to represent all things classy. When pushed into a corner, Williams simply reinvents the mission statement.

"Didn't talk about it before we came," he said of the casinos. "We had two of our guys go to the casino, Ty Lawson and Marc Campbell. I talked to them. They're both old enough; it is legal. I find it humorous that somebody would want to ask. It's strange, if we don't want those kids doing it, don't put the Final Four in a city where the casino is 500 yards from our front door. And they've got a great buffet in there. I mean, come on.

"The other thing is, you know when we got here? Wednesday. I mean, I'm not gonna tell my guys they got to stay in the room and watch Bill Cosby reruns for four days, c'mon. Those two kids, we talked to them. One of my video coordinators went over there with them, not that he needed to. I would not have any problem with it. I just told the kids, If you think you're going to do something questionable, talk to me about it first. I have zero problems with Ty doing it. I went and gambled myself."

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Here is where Williams' explanation devolved into attempted folksy humor. "The reason I did was not the same reason that Ty did," he said. "When I came here this year to play Michigan State, we stayed at MGM (in Detroit). And I went down and shot craps, we lost, and we won the game. I go to Reno to play Nevada-Reno, and I stayed in a casino, and I went downstairs and shot craps and we lost, and my team won. So you got to be a halfway idiot if you think I'm not going to go gamble and lose money before this game. I have gambled and I have lost. I'm doing every daggum thing I can do to win the game, including give Detroit my money. "

Yuks aside, can we at least try to preserve whatever smidgen of youth and morality remains in collegiate sports? It's as if 2009 was chosen as the year to remind America that the Final Four is a hideously big business. As usual, Tom Izzo gets it, saying Friday that he warned his team about casinos. "I think I was a step ahead," the Michigan State coach said. "I think when you look at them on some NCAA committees, you look at the problems everybody is worried about with sports in general. Let's face it: This is an image tournament to a certain extent. There will never be this many media that kind of come together for one event in any other athletic event they'll participate in. So that's what I try to talk to my guys about."

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, in hot water over a recruiting scandal, didn't hesitate to comment on how he's handling his team this week. "Our curfew has been tight, number one. Number two, we told them (the casinos were) off-limits," said Calhoun, who said the NCAA has issued a gag order and isn't allowing him to comment on his own in-house issue. "I'm sure if (Lawson) had it to do over again, just like some other things in life, you do them over."

Williams is right about one thing: Hypocrisy is everywhere in Detroit, starting with the NCAA itself. When asked about the local casinos before the Lawson news broke, NCAA president Myles Brand expressed concern about the gambling issue. "Well, I warn against that slippery slope. It's a fair question," he said. "We do not permit anyone connected with intercollegiate athletics to gamble on sports, pro or college sports. What a student does, plays bingo in his church, for example, while we discourage that, we prefer not to try and regulate that particular kind of activity. But it's highly discouraged."

So tell me, Dr. Brand. Why did the NCAA place a Final Four in a city with casino gambling? Hmmm? "Detroit is a wonderful venue. It's really, truly outstanding," he babbled on. "And the city has turned out for it. We're very pleased with the reception we've received. Everyone has not only been kind, but they've been very helpful and professional. We're very pleased to be in Detroit. We think this is a privilege for us to be here, particularly at this time that Detroit is going through some difficult financial times itself. We're happy to help and we're happy to leave something behind, as well."

How convenient of Brand to shift his course when he was sitting inside Ford Field, the first in a new wave of Final Four cash-cow, maximum-attendance stadiums that will bring unprecedented profits to the NCAA. In recent years, to avoid the appearance of too much greed, Final Fours were played in domes with large curtains drawn to divide the stadium in half -- such as last year in San Antonio, where 43,000 fans watched. But from this point on, through 2016, the court will be placed at midfield in monster buildings, which robs an eye-pleasing, athletic sport of its unique intimacy. And while no one is forcing fans at gunpoint to buy tickets, the enticement of being at the Final Four led to the usual sellout -- and an inevitable groundswell of anger when 50,000 reach their seats Saturday and realize they need binoculars.

Maybe some will be so thrilled to be at the Final Four that they don't care. My guess is, in a horrible economy, more will wonder why they spent $100 a ticket to get a nosebleed and watch the games on a big-screen TV. The timing is terrible for a 72,000-seat Final Four. For basketball itself, the timing never would be good for an arena on steroids. The participants, of course, are respectful of the configuration, simply happy to be here. No one is happier about Ford Field than Izzo, who knows the majority of seats will be filled with Spartans fans driving short distances.

"You could argue there are not as many great seats," Izzo said, "but I think a lot more better seats, good seats."

Leave it to a coach who isn't here to be more honest. "I don't think it's a good basketball venue, " Kansas coach Bill Self told the Associated Press, not recalling Ford Field fondly even though it was part of his road to a national championship last year. "It's no comparison to San Antonio in terms of the crowd being involved. Ford Field is nice; it's just not a good basketball venue "

The NCAA's response? If you don't like it, deal with it. "If you're coaching, playing or watching a game here for the first time, the vastness might seem awkward because it's not something anybody is used to, " said Bill Ryan, boss of the local organizing committee. "As time goes on and this becomes the norm, I think people will like it."

