Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 31, 1991 TAG: 9103310189
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium
Roy Williams, the pupil, taught Smith, the teacher, a lesson Saturday: It's frustrating to play Kansas when the underdog Jayhawks are rolling toward a national basketball championship.
The Jayhawks outshot, outrebounded and outplayed the Tar Heels for a 79-73 victory that moved them within one victory of their second national title in four seasons.
Smith was ejected after getting his second technical foul, the first time that's happened in 14 years and only the third time in his career. Al McGuire was the last coach to be ejected in the Final Four, in 1974 when he was thrown out of Marquette's championship game loss to North Carolina State.
"I don't like the way it ended because of the way I feel for the man and because I think it takes away from what the kids do," said Williams, who was an assistant under Smith for 10 years at North Carolina before going to Kansas in 1988.
In the past two weeks, Kansas has beaten the No. 2 (Arkansas), No. 3 (Indiana) and No. 4 teams (North Carolina) in the country. The Jayhawks lost their opportunity for a 1-4 sweep when top-ranked Nevada-Las Vegas lost 79-77 to Duke.
"Every coach dreams about this," Williams said. "I haven't thought about Monday night at all."
In 1988, Danny Manning led Kansas on an improbable run to the national championship. This time, it was a collection of undersized, overlooked no-names like Adonis Jordan and Richard Scott, who sprained an ankle in Friday's practice and could barely run afterward.
"I knew we weren't going to be playing next week, so I just got out there and did what coach told me to do," Scott said.
Mark Randall and Jordan each scored 16 points and freshman substitute Scott had 14 for the Jayhawks (27-7).
Hubert Davis led North Carolina (29-6) with 25 points.
After North Carolina star Rick Fox fouled out with 35 seconds left and the Tar Heels trailing 76-71, Smith walked toward center court and asked referee Pete Pavia, "How much time do I have" to substitute for Fox.
Pavia, who had called Smith for a technical in the first half, then hit the coach with another technical that resulted in Smith's automatic ejection.
As Smith left the court, he stopped briefly to chat with Williams, shook his hand and congratulated Kansas' players.
Smith, who last had been ejected in 1977, denied he cursed or abused Pavia, who has a history of ejecting coaches.
The Jayhawks outrebounded the taller Tar Heels 51-42 and outshot them 41-38 percent. Randall and Alonzo Jamison each had 11 rebounds for Kansas.
North Carolina was trying to reach its first final since winning the national championship in 1982.
"We were very anxious," said King Rice, one of three senior starters for the Tar Heels. "We didn't play Carolina basketball. We went solo too much."
It was the first Final Four meeting between Kansas and North Carolina since their famous 1957 title game, which the Tar Heels won 54-53 in triple overtime. Another unusual twist to this year's game was that Smith went to Kansas and Williams to North Carolina.
Kansas used a 17-1 run to take a 43-34 halftime lead and led the rest of the way. North Carolina closed to 58-57 on a layup by Fox with 8:18 left, but Kansas then scored nine straight points, including two straight by Jordan, to take a 67-57 lead with 3:53 remaining.
The Tar Heels never got closer than five points after that. see microfilm
for box score
by CNB