Tar Heels take 4th NCAA crown

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 04/06/2005

 

St. Louis, Missouri (pre-game report) — What a tournament! The field of 65 has come down to this: With all the pretenders now out of the way, it’s down to number one versus number two, Illinois 37-1 vs. North Carolina 32-4. The winner is your National Champion.

 This is the first time ever that Illinois has made it to the championship game. They are, however, the fourth team in NCAA history to win 37 games in one season. No team has ever won 38. UNLV, Duke and Kansas have all reached that magic 37 number.

 Illinois has been number one for most of the season, and North Carolina has been regarded as the nation’s most talented team all year. Talk about an ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge? The Tar Heels have beaten Wisconsin and Michigan State, and now they get a shot at Illinois and the trifecta.

 They led the nation in scoring, and they have four players that are certain to be NBA first-round picks. No team that led the nation in scoring like North Carolina did has won the NCAA title since Loyola of Chicago in 1963. You can make the case for both of these teams being the best, but when it’s all said and done, only one team will be left standing.

 Roy Williams, the second-year head coach at North Carolina, has huge pressure to win. He has been here before; he is 0-2 in title games with Kansas. He lost to Duke in 1991 and Syracuse in 2003. He becomes one of the few coaches ever to take two different programs to the National Title game, and he is the only coach to win 40 NCAA tournament games and no title.

 Coach Bruce Webber has done a great job at Illinois. I absolutely love the way his Illinois team plays. The art of passing and sharing the basketball is wonderful to watch, and that’s not just because I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.

 He’s been coaching with a heavy heart — he lost his mother this year at the Big Ten Tournament just two weeks ago. She died entering the United Center in Chicago just before his team was to play Northwestern. Several coaches have won NCAA titles in their first trip to the Final Four, the last being Tubby Smith of Kentucky in 1998. I asked Smith who has the edge Monday night. “Illinois is a great team, and they are virtually playing on their own home court. I like Illinois,” Smith said.

THIS JUST IN — NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE

 March Madness and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament came to a thrilling end in St. Louis with a great title game. It was Mr. May, Sean May of North Carolina — he was a force Illinois had no answer for, a man among boys, a bull in a china shop, as he dominated inside leading the Tar Heels to their fourth NCAA crown.

 May led the NCAA Tournament in scoring and rebounding and was selected the Tournament’s Outstanding Player. He scored a game-high 26 points, making 10 of 11 shots, and pulled down 10 rebounds in North Carolina’s 75-70 win.

 May’s dominating performance helped Head Coach Roy Williams finally win his first NCAA title in his fifth Final Four appearance.

 May’s father, Scott May, led Indiana to the 1976 NCAA title and a perfect 32-0 record; he scored 26 points also. May, only a junior, celebrated his 21st birthday with the powerhouse performance.

 The Tar Heels built a big early lead, 40-27 at the half, and then survived a furious Illinois rally that tied the game 70-70 with just over two minutes left in the game. North Carolina maintained their poise and held Illinois scoreless the final two minutes.

It’s all about recruiting!

It’s not often you can say “what if,” but the University of Minnesota women’s basketball team can say just that. After a third straight trip to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen and last year the Final Four, Head Coach Pam Borton’s program is now one of the nation’s best.

Michigan State will play Baylor for the Women’s National Championship in Indianapolis. Michigan State beat Minnesota three times, including a 55-49 win in the championship game of the Big Ten Women’s Championship. Baylor, the other finalist, knocked the Gophers out of the NCAA tournament 64-57 in Tempe, Arizona.

Did Borton get the most out of her team this year? “I definitely think we did,” she said. “I think we are a bunch of overachievers on this team. We have a group of kids who really believe in themselves and believe in each other, and they work extremely hard. When you have those qualities, I think any team can accomplish a lot.”

When Cheryl LittleJohn was head coach, she was blamed for many things, including violations. But you have to give her much credit for recruiting, convincing, and coaching two All-Americans, Lindsay Whalen and Janel McCarville. Those two players were the foundation on which this program has been built.

Where do the Gophers go from here, now that they have one of the country’s top programs? “It’s harder to keep it there than it is to get there, believe it or not,” said Borton. “It’s a lot of hard work. It’s recruiting, getting those types of kids in here that compete at a national level. It’s all about recruiting, it really is, and recruiting those types of kids that will come in and fit into your system.

“Our freshman class that we have here hopefully will be playing a lot next year,” said Borton. “Three of the four are from out of state. We are looking for the best players; they don’t have to be from Minnesota. Obviously, we have to take care of our own and keep our own at home, but we have to try and get talent that will keep us at this level.”