And to think the NCAA Tournament started 70 years ago in a little dive on Sheridan Road in Evanston, Ill. Patten Gymnasium, it's called, and 5,500 people watched Oregon beat Ohio State for the national championship. It illustrates how out of control the NCAA has become. In addition to allowing IMG in its domain, the powers-that-be are allowing casino advertising, too. Brand has a problem with casinos ... and not casino advertising? Money, money, money turns intelligent men into flip-floppers. "The dunk contest last night, three-point shot contest. Who is it sponsored by?" Williams asked. "A casino. What a great country we live in. "

But just because the NCAA has sold out doesn't mean North Carolina can loosen its morality code. Simply, a 21-year-old point guard playing for a national title should not be gambling in a casino in a Final Four city.

A good bet: Jim Nantz won't be talking about this on the telecast.

Casinos and Nosebleed Seats originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lawson's Luck Continues at Craps Table, Don't Expect NCAA to Congratulate Him

Ray Holloman — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:24:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, South Region

The way North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson is playing -- not to mention that he's turned a whole nation of sportswriters into an army of armchair podiatrists -- maybe you can't fault him for figuring his luck knows no bounds.

And apparently, it doesn't. The Tar Heel point guard told the Detroit Free Press he won $250 playing craps in Detroit's Greektown Casino.

"Actually, I already played," Lawson said this afternoon. "We got in last night, and Coach gave us a curfew of 1:30 (a.m.). I went over to Greektown and won about $250. So I already had my time there. It's probably the last time I go there before the games start."

Somewhere, NCAA president Myles Brand's blood must've run just a degree or two chillier.

The NCAA has long wrestled with gambling , from the point-shaving scandals that dominated the 1950s and have continued to re-appear, to the infamous photo of three members of UNLV's basketball team in a hot tub with convicted game fixer Richard Perry during the 1989-90 season. Avoiding the influence of gamblers has always been the first commandment of the NCAA, as one scandal could put the whole multi-billion dollar enterprise flat on its butt faster than you can say Duke ref conspiracy.

And with the Final Four in Detroit this year, the NCAA made specific arrangements so players wouldn't stay in hotels with casinos.

So while Lawson broke no rules (the NCAA is much more concerned with wagering on sports and joining your bracket pool), you can bet the organizing body won't be sending a congratulatory card on his winnings

And maybe they should have a word with his coach. Craps, after all, seems to be something of a tradition with this North Carolina team.

In a press conference between the opening weekend and the Sweet 16 in Chapel Hill, Roy Williams debated whether he'd continue his tradition of shooting craps rather than the more colorful practice of spitting in the Mississippi River.

"I shot craps in Detroit, and we beat Michigan State [in the ACC-Big Ten challenge]," Williams said. "I shot craps in Reno and we won. Tunica is only 30 miles south of Memphis [site of the South regional]. So I've got to decide that. Somebody will say, 'Oh, you shouldn't be doing that.' But I don't sleep anyways, so I might as well do something. "

And while there's nothing wrong with a coach passing over the pack-line defense for the pass-line bet, it is, in the least, tone deaf to the NCAA's great boogeyman.

Lawson's Luck Continues at Craps Table, Don't Expect NCAA to Congratulate Him originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Final Debate

Matt Snyder — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:05:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Tourney Coaches, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

All eyes are on Detroit as we're less than one week away from crowning the national champion and moving on to 2010. So with only four teams still standing in the Big Dance, NCAA Basketball FanHouse got together for a FanHouse Roundtable to discuss what we can expect. Find out why the only thing we love more than the Heels are the head coaches.

Matt Snyder: I don't think anyone can handle North Carolina right now. They didn't even need a decent game from Tyler Hansbrough to stomp a very tough Oklahoma team. Ty Lawson appears to be healthy, and he'll get some additional rest this week. They are easily the team to beat, and it would appear Roy Williams is going to do something for the second time that he couldn't do once at Kansas.

I do think Michigan State will take down UConn in the semifinals -- obvious Big Ten bias plays a role. They can adapt their game to win at any tempo, as they showed against Kansas and Louisville. Plus, they have a dude named Idong Ibok. That alone gives them an advantage at something.

If the Spartans and Tar Heels do advance, we'll get to see a rematch of the 35-point massacre from the ACC/Big Ten Challenge -- in the same venue. This time, though, Goran Suton will suit up for Michigan State. He can't make a 35-point difference, but perhaps the Spartans have improved enough over the course of the season to close the gap a bit and give us an exciting championship.

Dan Graziano: I have a Big East bias, and a memory of a really good-looking North Carolina team that showed up at last year's Final Four and got obliterated by Kansas. So I'm thinking Carolina's next game is no pushover. Villanova may not win, but I think they'll do more than anybody else has so far to make UNC earn it, and the result may be a worn-out bunch of Tar Heels two nights later.

