Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991 TAG: 9103220050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL BRILL EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. LENGTH: Medium
Not that the Tar Heels haven't had their chances.
Four times they have been in the regional finals and three times they were favored.
They have lost to Georgia after Sam Perkins said he didn't know what league the Bulldogs played in and to Syracuse on the Meadowlands floor where they play Eastern Michigan tonight, after Dick Vitale said J.R. Reid would destroy Rony Seikaly and the charged-up Orange big man responded with the game of his life.
"A couple of those years it would have been fun if we could have had Worthy for another year, and we were in the final eight without him," Tar Heels coach Dean Smith said Thursday. "In '85 we were in the final eight without a guy named Jordan.
"I honestly don't feel there was one time where I was really disappointed in our play."
This time, the Tar Heels are favored to win again, which makes Smith uneasy.
"I get a kick out of somebody saying it's ours to lose. Eastern Michigan must be good. [Vanderbilt coach] Eddie Fogler guaranteed me Mississippi State would beat UCLA, and Eastern Michigan beat them by 20," Smith said. "In many ways, it would be much better playing UCLA. You know, the name."
Then Smith, who loves to play golf, alluded, "I hope we're playing the course, not the opponent."
\ Of the nation's traditional powers, only UCLA (a loser to Penn State) and Kentucky (on probation) aren't left in the Sweet 16.
This field has gone to the Final Four 59 times (North Carolina nine; Duke, Kansas and Ohio State, eight each), reached the title game 31 times and won 14 championships.
Six were in the Sweet 16 last year.
This has been the most form-following of all recent NCAA Tournaments. Not only did 13 of the top 16 seeds make it, but in the second round, the higher seed won every game.
Through two rounds, the favorites were 39-9, and even giving the allotted Las Vegas points, were 30-14 with four games even.
It hasn't been the year of the underdog. Eastern Michigan is a No. 12 seed, and no school rated that low ever made the regional final.
\ North Carolina's Rick Fox and Eastern Michigan's Kory Hallas likely will be matched head-to-head tonight. Both are Canadians, although Fox is a native of the Bahamas.
Fox played on the Canadian National team last year. "I asked Hallas why he didn't play," Smith said, "and he said he got married and took a year off. I didn't know you took a year off when you got married."
Hallas and his wife have a baby born in November.
His parents don't know he's playing in the Sweet 16. They are both missionaries serving in China.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB