Zags have Carolina on mind

NEW YORK – Four games into the college basketball season, Mark Few admits he still doesn’t have an accurate read on his unbeaten Gonzaga Bulldogs.

But he expects to get one tonight when the Zags (4-0) take on No. 2-ranked North Carolina (3-0) in the semifinals of the Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off at famed Madison Square Garden.

“They’re great,” Few said of the Tar Heels, who earned their berth in the semis by knocking off Sacred Heart (103-81) and Winthrop (73-66), before blowing up Gardner-Webb 103-50 in their home opener last Sunday.

“They have great athletes and they have a great coach,” Few added. “Roy Williams does a phenomenal job of getting the right players that fit his system. He gets the best of the best, and then he coaches them.

“They don’t just run up and down the floor. He coaches them. And that’s a lethal combination. This should give us a really good barometer of where we’re at on the national scene.”

UNC, while highly ranked, remains extremely young – just like they were last season when they surprised even the biggest of basketball junkies by going 23-8 and finishing second to Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 12-4 record. Eleven of the 13 scholarship players on Williams’ roster are freshmen or sophomores, and four of them start.

“But they’re a really talented kind of young,” warned GU assistant Bill Grier, who was charged with scouting the Heels and putting together a game plan for tonight’s showdown, which tips off at 6 (PST).

Headlining UNC’s list of emerging superstars is sophomore center Tyler Hansbrough, who started 30 of 31 games last winter and averaged 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds.

The 6-foot-9, 245-pounder from Poplar Bluffs, Mo., capped his spectacular rookie season by being named a first-team All-American by Sporting News and becoming the first freshman unanimously selected as an All-ACC first-teamer.

This season, Hansbrough is averaging 22.3 points and 8.7 rebounds – both team highs – while shooting 64.9 percent (24 of 37) from the field.

“They have one of the best players in the country in Hansbrough,” Grier said. “Just watching him on film, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a kid play that hard, and not just on offense. He plays hard on both ends of the floor on every possession, and he’s certainly going to be a handful.”

The Heels also have three other starters – freshman forward Brandan Wright (14.3), freshman guard Wayne Ellington (14.0) and senior forward Terry Reyshawn (10.0) averaging in double figures. Grier, because of UNC’s up-tempo style, expects all of them to dramatically boost those numbers as the season wears on.

“Their big thing is that they pressure you defensively and try to create duress, so when you shoot it they can run it right down your throat, because they want to play fast,” Grier said. “I think one of Coach Williams’ goals for his team is to lead the country in scoring.

“They really push it hard.”

That should make for an intriguing matchup, considering GU also prides itself on getting up and down the court.

“It’s going to be a track meet,” Grier added.

Williams, who spent 15 successful seasons at Kansas before returning to his alma mater four years ago and winning a national championship in 2005, admitted the Bulldogs have more than enough talent to keep pace.

“I’ve said this all week, and it’s not just because we’re playing them, but no one can consider Gonzaga a midmajor anymore,” Williams said. “Mark has turned their program into what can be considered one of the elite programs in all of college basketball.”

The Zags certainly don’t plan on being in awe of the Tar Heels – or the stage on which the first meeting between the two schools will play out.

“It’s going to be a huge game,” said GU’s senior guard Derek Raivio. “It’s in The Garden and it’s against a top-five team, but that what you live for – playing big games like this, especially at Gonzaga. That’s why you come here.”

Teammate Sean Mallon, the only other senior on the Bulldogs roster, echoed Raivio’s sentiments.

“We don’t look at it as, ‘Oh, my God, here’s North Carolina,’ ” he said. “A lot of our younger guys have played against their guys in high school or in AAU tournaments.

“But we’re still definitely underdogs, and that’s a role we’ve always kind of embraced here. We like being in that position.”

Tennessee (4-0) and Butler (4-0) will meet in tonight’s first semifinal, which tips at 4 (PST).

The consolation finals and championship game of the tournament will be played Friday.