Biases aside, though, my pick before this tournament started was Michigan State, and I see no reason to go off of it now. I agree with Matt's assessment that they can adjust their game to win in any style. The reason is rebounding. They're better at it than anybody in the country, and it's one of the few consistents in this game. Hasheem Thabeet's banged up, and on top of that MSU is the kind of team that will probably frustrate and annoy him -- and he doesn't play well when annoyed; he kind of gets moody and disappears a little, like in the last game, when Stanley Robinson had to take over inside on defense.

I give Michigan State the rebounding and coaching edge over everybody left in this tournament, and that's why I think they'll beat UNC in the title game. Suton is playing like a guy who won't accept losing, and I think MSU has the toughness edge over UNC too.

Plus, as Snyder mentioned, they have Ibok, who's bound to make an impact before it's all said and done.

Chris Burke: I've been reluctant to give Tom Izzo heaps of praise in the past because MSU went through a longer-than-it-should-have-been conference title drought, but it's pretty clear that he's right up there in terms of the best tournament coaches in the country. Still, to assume that the Spartans have a coaching advantage now is kind of a disservice to Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams and even Jay Wright. I don't know that Rick Pitino got outcoached, so much as his team got out-toughed, and those are two different things.

Michigan State's probably not going to go in and bully Connecticut, and it certainly won't push around North Carolina or Villanova. At least the Tar Heels and Wildcats are as mentally tough as MSU, though it is fair to debate if UConn can match State in that regard. Certainly, playing in Detroit will play to State's advantage.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Thabeet can go into one of his shells, sure, but he could also completely force Suton and Michigan State's guards to the perimeter. Suton's been red hot, but UConn will take its chances with him shooting from the the outside all day. In the other semi, I just think Carolina's going to have way too much for Villanova. I thought Pitt would be a difficult matchup for Carolina because of how Pitt can get after it on defense sometimes, but I'm just not sure that 'Nova can slow UNC down enough to win that game. They might match the Heels basket-for-basket for a long time, but not over 40 minutes.

I personally think UConn and Carolina are going to the finals, with Carolina taking that one by 7-10 points. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see Michigan State in there, though I can't imagine the Spartans being good enough to beat UNC -- Villanova, maybe, but not North Carolina. So the Tar Heels are the pick here.

Ray Holloman: I still like North Carolina, but I think Villanova will give them one heck of a test in the Final Four. The big question about the Tar Heels all year has been how well can they hold together their perimeter defense without Marcus Ginyard available, and thus far in the tournament they've done pretty well. They did a great job against Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin (albeit Pargo had three fouls midway through the first half) with Gonzaga and they sealed up Oklahoma, after a few consecutive lapses against Willie Warren after the Heels initial burst in the first half anyway. Oklahoma helped by missing a lot of open shots in the second half, but North Carolina did a good job in the first 20 minutes. Almost every look was contested in the first half.

But Villanova doesn't just have one guy that can penetrate and hurt you, they've got four on the court at any given time. And they've got Dante Cunningham, who can work inside or outside and will be a tough matchup problem. If you've got both Deon Thompson and Hansbrough in the game, one of those guys will be getting driven by. Villanova is also a much better rebounding team than they're given credit for. The Wildcats are a better team on the offensive glass than the Heels are on the defensive glass, so don't expect to see Jay Wright's team be one-and-done every possession. They're also a great free throw shooting team and really get to the line. (In fact, Villanova gets there more than North Carolina as a percentage of field goals attempted). They shoot 76.5 percent from the charity stripe and against both Duke and Pitt those free throws were a killer.

But the Heels just have so much going for them. Ed Davis may be the best big man NBA prospect left in the tournament and he's third in the rotation behind Hansbrough and Thompson (and gives up minutes to Tyler Zeller, too). And yeah, they got staggered last year, and I suppose it's valid to question why Roy Williams does what he does at times, but I don't think its necessarily fair to hold the sins of last year's team against this one. They really talk about that collapse against Georgetown two years ago and Kansas last year as learning experiences. Williams talked about it going into the Sweet 16, Ty Lawson and Danny Green talked about Kansas after beating Oklahoma. But that transition offense is just so unstoppable. How many times Sunday did Oklahoma score what felt like a pivotal bucket in the first half only to have Ty Lawson dart down court before the scorer's name was announced and draw a foul or find Danny Green for a dunk? I think Villanova will break out that 1-2-2 press to disrupt the timing of the Heels offense, but I just don't know that the Wildcats will be able to do it.

Michigan State and UConn, I like the Huskies, but I'm buying stock in Johnson & Johnson before that game starts. One team is going to have to bleed to win that game. And I like North Carolina to run from Connecticut in the final, but those are going to be two dog-tired teams by the time Monday night wraps up.

Adam Papagiorgio: I had Michigan State winning the tournament in all of my pools. Mainly because of Izzo and what he brings to the table. I agree that maybe Izzo didn't necessarily out-coach Pitino, but Michigan State is certainly playing some of its best hoop.

