Tar Heels players, fans celebrate 4th national title

With thousands of Carolina blue-clad fans cheering in the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C., Rashad McCants rested his left arm on the NCAA championship trophy and gave it a glance.

The North Carolina junior then looked up at the crowd and smiled. He didn’t have to say a word.

The Tar Heels returned home Tuesday to celebrate the program’s fourth national title with about 15,000 frenzied fans – less than 24 hours after closing the season with a 75-70 win over Illinois in St. Louis.

In a festive atmosphere, Tar Heels coach Roy Williams and his players thanked the fans for their support and talked about how good it felt to win North Carolina’s first national title since 1993.

It was a title made sweeter by the program’s struggles in recent years, which included an 8-20 season in 2002 and an ugly coaching change a year later that brought Williams back to his alma mater.

“It’s been a long journey, it really has,” said senior Jackie Manuel, a freshman on that eight-win team coached by Matt Doherty. “But I think the one thing I can say is we’re back. We’re No. 1.”

It was the first title for Williams, who was an assistant to Dean Smith for 10 years before spending 15 seasons at Kansas. He reminisced about how good it felt to watch the Tar Heels win the title 12 years ago, and now he finally has one of his own in two seasons here.

“I can tell you the thrill of a lifetime – other than my wife and two children – was being the leader and coach of our alma mater,” he said.

Williams expects guard McCants to forgo his senior season to enter the NBA draft.

“I think Rashad told people last night he was going to go; we had that discussion as early as first of the semester, as early as January, knowing at that time is was probably going to happen,” Williams said.

Highest ratings since 1999

North Carolina’s win over Illinois in the NCAA championship game was the highest-rated men’s title game since 1999.

CBS’ coverage of the Tar Heels’ win got an overnight rating of 16.0 with a 23 share. That’s up 43 percent from last year’s 11.2 with a 17 share the network got for UConn’s win over Georgia Tech. It’s the best rating since UConn’s win over Duke got a 16.9 with a 25 share.

Augustus wins Naismith Trophy

LSU’s Seimone Augustus is the winner of the 2005 Naismith Trophy as Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year.

Augustus averaged 20.1 points and 4.5 rebounds for the Lady Tigers, leading them to the program’s second straight trip to the NCAA Final Four.

Wright declares for draft

Swingman Antoine Wright plans to forgo his senior year at Texas A&M and declared for the NBA draft.

Wright earned All-Big 12 honors after averaging 17.8 points and six rebounds.