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College basketball: March Madness 2005
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Two teams play; only one matters
By JOHN ROMANO
Published April 4, 2005
ST. LOUIS - They had conquered a conference. They had taken over a poll. They had grown so large, they could be weighed only by measuring the past.
This is how we had come to see the Fighting Illini. Not by their performance in games, but by their continuing quest for a legacy.
Could they set an NCAA record for victories? Would they win their first national championship in the spring of the program's 100th year?
Was it their time to find glory?
Turns out, the choice is not theirs.
You see, it's not about Illinois. I'm not sure it ever was.
It's about North Carolina.
And how badly the Tar Heels want to win.
College basketball's national championship will be decided tonight, and you get the feeling it will be decided by one team. And it's not the team with 37 victories. And it's not the team five seconds shy of an undefeated record.
This is North Carolina's show. Play like they should, and the Tar Heels will win. Play like they have, and the Tar Heels will lose.
It may be that simple.
North Carolina has diddled around too long. From the season opener in November, when it lost to Santa Clara, to Saturday night, when the Tar Heels sleepwalked through the first half against Michigan State.
"If we do that again, it could be embarrassing," center Sean May said. "It could get real ugly. We could go home sad."
This is not a slap at Illinois. The Illini have a fine team. Really, an enviable team. They have proved themselves at nearly every turn. They play a tenacious defense, they play an unselfish offense.
This is more an indictment of North Carolina. The Tar Heels have more talent than any team in the country. And they've proved that by winning a lot of games while operating on cruise control.
This is not imagined. It is not the creation of cynics nor the confusion of the misinformed. It is real, and the Carolina coaches know it.
Roy Williams is the one who shut the doors of the Tar Heels practice facility last week and put players through the type of drills normally reserved for the beginning of a season. He was so distressed by their lack of defense region final weekend, he was scolding them on the way to the Final Four.
And Williams is the one who blistered his players at intermission of the national semifinals against Michigan State.
It's an uncomfortable notion to be accused of having more talent than heart, but it's something North Carolina has brought upon itself.
Five times in the past seven games, the Tar Heels have failed to take a lead into halftime. Each time, they've come back to win the game. You may say that is a sign of a team that knows how to close a game.
But it would be more accurate to say that is a sign of a team that doesn't play seriously until threatened.
This is a team of stars. A team with a sixth man - freshman Marvin Williams - who may be better than anyone on the Illinois roster.
Yet the Tar Heels have had trouble separating the glamor from the glory. They sometimes forget to play defense. They don't go hard all of the time. They've had to be taught to remember they have teammates on offense.
Sometime back, Roy Williams gathered his players before popping a tape into the VCR. He wanted them to watch the Pistons on their way to the NBA title last season. And he wanted to know who was Detroit's best player.
"Everyone had a difference of opinion," May said. "And Coach said, "You can't tell who the best player is because they don't care. Everyone plays together, and that's what it's about. That's the epitome of a team."
For the most part, Carolina players despise the idea that Illinois is the disciplined team and that they are a collection of NBA recruits.
Even Roy Williams seems put off by the notion. For all the work he has done to create a team-first atmosphere, he is sensitive to the suggestion there may still be lots of room for improvement.
Williams says Carolina's talent has been vastly overstated. That it has NBA prospects, but not superstars. And even if the Tar Heels are the most talented team in the nation, it doesn't mean they haven't worked to get here.
"I had a hole-in-one once. I took my wife out on the course to show her where it was," Williams said. "It was 118 yards. She said, "Well, that's so close, that shouldn't even count.' If we win the dad-gum thing, if somebody says something about that to me, that's going to be fine, too"
They have made it this far.
They have shown they were willing to work past the 8-20 wreck of 2002. They have shown they could survive a regime change. They have made it past petty jealousy, bouts of laziness and the occasional outbreak of selfishness.
Really, there is but one thing left to prove.
Do they want this badly enough?
[Last modified April 4, 2005, 01:38:43]
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