That being said, I don't know what more can be said about North Carolina. I didn't realize that the Heels were that good. Make no mistake, Gonzaga is a really good team. And that butt-whooping was more about how good Carolina is, and not an idictment on the Bulldogs. I was actually relieved that the Heels punked the Sooners so soundly because that helped to take away some of the sting of the Gonzaga game.

So right now, I have to figure that North Carolina wins this thing going away.

Jacob Wheatley-Schaller: I'm normally more of a stats-based guy, but man, whenever I watch this UNC team play with Lawson in there, and I'm rooting against them (almost always), it's just such a helpless feeling. It's really come full circle from the preseason, where they were clearly the best team, to the second half of the season where that title changed from week to week, to now where it's pretty obvious that you'd have to expect them to win a game on a neutral floor against any team in the country. That offense ... well, it's as good as you would've expected when everyone announced they were coming back, and that's really saying something.

They could lose, of course. Really, if Oklahoma had shot even competently from three (they finished 2-for-19, and I believe they were 0-for-14 at one point), that could've been a game on Sunday. I think I figured if they were shooting 33 percent from deep at halftime, the game probably would've been tied, or at least within one possession. I think if 'Nova is going to have a chance, they'll need Stokes to get hot, and Scottie Reynolds to be hitting his shots. And they'd better hope that Lawson and the rest of the perimeter guys go cold, because when they're shooting like they were on Friday night it's game over. Gonzaga is pretty good. They obliterated Gonzaga.

I like UConn in the other game, although not nearly as much. That's a great defense, obviously because of Thabeet, but they never turn you over. And there's always the chance you get Thabeet out of the game with fouls, which really changes the whole dynamic; it actually didn't in the Mizzou game, since the Tigers never bothered to go to the rim even with him out of the game (they much preferred shooting 15-footers, always a good strategy), but in general it makes a big difference. Anyway, I think UConn probably takes it, Walker really adds a whole new dimension to their offense.

Shane Bacon: I just can't see North Carolina losing this Final Four. They are hitting their stride at the most opportune time, playing some incredible basketball against a really tough run through their bracket. Gonzaga was sneaky tough, Oklahoma might have been able to take down any of the other three teams heading to Detroit and UNC wiped the floor with them.

It's all about who is playing the best basketball at the end of March and right now the Heels are (get ready for it) head over heels better than the rest of the field.

Chas Rich: I'm very torn on the MSU-UConn game, beyond any obvious Big East bias. There is no question that Tom Izzo is a fantastic coach who finally has this team healthy and contributions going deep into the bench.

But I like the starting talent on UConn better and the Huskies don't play a pace too differently from what MSU plays, so that won't be an issue of frustration. Plus, Jim Calhoun is not exactly a slouch in preparing his team for big games.

On the other side, it will be closer than expected (I think UNC is favored by eight right now), but Villanova will just not be able to beat UNC. Again, as important as depth can be, in games at this point, it's about the starting five and only a couple players off the bench. That is so clearly in favor of UNC.

The Final Debate originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Four Not What You Think

Ray Holloman — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:24:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

Take everything you think you know about this Final Four and toss it in the waste bin with the scrap paper that was once your brackets. The brackets that had Pittsburgh meeting Louisville for the national title. The brackets that were oh so certain Michigan State of the overrated Big Ten would, exactly like IKEA furniture, collapse after one week. The brackets that said Wake Forest was underrated and Arizona's bid was a career achievement award.

Forget it all, because like your brackets, this Final Four will be all about what you didn't know.

Start with the Spartans, the mixed martial basketball-tough team that sent overall top seed Louisville home for spring break. Tom Izzo teams have a reputation for toughness but with the aesthetics of an offensive line taking up ballet. Believe that until you see Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas two-step through three defenders and kiss one off the glass. Go ahead and believe that until big man Goran Suton steps back and drills a 3-pointer right in some poor defender's eyeballs. The Bosnian big man is averaging 8.1 rebounds per game, but he's also a 42 percent 3-point shooter. If that sounds impressive, it should. That's better than 3-point king J.J. Redick managed in three of his seasons at Duke.

Feel free to think the Spartans are all smash and no sizzle until they dribble right through your defense. Michigan State only coughed the ball up once against Louisville's tighter-than-Bob Knight's sweater full court press. Believe that defensive stopper Travis Walton, who made Terrence Williams disappear Sunday, can only play defense, and then watch him slip by your teams for eight points and two assists, like he scored against the Cardinals or the five assists he dropped against Kansas.

You're not wrong to think the Spartans take a page out of the Red Wings' playbook every now and again, shooting the ball on goal and hoping the scrum in front of the net can bang it in. The Spartans are fifth in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage, but they're also the 23rd most efficient offense. And while you've been cracking Big Ten jokes, Michigan State has been tightening the gears on offense. The Spartans were a superior offensive team against Louisville and its blast-furnace defense, scoring 113.5 points per 100 possessions, compared to what offensive-standard North Carolina was against Oklahoma (111.5).

