The South Region notebook ...AUSTIN, Texas — The eighth-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels have a lot
of history going for them in this year’s South Regional — but not all of
it’s positive.
The last time the Heels were a No.
8 seed (1990), they also upset the top seed (Oklahoma) to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
But 10 years ago, they were flattened by Arkansas in the regional semifinals in their next
game. And Arkansas, like Tennessee, tonight’s foe, was a No. 4 seed.
There were extenuating
circumstances in that one, however. The Heels lost starter Kevin Madden to a practice
injury in ‘90 in the interval between the second round and the Sweet Sixteen.
n
MOREHISTORY: Of the 88 teams who
have been seeded No. 8 in the NCAA Tournament, the Tar Heels are only the ninth to reach
the Sweet Sixteen.
The relative handful of No. 8s who
have survived their second-round game — always against No. 1 seeds — have
surprisingly gone 6-2 in regional semifinals. The Heels hope to continue that trend.
Despite their proximity, North
Carolina and Tennessee haven’t crossed paths in a basketball gym since 1949.
The Vols won that one big —
84-56.
n
COTA’S QUEST: UNC senior
point guard Ed Cota is going out with a bang.
Cota’s had 10 assists in both
NCAA Tournament games this season and now has 101 dishes in the “Dance” in his
career.
With six assists against
Tennessee, Cota will pass Syracuse’s Sherman Douglas for the No. 2 spot all-time.
Cota will have a hard time
catching the No. 1 guy — Duke’s Bobby Hurley, who rang up 145.
n
TRAGICLOSS: Tar Heel coach Bill
Guthridge’s 96-year-old mother died on Wednesday. She had been in declining health
for several years.
The funeral is on Monday in
Kansas, so Guthridge will leave as soon as the Heels are done playing.
n
REELINGINTHEYEARS: Opposing
coaches, Jerry Green of Tennessee and Guthridge, go back a long way.
Guthridge first met Green on a
recruiting trip when Green was the coach at Gastonia’s Hunter Huss High. At Huss,
Green coached future Georgetown star Sleep Floyd and coached against crosstown rival
(Ashbrook) and future Tar Heel great James Worthy.
That meeting with Guthridge led to
Green’s working summer camps for the Heels.
Green, who says “he’s
been in every gym in the country,” later coached at UNC Asheville, assisted former
UNC assistant, Roy Williams, at Kansas, then revived the program at Oregon before coming
to Tennessee.
Now, Green has come full circle.
He and Guthridge will have an emotional reunion game tonight. This time, in the biggest
game of Green’s career and the biggest game in UT history.
“Dean Smith was my
idol,” says Green. “North Carolina will always be special and a game with North
Carolina is a special game.”
n
MACKTRUCKSON: Ironically, Mack
Brown, the football coach who left North Carolina after a long stint for Austin and the
Texas Longhorns job, got a chance to see the representatives of his old university this
week at the Erwin Center.
Who will he be cheering for?
“UNC definitely,” says
Brown. “Bill Guthridge and I are great friends. “And I say that, even though
I’m a guy walking around with an orange cap with a ‘T’ on it.”
The affable Brown still has a
sense of humor. Among other things, he chased around Worthy, now a CBS analyst. Brown
wanted to know if Worthy had any football eligibility left.
Brown visited Guthridge and
invited him to lunch.
“Mack’s taking me out
for barbecue,” said Guthridge near the end of his press conference on Thursday. So,
if you don’t mind I’d like to cut this short.”
Guthridge earned his biggest laugh
of the day.
n
HOLDINGDOWNTHEFORTE: All the Tar
Heels are getting a chance to answer plenty of questions about freshman scorer Joseph
Forte this week.
What’s the best thing about
Forte, center Brendan Haywood was asked.
“He never stops shooting, no
matter what” replied Haywood.
The worst thing?
“He never stops shooting no
matter what,” laughed Haywood.
Hawyood’s in a good mood. He
seems to be over the loss by his old school, Greensboro Dudley, in the 3A state prep
championship game in Chapel Hill. Dudley lost to Central Cabarrus. Haywood led Dudley to a
title in ‘96.
n
HANGINGON: Guthridge answered
questions one more time on Thursday about how tough this season has been and how much fire
he has been under.
“The way I look at it,”
he said, “is that some people were critical of Dean (Smith), too. If they can be
critical of him, they can certainly be critical of me. They hung Dean in effigy, so they
can hang me in effigy, too.
Then he added to laughter,
“Just so long as they don’t hang the real thing.” |
Today's News