ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997 TAG: 9703250032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SYRACUSE, N.Y.
TYPE: EAST REGIONAL NOTES
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK THE ROANOKE TIMES
North Carolina's Final Four semifinal matchup with Arizona might remind the Tar Heels of their first turning point of what's become a 28-win season.
UNC lost its season opener, 83-72, to the Wildcats in the Hall of Fame Tipoff Game at Springfield, Mass. The Heels learned that late November day they couldn't do what they wanted.
Going way back to postgame comments after a second-round NCAA loss a year ago to Texas Tech at the Richmond Coliseum, coach Dean Smith talked about how UNC wanted to return to the pressure defense it hadn't played much since 1993-94.
Smith talked the same way all summer and in preseason, too. Then, coach Lute Olson's team came out and ran through and around the chasing and somewhat plodding Heels.
So, Smith went back to a basic man-to-man and started using a point zone again. He doesn't like it. He'd much prefer his team playing the scrambling pressure and run-and-jump his teams had turned into transition success.
``We don't have the type of team that can exploit a point guard,'' Smith said. ``We haven't done that since the Arizona game, or 1994.''
Carolina scrapped its pressure plans after the Arizona loss and won nine in a row.
Smith's straight man defense is solid because his team is quick out front and big inside. The zone helps a UNC team short on depth save its legs, too.
``I think North Carolina is the best team we've played this year,'' Louisville guard B.J. Flynn said of a schedule that has included Kentucky, UCLA, Temple, Cincinnati and Boston College. ``I know it's the toughest defense I've ever played against because of the quickness at guard.''
FOOTSTEPS: North Carolina center Serge Zwikker will be headed to his third Final Four next weekend, and his game shoes are carrying his personal slogan.
Before the Tar Heels began NCAA Tournament play 11 days ago in Winston-Salem, N.C., the 7-foot-3 center wrote ``93-97'' across the back of his Nikes, then printed ``INDY'' below the dates.
``It means a lot more to me now than those other years, because I'm a senior, and I'm playing,'' the blond Dutchman said. ``I was a redshirt when we won in 1993, but I went to New Orleans and got to feel what winning was like.
``It would be great to win it again, for this team. I appreciate all three [including a 1995 semifinals loss to Arkansas in Seattle], but this one is the biggest personally.''
WINNERS: The East Regional final was the No.1 matchup in NCAA history as far as coaching victories are concerned.
UNC's 97-74 victory was coach Dean Smith's NCAA-record 879th at the Chapel Hill school. Louisville's Denny Crum has 613 career victories.
It is believed the Carrier Dome contest also had the most combined sideline victories of any game in NCAA history. Pregame research by UNC staffers could not find any previous game where the two coaches approached the 1,491 wins Smith and Crum shared at tipoff.
PASSING: Carolina freshman Ed Cota heads to the Final Four having already taken the school's single-season assist record.
Cota had nine assists in Sunday's victory over Louisville, giving him 240, mostly off the bench, this season. Kenny Smith had owned the mark (235 in 1985-86).
Now, UNC coach Dean Smith would like the freshman from Brooklyn to take a charge defensively. Smith said he's never had a guard so reluctant to step in front of a defender.
In the workout on the eve of the regional final, Carolina coach and former All-America guard Phil Ford took a charge and bounced up off the floor to show Cota it wouldn't hurt.
``When Ed Cota takes a charge, that's when he will start,'' said Smith, who has praised the rookie's defensive improvement late this season.
TOP TWO: The Final Four date for North Carolina and Arizona will be a meeting of the two schools with the longest current consecutive NCAA Tournament streaks.
This is the Tar Heels' record 23rd straight year in the field. The Wildcats are in their 13th in a row. In history, the only streaks between those two are 15 by UCLA (1967-81) and a 14-year run by Georgetown (1979-92).
ACC, AGAIN: After an ACC absence from the Final Four last year for the first time in a decade, Carolina's advance to the RCA Dome next weekend gives the league nine national semifinal berths in the 1990s. That's the best among conferences. The Southeastern is next, with seven.
Since 1981, 17 of the 68 Final Four teams (25 percent) have come from the ACC, from five schools (Duke 7, North Carolina 6, Virginia 2, N.C. State and Georgia Tech 1).
THREE, AGAIN: North Carolina's East Regional victory gives the Final Four three No.1 seeds for only the second time since the NCAA went to seeding in 1979.
In 1993 at the Superdome, champion UNC was joined by No.1s Michigan and Kentucky. Kansas had advanced as a No.2 that year. No other Final Four in 19 years has had more than two No.1s.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Dean Smith (right) and Denny Crum metby CNBin the NCAA East Regional on Sunday with a the most combined
victories in tournament history.