So go ahead, make your football jokes, but only if you're comparing Michigan State to Oklahoma.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Fill out your Final Four assuming Connecticut can survive only with Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 Sequoia that has to check height restrictions to walk through highway tunnels, and then watch Stanley Robinson's double-wide frame bounce you out of the paint. Call the Huskies soft, then watch them bail out Johnson & Johnson's stock with all the Band-Aids they press into use. Don't gameplan for Kemba Walker, then watch him shed that freshman label and your defenders all at once.

Think the Huskies' hearts aren't in it and they're biding their time till the NBA calls, but then remember that when Missouri took a second-half lead, Connecticut dug so deep that it probably had to file for a permit. Pretend they won't win without help a monstrous free-throw differential (the Huskies are eighth in the nation in free throw-to-field goal ratio and first in that same metric defensively) and then realize they squashed Texas A&M while on the wrong side of the charity battle. And that free-throw differential comes from discipline the Marines would be proud of, even if it's something their coach's mouth might not always have.

Pick against Uconn because of the looming cloud of an NCAA investigation, but only if you don't talk to the Huskies, who are as concerned about that as the color of Jim Calhoun's necktie.

Then there's Villanova, a team you probably think will be happy just to be there. But is Scottie Reynolds really going to stop when he just got started with a mad dash for Detroit against Pitt? Think they're a soft perimeter team but then watch them wrestle Duke and UCLA to the ground and grab 42.6 percent of their offensive rebounds against Pitt's big-bodied glass crew. Place a bet on who has more double-doubles in the NCAA Tournament, Dante Cunningham or Tyler Hansbrough. If you picked Hansbrough, you'd be just as wrong as those who thought Duke was destined to March through the Wildcats to Detroit.

Pick North Carolina over Villanova because you don't think anyone can stop Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington, but consider that Wildcats all but taped Gerald Henderson's hands behind his back as the athletic wing hit just 1-of-14 shots. Villanova ended Darren Collison's All-American career, humbling the UCLA point guard into five turnovers against only one assist.

Assume coach Jay Wright will have no way to defend against North Carolina's 21 feet of brute down low, but can Hansbrough, Deon Thompson and Ed Davis do something that DeJuan Blair, a man contained only by his bicep bands, couldn't? Think of them as Big East lite, but remember they played against a team whose starting guard, Jermaine Dixon, popped his groin and checked back in. Don't worry about them out-toughing Ty's toe.

And there are the Heels. You may have penciled them in for a Shining Moment already, but admit that you think of them as a team who couldn't find a little D even if they've spelled Detroit. Yet those Heels are 18th in the nation in defensive efficiency, ahead of supposedly defense-first teams like Duke, Wake Forest and UCLA. Their perimeter, which was buzzed by Tyrese Rice and Jeff Teague in regular-season losses, has tightened up just in time to stroll into the home of tuneups. They kept Jeremy Pargo in check and held Gonzaga's best perimeter passer, Matt Bouldin, to zero assists. Against Oklahoma, only two players managed to break double digits and the Sooners didn't hit a single shot from 3-point range until well after the game was in the books.

Pick against them because someone on that team has to slump, but realize they've got more weapons than an NFL entourage. Neither Hansbrough nor Ellington cracked double digits Sunday and the Heels still had such an easy afternoon Sunday they might've caught a nap in the locker room.

So go ahead, pick all these teams based on what you think you know, then remember in the season of chaos, this will be the Final Four of the unknown.

Final Four Not What You Think originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:24:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Season Starts Now for Heels

Ray Holloman — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, South Region

Somewhere along the way, someone convinced North Carolina coach Roy Williams that he should always open with a joke.

And so, after leaving Oklahoma flatter than the FedEx floor Sunday, he did.

"I congratulate the NCAA for having cookies back there today, more than yesterday," Williams said to kick off his press conference after his Tar Heels won the South Region final. "And they're good. We're making progress in every area."

Now Williams won't be accused of being a particularly funny man any more than your accountant or Dane Cook, so for the coach with the vocabulary the Beav might find a tad gooey, this is about as good as it gets.

And it was oh so good for the Heels.

And this is where that mechanized cavalry of a basketball team was after thoroughly dismantling the Sooners. Loose, smiling, and as easygoing as if they'd just come off a pickup court.

They too had opened with a little bit of a joke Sunday, letting Oklahoma win the opening tip before the Tar Heels won everything else.

So the night was for celebration. And laughs. And jokes. And enjoying a great opening.

But every day after would be about righting the wrongs of the last three years. Every day from now on will be about how they close.

For North Carolina, the tournament begins now.

In Chapel Hill, seasons and teams, particularly ones with a constellation of talent like this, are no more judged by what happens before the Final Four than Alex Rodriguez will be remembered for what he does in April. At North Carolina, they don't buy shirts for the Sweet 16 and they don't buy them for the Final Four unless the dog needs something to wear. Heck, the Tar Heels can't even measure their success against their rivals from Duke because the Blue Devils have slipped so far in the rear-view mirror that the pace car is ready to lap them.

