Tar Heel Blue and White

So in one calendar year, starting from the 2nd weekend in April last year with Phil Mickelson winning the Masters continuing in October with the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series, and ending with Roy Williams coaching North Carolina to the National Championship, the unlucky losers all won. The Chicago Cubs, Buffalo Bills, and Minnesota Vikings all missed out.

Well, college hoops is done until Midnight Madness in October, let's recap the final game:

North Carolina 75, Illinois 70. As I said last night, if I weren't able to watch the game and the first thing I could look at would be the box score, Raymond Felton's stat line would tell me who won the game. Raymond Felton, 17 points, 7 assists, 4 fouls, 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers, good for a 3.5/1 assist/turnover ratio. By taking care of the ball, Sean May was able to dominate inside at both ends. The big fella had 26 points and 10 rebounds, but it was his presence in the lane that forced Illinois to stay outside and chuck 40 3s. 40 3s?!?!?!?! Whenever Illinois got within 12 feet of the basket, they got scared, which led to the play of the game. Down 2 with 35 sec. left, Luther Head beat his man, but when he got into the lane, he didn't look to score because May was there waiting for him. Instead, he looked to kick out to Dee Brown when Felton stole the pass and drew a foul.

In the 1st half, the most amazing thing happened: Illinois didn't come ready to play. They were flat, showed no emotion, and displayed their worst shot selection of the year. 19 of their 31 field goal attempts were 3s. They didn't even try and go inside. And when they did, James Augustine, Roger Powell, Jack Ingram, and Nick Smith couldn't finish. It was the beginning of a terrible night for Augustine, who looked like the "Wuss" doll in real life. 8 minutes, 5 fouls, 2 rebounds; he didn't look like he wanted to be out there. After May scored on him a couple of times, beating him down the floor somehow and Augustine missed a lefty hook, you could see he was mentally done for the night. Illinois also got outhustled in the 1st half, getting beat to loose balls and not playing the tight perimeter defense they played all year. This allowed Carolina to get their fast break going and be efficient on offense.

Going into the 2nd half, you wondered if Illinois could make one more run and get back in it. The answer was of course: Yes. Illinois was more into it, hitting perimeter shots, stepping up their defense, eventually tying the game. It appeared they were going to find yet another way to pull out a game. But May was too much inside, scoring at will everytime he got the ball in the post. Marvin Williams, the freshman, again made a big play with the go-ahead tip-in with 90 sec. left. And Felton sealed it with his defense and foul shooting in the last minute.

It was a gritty effort by Illinois to come back in the 2nd half the way they did, but their lack of inside production hurt. Yes, Roger Powell played his heart out. The severly undersized power forward scored 9 points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds. Jack Ingram played well off the bench in an extended role, scoring 11 and grabbing 7 boards. But with no consistent back-to-the-basket threat, Illinois was reduced to relying on the 3 ball, making them one-dimensional and easy to guard. They still almost pulled it off. For North Carolina, they played a pretty complete game, even though they had a couple of lapses. Illinois made their 2nd half runs whenever Sean May didn't get any touches. UNC also survived a pointless 2nd half by Rashard McCants, which usually doesn't happen. Now the question is, how many of UNC's players will go pro??? If they come back, UNC is the odds-on favorite to repeat next year. If they don't, it's wide-open again.

So "One Shining Moment" has played and we're left with major league baseball and pro basketball, ugh. At least the final we all hoped for didn't disappoint. Thank you college hoops for another great season.

Now, my sports focus shifts to the Masters, where it appears Lefty is going to make a run at repeating. Phil Mickelson won his 3rd tournament of the year, winning the BellSouth on the 4th playoff hole.

And yes, it's time for another patented academic comeback by yours truly. It wouldn't be a semester at Miami without one.