ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310137
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK THE ROANOKE TIMES
It's a rematch of a season opener, but the North Carolina-Arizona semifinal isn't a meeting of the same teams.
North Carolina and Arizona haven't burned the tape of their earlier meeting this basketball season. But they haven't exactly burned the midnight oil watching it.
Entering their meeting in today's 59th NCAA semifinals, the Tar Heels and Wildcats will have to be satisfied to have Arizona's 83-72 victory on Nov. 22 committed to memory.
"We haven't seen the tape,'' Wildcats forward Michael Dickerson said Friday.
"That game seems light years away,'' said Arizona coach Lute Olson.
The Tar Heels junked their plans to return to pressure defense after that Hall of Fame Tipoff loss in which Dickerson scored 31 points, including seven 3-pointers.
"Both teams have improved a great deal since then,'' said North Carolina coach Dean Smith.
Carolina rebounded and won an ACC championship, an 11th NCAA regional and has a 16-game winning streak. Arizona has added a game-turning player, Miles Simon, who wasn't eligible for the first meeting.
"We're surprised we're here,'' Smith said, "but perhaps all four teams are.''
This Final Four may lack the dominant team or clear favorite of recent years, but none are short on success. Three of the nation's top five ranked teams are here.
North Carolina (28-6) takes its longest winning streak in a decade against 15th-ranked Arizona (23-9) at 5:42 p.m. (WDBJ, Channel 7). Big Ten champion and third-ranked Minnesota (31-3) faces Kentucky (34-4) in a second game between No. 1 regional seeds at approximately 8:05 p.m.
"These are two so totally different teams right now,'' Olson said of the UNC-Arizona rematch. "Going into that game, we had a lot of inexperience, and so did they. I'm not sure either one of us knew what to expect.''
In Simon and freshman Mike Bibby, Olson has a pair of guards ``so quick, especially with their hands, so good at anticipating plays,'' Olson said.
That said, Olson expects the game will be decided up front. The Wildcats will try to slow UNC's power and size of Antawn Jamison and Serge Zwikker with 6-foot-8 Bennett Davison and 6-11 A.J. Bramlett. Olson also has 6-11 Donnell Harris to bring off the bench.
"They've been getting an awful lot of layups, an awful lot of put-backs,'' said Olson, still seeking his first Final Four victory in four trips. "The way North Carolina is playing, I've never, ever, seen a team execute in the halfcourt better than they are now. Their passes are right there. It's like a machine.''
Minnesota and Kentucky haven't met since 1957, back when Gophers coach Clem Haskins, one of 11 children who grew up on a farm, was in grade school in Campbellsville, Ky. Haskins, who starred for the legendary Ed Diddle at Wastern Kentucky, never wanted to play at UK, which wasn't recruiting blacks in the mid-60s.
"You have to understand I lived in a [remote] area and we didn't have TV and radio,'' Haskins said. "Going to college was probably an afterthought until I was a junior in high school. I never listened to Kentucky games.''
Haskins, in his 11th Minnesota season after six years on the sideline at his alma mater, has the most versatile and deepest team in the Final Four. Nine Gophers have averaged more than 18 minutes in four NCAA games.
The Gophers can be bruisers. They pounded their way past Clemson in the Midwest Regional semifinals. Or, they can run, as they did past UCLA in the regional final.
"What makes Kentucky different is the pressure,'' Haskins said of the Wildcats' swarming defense. "They press for 40 minutes, but even though they don't have great depth, they seem to keep the heat on for 40 minutes. You've got to be on your toes every possession.''
Rick Pitino has the defending champion in his fifth-ranked Wildcats. But then he doesn't. NBA-bound sophomore Ron Mercer and senior guard Anthony Epps are the only major contributors back from the club that beat Syracuse for the title last year.
"If I had my entire team back from last year, I think it would be a little bit of an advantage, because they'd know what to expect,'' Pitino said. "We don't have that. Five or six key players are not back, with all of the points, rebounds and minutes that went with them.
"From that sense, I don't think anybody here has an advantage. What's going to win the game is how good Minnesota's defense is and how good our defense is.''
Kentucky and UNC rank 1-2 in NCAA Tournament victories, respectively (74, 72). Carolina and Arizona are 1-2 in current consecutive NCAA bids (23, 13). Minnesota is in its first Final Four.
"There are people that still don't respect us, and we have a problem with that,'' Haskins said. ``Anytime you play in the Big Ten and win 16 [conference] games, you know you've got to be doing something great.''
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. ASSOCIATED PRESS Vince Carter stretches before Northby CNBCarolina's practice Friday. color
2. ASSOCIATED PRESS Minnesota's Russ Archambault works hard at tying
his shoe during practice Friday at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.