Eighteen times now, North Carolina has played in the Final Four, a number unmatched in college basketball. That in itself makes this a successful season, but only a national championship will make it anything other than painfully unfinished.

"I know we have high expectations, it's nothing new to us," said senior Danny Green, who lifted the Tar Heels with 14 first-half points Sunday. "I think it was more this year. They were expecting us to go undefeated and all that talk. We lost a couple games, and everybody thought the world was ending. We knew that we could still achieve the things we wanted to achieve."

And Green is right. Fans are usually the last to listen, particularly when the student body's heartbeat is a dribbling basketball. Watch how quickly Kentucky brought Billy Gillispie in on a private plane and then ran him out on a rail. But this time Heels fans are reasonable in expecting a title out of this group, even with its immense amount of talent.

This was a team built for a title and whose only challenge may be the randomness of a one-and-done environment.

Because If there were such a thing as fantasy college basketball, this would be your roster.

After all, how many times did Ty Lawson alone dash back up the court after an Oklahoma basket to draw a foul or sink a jumper that was more a sneer at the Sooners comeback than bucket? Who knows? By the time you tried to put a mark on the pad, Lawson had already darted down court again.

There's Tyler Hansbrough, the low-post banger who contorts his bodies in fantastic ways like he's made of nothing but pipe cleaner and muscle. There's the senior Green, who can shoot from the outside and make an opposing forward disappear on the defensive end. There's Wayne Ellington, a sharpshooter who has grown even better in the stress of March. And there's future NBAers Deon Thompson and Ed Davis in the middle, freshman Tyler Zeller, backup point guards Bobby Frasor and Larry Drew. Sure, they may not have played tremendous minutes in the plodding 72-point pace Sunday, but the depth of this team comes in oceanic waves.

"They have a Hall of Fame coach, and they have eight or nine McDonald's All-Americans on their team," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "They bring pros off the bench"

March Madness Cheerleaders

A Michigan State cheerleader gets into the spirit of March Madness. Click through to see more cheerleaders for teams in the NCAA Tournament.

Ronald Martinez, Getty Images

XAVIER

Stephen Dunn, Getty Images

VILLANOVA

Jim McIsaac, Getty Images

PORTLAND STATE

Jamie Squire, Getty Images

WEST VIRGINIA

Stephen Dunn, Getty Images

USC

Victor Decolongon, Getty Images

WISCONSIN

Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images

SYRACUSE

Jim McIsaac, Getty Images

UCLA

Stephen Dunn, Getty Images

OKLAHOMA

Ronald Martinez, Getty Images

But the Heels have always known these first few steps on the dance floor. The trick now will be not to stumble when they're left alone under the spotlight.

Two years ago, North Carolina strolled into the Elite Eight and held an 11-point second-half lead over Georgetown only to get swept out when the basket shrunk to the size of a coffee cup and the Heels missed 22 of 23 field goals in a 15-minute span.

"Everybody wanted to shoot the dadgum ball then when they shouldn't have been," Williams said about that Georgetown loss in a press conference last week. "They were shooting with too much dadgum confidence, taking bad shots."

Last year, North Carolina moved one step further, leaving scorched earth and badly bruised egos behind as the Heels marched to San Antonio. The Heels won their first four games by a combined 91 points, nearly identical to the 90 points they waltzed through the South region with this year.

Then Kansas staggered North Carolina from the opening tip, dumped the Heels in a 40-12 hole less than 15 minutes in, and just shoveled dirt on Carolina for the remaining 25 minutes.

But if the roster is largely the same, the spirit is made of a whole new metal altogether.

"It's a different team," Green said. "It's a new year, a new day, a new game."

Because this team has already had its backbone tested, with an 0-2 start in the ACC, with a string of injuries that took out Zeller in the second game, Marcus Ginyard, their finest perimeter defender for the season, Hansbrough to start and Ty's toe to finish.

Heck, if they'd weathered any more bad luck, their mascot would've been a broken mirror.

"This team has dealt with a great deal of adversity," Williams said "They've had a great deal of expectations from other people. And they've got us going to Detroit."

They speak of last year's loss to Kansas in the same sort of obvious tones you might use in explaining why you never stuck your hand on a hot stove twice.

"You can't get uncomfortable or feel pressured or rush stuff in the NCAA tournament because that leads to turnovers and bad shots and things like that," Lawson said. "When times are tough, just call a play and relax everybody and get a good shot."

"Last year, we use every experience as a learning experience," Green added. "We don't want to come out sluggish or lackadaisical and let them jump on us because we know how hard it is to dig yourself out of a hole and waste a lot of energy doing that."

And they know how hard it is to get back to exactly where they were at that tip-off one year ago.

The Heels have done that now, motoring to the Motor City and another chance at all that matters for a team like North Carolina.

They did it well. They opened with a joke with four straight laugher wins to make the Final Four.

But the pressure starts now. This is the real season. This is what matters.

And this is what everyone will remember. Not the smile or the joke they opened with.

But how they closed.

