(YAY YAY) TAR HEELS IN FINAL FOUR (ALL THE WAY)

    Sometimes I feel a little less than enthusiastic posting blogs about Tar Heel victories.   Of course--- the Tar Heels are in the Final Four.   If you didn't see it on TV or in the newspaper, you heard it on the radio, or from a rabid Tar Heels fan on the street.   So-- what's the big deal?   Maybe it's NOT-- for you.   But it's been SEVEN years since the Tar Heels made it to the Big Dance the last time--- and for some college basketball teams, it's a great accomplishment to just get there--- ever.    

     I feel a bit for the players and coaches of UNC and the other schools in the Final Four--- Oklahoma, Villanova, and Syracuse--- because often fans and sportswriters expect their teams to go "all the way" and win a championship.   Unfortunately, only ONE team can win it all each year.   There will be three teams that go home a bit disappointed-- no, a LOT disappointed--- as "losers".   And in a bigger sense, there are 64 other teams that have already gone home with their heads hanging low.

Roy cutting down the Net

    I'm proud of what the UNC Tar Heels have accomplished already this year.  They are 32-6 and ACC Regular Season --and--- Tournament champions.    Not many teams can say that they've won 30 games and achieved first place in their league.   I know though that the Tar Heels as a team, and each individual player, want MORE.   It's been their dream all season, and for the seniors, all four years, to get to this point.   Now that they've "arrived", the desire to win a championship is burning even deeper inside of them.   

They can almost taste it now.

    Hey-- what these guys achieve (or don't) this year cannot be overshadowed or compared to the Dean Smith years, or the Michael Jordan years, or any other coach, player, or team.  It's their special year.   They have risen to the top.   It's been a year of some ups and downs. 

     Several players have especially improved this year.   

• G Marcus Paige has come back from a bad injury at the start of the year that obviously hampered him, and finally managed to regain some of his previous greatness, and shooting touch from the perimeter.  

• F Brice Johnson  has become a real dog inside.   He's become a great scorer, but I believe his greatest contribution to the Heels successful season, even more than his point production, has been his tenacious rebounding and defense inside.   He's a real ball hawk, and has consistently defended the basket. 

• F Isaiah Hicks and G Theo Pinson have really come into their own as valuable bench players who perform on the court as if they were regulars.   In the regional final against Notre Dame, they made several big plays down the stretch, including one momentum shifter when Pinson fed Hicks on a fast break for a slam dunk.

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  F Justin Jackson, along with Paige and Johnson, made the Eastern Regional all--tournament team, with Johnson being named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

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      All players on the Tar Heels team, especially the top 8--10 in rotation, contributed greatly to the Tar Heels success so far in the postseason.    It's been an obvious metamorphosis in their team play from the regular season to the tournament.    Especially noteworthy has been the upgrade in their intensity on the defensive end of the court.   UNC opponents in the ACC and NCAA tournaments have only averaged 65 points, while the Tar Heels are averaging 90 points.

       Okay-- here's the Million Dollar question, although (of course)--- if I answer it right, I will NOT stand to inherit or win a million dollars.   

       Will the Tar Heels win the Final Four?   Defeat Syracuse on Saturday, advance to the Championship game on Monday night, and win it all?

In a word--- YES!

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