Smith’s Teams Just Keep Getting Better
Dean Smith appears to be getting better with age.
The 66-year-old North Carolina coach has now directed his teams to more Final Four appearances in the ‘90s than in any of his previous three decades at the Chapel Hill school.
His first three Final Fours came in 1967-69. In the 1970s, the Tar Heels went in ‘72 and ‘77. They made it in 1981 and ‘82. And they have now been in 1991, ‘93, ‘95 and ‘97.
The Tar Heels have won two national titles under Smith (‘82 and ‘93). And just last weekend, Smith passed Adolph Rupp as the winningest coach in Division I history with 877 victories. His team increased that total to 879 at the East Regional with wins over California (63-57) and Louisville (97-74) on Sunday.
Coach in the clutch
Fair or not, before Sunday, Lute Olson may have been best known for coaching three first-round losers this decade. After the win over Providence, however, he may be better known as the man who is perfect in regional final games.
He improved to 4-0 in games played with a Final Four bid on the line. Three came with Arizona. The other came when he took Iowa to the Final Four in 1980.
Olson improved to 339-110 with the Wildcats, 531-202 overall. He’s in his 18th trip to the NCAA and is 26-18 in tournament games.
All-tournament teams
North Carolina placed four players on the all-tournament team at the East Regional final: Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Shammond Williams and Ed Cota. Alex Sanders of Louisville also made it. Sanders scored 20 points to top the Cardinals in their 97-74 loss to the Tar Heels.
Williams was named the most valuable player. He scored a game-high 22 on Sunday after scoring 12 in the Tar Heels’ 63-57 victory over California on Friday. He went 8 of 14 from three-point range in the two games.
Arizona and Providence each placed two players on the Southeast Regional all-tournament team.
Arizona guards Miles Simon and Mike Bibby joined Providence guards Jamel Thomas and God Shammgod on the team, which also included Kansas forward Paul Pierce.
Simon averaged 23.5 points in Arizona’s two victories, equaling his career high with 30 points in the 96-92 overtime victory over Providence that sent the Wildcats to the Final Four. Bibby led Arizona with 21 points in an upset win over Kansas in the regional semifinals, then added 17 more on Sunday.
Shammgod and Thomas each scored 23 points in the regional final, while Pierce was recognized for a 27-point performance in defeat for the top-seeded Jayhawks.
Slam dunk, barely
It was a big man’s dream. With 1:46 left in the game, and North Carolina holding a comfortable 20-point lead, Antawn Jamison hit Serge Zwikker with an outlet pass. And nobody was between Zwikker and the basket.
Zwikker, 7-3, was going to make a dunk that would rock the Carrier Dome. He was going to be Michael Jordan or Dr. J. Instead, he was a 7-3 guy from The Netherlands.
“I took off too soon,” says Zwikker, his head down in embarrassment. “I thought a guard was going to come behind and knock the ball away.”
Zwikker went up and almost missed the dunk. The ball rattled around the rim before it dropped in.
Where’d you take off from, the free-throw line? “It looked like it,” Zwikker said.
A deal at half the price
Scalpers call it “dump mode.” It’s that precarious period just before the start of a game in which they must get rid of their tickets for any price.
Before the Southeast Regional final between Arizona and Providence, things were so bad that tickets with a face value of $40 were going for $10 some 90 minutes before gametime - well before scalpers normally move into dump mode.
“If Kansas and Chattanooga were here, I’d be making a lot of money today,” one scalper said.
But they were gone, leaving small contingents from Arizona and Providence and lots of locals to pick and choose from the dozens of scalpers working the area.
Even though all the tickets in the 16,300-seat arena were sold out months ago, the announced attendance was 13,721.
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