Season Starts Now for Heels originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ty Lawson's Stock Tips Up

Tom Ziller — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:00:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Midwest Region, South Region

During the NCAA Tournament, we NBA heads watch (almost) every game, judging the pro prospects of particular players. Inspired by our daily Doing Lines feature, Drooling Lines offers a daily summary of what the box scores tell us.

This song has been sung frequently, but in case you missed prior renditions ...

Ty Lawson -- ... no one has helped his NBA stock more this season than Ty Lawson. The tournament has been the same exact tune, with Sunday's killer Elite Eight performance the latest verse.

Lawson led the Tar Heels in every sense of the word. No, really. This isn't just mushy mumbo about leadership -- he nearly led Carolina in every major category. The diminutive point guard had a team-high 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting, a team-high five assists, a team-high three steals, tied for a team-high one block, and lagged behind team-leading rebounder Tyler Hansbrough by one rebound (with five). UNC won by 12, and you can basically credit Lawson completely. His teammates played well, but without him, they would not have played nearly as well.

Blake Griffin -- Speaking of playing well ...

Griffin completely torched Hansbrough: 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 16 rebounds (six of which came on the offensive glass). Griffin didn't get his usual passing game going, but when you're shooting 70-plus percent for the tournament, you don't need to rely on cutters or shooters. As always, Griffin can and will handle his business. He's the No. 1 draft pick with a bullet, provided news that Ricky Rubio is a direct descendant of Christ or John Lennon doesn't come out between now and June.

Willie Warren -- A less-flattering sendoff for W.W., who scored 18 but shot only 2-of-9 from deep. If Warren's going to be a two-guard in the league, his translated shooting percentages need to improve. It seems more likely he'll become a point guard; in fairness to Warren, he rarely got the opportunity at OU to play lead guard, considering the presence of senior (and Griffin consigliere) Austin Johnson. (Johnson was dreadful across Lawson, by the way.) Jeff Capel has been in the rumor mill, and you wonder if that forces W.W. to keep an open mind about bolting. And remember, Eric Gordon's stock wasn't exactly at its peak this time last year, you know ...

Earl Clark -- Good Earl Clark has been there for most of the Dance. Unfortunately, we saw something closer to Bad Earl Clark most of Sunday. Clark did heat up late in the second half, finishing with 19 points on 17 field goal attempts. But Louisville already trailed substantially by that point, and a few tough shots (the only kind with Earl, sometimes) didn't fall. 19/5/2/1 for Clark.

Terrence Williams -- Clark was mediocre, Williams was straight-up BAD. Five whole points for Williams when Louisville needed him to create desperately. His first basket came on an ill alley-oop to open the second half. Having watched enough Louisville this season (thanks ESPN-Big East partnership!*), I figured this would be the point in which Williams exploded, leading his team to overcome the stingy Spartan resistance. It wasn't so. Michigan State kept resisting. Williams couldn't slide in for putbacks or spring free for deep threes. On defense, the usually stout Williams was handcuffed by Rick Pitino's reliance on a 2-3 zone that failed miserably in the second half. Bad sendoff for Williams, and (if I know NBA scouts) a performance that could cost him five or so slots, fair or not.

* No seriously, thank you. Well worth a dozen Notre Dame games this year to see so much Louisville, Pitt, Syracuse, Villanova and (even) Georgetown.

NCAA Tournament Action

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Ty Lawson's Stock Tips Up originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10 Shining Moments, Day 8

FanHouse Newswire — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:50:00 EST

Filed under: Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region, Shining Moments

From broken hearts to clipped nets, join FanHouse for the best images from Day 8 of the NCAA tournament.

10 Shining Moments - Day 8

This tournament was no time for Cinderella, but another year for the kings of college basketball to be crowned in nets. Here, North Carolina's Danny Green tries twine on for size.

Click through for other great photos from Sunday's action.

Joe Murphy, Getty Images

The agony of defeat always shows through even if you try and hide your face. Louisville's Earl Clark buries his head in his jersey as the Cardinals' season ends at the hands of Michigan State.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

The battle of the big men turned out to be a small matter. Oklahoma's Blake Griffin scored 23 points and pulled down 16 rebounds while North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough managed just eight points and six rebounds in limited time.

Lance Murphey, Reuters

North Carolina's Deon Thompson skies for a rebound but the ball bounces away as Oklahoma's Griffin brothers look on.

Jeff Roberson, AP

Oklahoma didn't get many easy looks at the basket, but when it did, the Sooners made them count. Here Willie Warren tomahawks the ball and his arm through the hoop in a rare second-half breakaway.

Chris Keane, Reuters

Louisville's Terrence Williams was the most dynamic player in the nation over the final two months of the season, but that was until he met Michigan State's defensive clamp Travis Walton. Williams hit just 1-of-7 field goals and scored five points.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

Edgar Sosa strikes a mid-air pose right out of "The Matrix," but no amount of special effects could keep Michigan State's Goran Suton, left, from a cardinal day. The Spartan senior scored 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Jeff Haynes, Reuters

Each time Griffin caught the ball, two North Carolina defenders caught up with him. Despite the double teams, Griffin still managed a fitting farewell in what was likely his last collegiate game.

