Posted: Sunday, March 29, 2009, 7:17 PM | 5 comments |
 

It's 'Cats vs. Carolina
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North Carolina won the South Regional with a 72-60 victory over Oklahoma in Memphis.

The Tar Heels, heading to their 18th Final Four, will face Villanova on Saturday at Detroit's Ford Field. Start time is approximately 8:47 p.m.

In the first game, UConn takes on Michigan State, beginning at 6:07.

Michigan State spoiled Louisville's bid for a third Big East team in the Final Four, just like 1985, when Villanova, Georgetown and St. John's all made it to Lexington. You might have heard that Villanova beat Georgetown for the national title.

North Carolina has been on a roll in the NCAAs, with an average margin of victory of 22.5 points per game in its four wins. The total is probably skewed by a 43-point win over Radford in the first round.

Some other notes on the Tar Heels

* They were favored to win last year, came close and have just about everything back

* Love him or not, Tyler Hansbrough is one of the top talents, and competitors, around

* Wayne Ellington, of course, is from Episcopal Academy. He’s the guy who can hurt you the most from the arc

* Danny Green might be one of the more underappreciated parts of this equation

* Ty Lawson is the glue. And the absolute catalyst. He has been struggling with a toe injury

* This group doesn’t seem overly interested in playing a bunch of defense, which could be a problem in those instances when the offense isn’t necessarily revving. Carolina is averaging 90.5 points per game

* Roy Williams used to be the guy who couldn’t win the truly big one. Most folks don’t mention that quite so much these days.
Posted by Daily News staff @ 7:17 PM  Permalink | 5 comments
5
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  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:39 PM, 03/29/2009
    carolina got destroyed by my jayhawks in the first 10 minutes of the semi-final last year...no doubt they will have that in their memory banks and come out on all cylinders saturday night.. villanova will need to be in gear from the outset, but can take advantage of the many defensive lapses carolina is prone to...it may simply come down to which team knocks down their jump shots... will ellington suffer the fate of his episcopal classmate Gerald Henderson at the hands of the Wildcats?
    — jim715
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:15 PM, 03/29/2009
    it would be great to see if two kids who blew off nova for acc schools got burned by us
    — novacats86
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:24 PM, 03/29/2009
    I'm thinking the very same thing, novacat... Revenge for the 2005 tournament loss to UNC (the loss that wasn't a loss) would not be bad either...
    — *Callie*
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:29 PM, 03/29/2009
    I think UNC is very good but if Nova plays the way they have in their last 5 halves of the tourney they will win. Nova is firing on all cylinders and ACC teams don't tend to play well against athletic teams.
    — wokmaster


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