Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993 TAG: 9304040226
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS LENGTH: Medium
MONTROSS JAYHAWKS' ALBATROSS
Subscribing to the superstition of coach Roy Williams, Kansas tried spitting in the Mississippi River this weekend for Final Four luck.The only way the Jayhawks could have reached the NCAA championship game would have been to drown North Carolina's aircraft carrier.
Saturday's Superdome semifinal opener before the second-largest crowd in college basketball history was billed as a game between teams that - thanks to coaching ties - were spittin' images of each other. They couldn't have tried to reach Monday night's final more differently.
While the Jayhawks stayed in the game on 3-pointers, coach Dean Smith's Tar Heels advanced to their seventh NCAA championship date by doing their best work only inches from the basket.
In UNC's 78-68 victory, the biggest Heel was Eric Montross, on whose size 18 Converse UNC (33-4) sailed to success. Kansas had men in the middle as big as the 7-foot, 270-pound junior, and in sophomore Greg Ostertag, even had one that wore the same number - 00 - as Montross.
That's where the comparison ended.
Montross finished with 23 points. He had only four rebounds, but his activity under the hoop - depicted in his foul problems - was what confounded Kansas.
Whether UNC needed a hoop, or pass to restart its offense, or relief via a lob, Montross was huge. His presence was so crucial that even when he picked up a third foul with 12:05 to play and the Heels ahead only 56-53, Smith didn't yank his pivotman.
Of course, the Dean of active coaches didn't have much choice. He needed Montross not only for defense, but also to keep some semblance of offensive decency on the floor.
Point guard Derrick Phelps injured his left hip trying to draw a charge, compounding the ache he still has from the tailbone that was bruised in a scary fall during the ACC Tournament victory over Virginia. He hobbled painfully through the last 10 minutes. And forward Brian Reese spent several late minutes sitting on the Tar Heels' bench, an icebag pressed to his banged right eye.
Carolina's superior talent was just enough to beat Kansas' depth. Roanoke native George Lynch produced his 16th double-double of the season, too. If UNC won with the gut of its team, it got the game-clinching hoop on another kind of guts.
With The Heels ahead only 68-65, guard Donald Williams bolted downcourt ahead of his teammates. The defensive and rebounding numbers were in Kansas' favor.
So, Williams stopped and with no Heels under the hoop, swished a 3-pointer from the right wing with 2:38 to play - his fifth in seven tries. It's a good play only if you make the basket. That was the real saliva test of this game.
When the Jayhawks beat UNC 79-73 in the Final Four semifinals two years ago in Indianapolis, Montross was a freshman who played 19 minutes and scored six points.
"I was no factor in that game," he said.
He was the biggest factor this time. Montross and the 6-foot-8 Lynch were as tough an inside pair the Jayhawks said they had faced.
"Eric has gotten a great deal better, and I hadn't realized how much better until I watched the tape of our Kansas game two years ago," Smith said. "He was just a young colt then.
"Now, he has that jump hook with the right or left hand, and defensively, he's improved so much this year. We played very well defensively.
"And when you're writing about North Carolina, you have to write the words `George Lynch.' He means so much to what we do, to what Eric does."
Lynch finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, as UNC won the rebounding battle for its 18th straight game. The Tar Heels' five NCAA opponents are shooting only 39 percent.
And as the Jayhawks learned, that's nothing to spit at.