Matt Slocum, AP

Louisville's defense swarmed the Spartans, but it couldn't keep Suton and the tough-as-nails Spartans from scoring.

Andy Lyons, Getty Images

The Cardinals endless guard rotation couldn't stop Michigan State or Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas, who blows by Jerry Smith here.

Darron Cummings, AP

10 Shining Moments, Day 8 originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tar Heels Are Aged for Victory

Kevin B. Blackistone — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:09:00 EST

Filed under: ACC, FanHouse Exclusive, South Region

MEMPHIS - After Roy Williams answered his last question Sunday night at the press conference following his Tar Heels' easy 72-60 win over Oklahoma to advance to next weekend's Final Four, a North Carolina sports information official barked out some trivia for the departing media: the Tar Heels won for the first time all season with forward Tyler Hansbrough, the defending player of the year, and shooting guard Wayne Ellington failing to score in double figures.

That is how good the latest edition of the Tar Heels is - they can soundly beat a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament with two hands tied behind their back.

I don't know that these Tar Heels are better than the squad Williams coached to the 2005 national title in his second season atop Chapel Hill. That team had four first-round draft picks - the No. 2 overall in Marvin Williams, plus lottery picks Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants. NBADraft.net predicts this season's Tar Heels have three first-rounders in Hansbrough, Ellington and their most-important player, point guard Ty Lawson, the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year.

I don't know that these Tar Heels are playing better now than the team they'll meet Saturday in the national semifinals, Villanova.

I don't know that these Tar Heels, despite weathering an injury to Lawson and losing to injury Marcus Ginyard, have overcome more than Connecticut, which lost guard Jerome Dyson for the year, lost their coach for a spell at the tournament opener and are now playing under a cloud of NCAA scrutiny.

All I know for certain is none of that really matters. With two games left on the season, these Tar Heels - as was predicted by so many at season's start - have proven the last two weekends that they are the team to beat for the crown. The selection committee got that wrong.

After all, of the teams headed to Detroit, the Tar Heels are alone in getting there mostly without a hitch. Sunday against Oklahoma was par for their course. They jumped to an early lead and never relinquished it. The 12-point margin of victory was closer than the competition really was. Oklahoma never had a chance.

NCAA Tournament Action

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The only team the Tar Heels saw the past two weekends that managed to make part of a game interesting was LSU for a moment in the early second half. The Tigers wound up going down by 14.

The biggest worry the Tar Heels really had in this tournament was Lawson's injured toe that kept him out of the tournament opener against sacrificial lamb Radford. Said Lawson on Sunday, after leading the Tar Heels with 19 points, five assists and three steals: "Once I get the adrenaline and just the intensity of it [the game], I really don't feel the toe or start favoring it."

Lawson makes the Tar Heels look like an almost perfectly constructed team. They have inside might in Hansbrough. They have outside shooters galore in Ellington, Danny Green and Lawson. Green also is a slasher and Lawson is fast and quick and can get around most any guard to get to the rim for an easy bucket or pass.

If there is anything they don't have much of it is depth. A freshman shot blocker, Ed Davis, and senior guard Bobby Frasor were the only reserves to log double-digit minutes against Oklahoma. But what does that matter at this time of year?

Williams said his team played a nearly perfect game in overwhelming Gonzaga in the regional semifinal on Friday, 98-77. Sunday Williams said his team repeated that performance for at least the first half, when they jumped to a 12-point lead behind 13 points off nine turnovers. They didn't allow Sooners' superstar Blake Griffin to score a field goal until after 12 minutes expired and the Tar Heels had established a double-digit lead. (Update: There was no comparison between Griffin and Hansbrough. Griffin finished with 23 points and 16 rebounds.)

The Tar Heels won't see a more dangerous or determined player in Detroit than Griffin. They'll see better shooters and tougher defense with Villanova. If they escape that match up, which they should, they may see a more imposing defender in the paint with Connecticut in 7-3 Hasheem Thabeet. Or they could be forced to roll up their shirt sleeves against Tom Izzo's Spartans.

But these Tar Heels will have one more thing to lean on that none of those other teams have - the all important intangible of experience.

The Tar Heels last got this far just 12 months ago. They'll be the only team with players who've played in the Final Four. Winning it all is a big reason seniors Hansbrough and Green and juniors Lawson and Ellington came back for this campaign.

"This game, we were used to it," Lawson said of the Final Four, "and just experience overall in the NCAA tournament."

In the last Final Four, the Tar Heels looked like they suffered stage fright as the eventual champions from Kansas bolted to a 28-point lead before every fan had settled into their seats.

"It's a different team," Green said of himself and his mates. "It's a new year, a new day, a new game. We know what our goals are. We know what our focuses are and what we have to do to win games. Last year, of course, we use...as a learning experience."

Next weekend is the final exam and these Tar Heels will ace it.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.

Tar Heels Are Aged for Victory originally appeared on NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:09:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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