THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 27, 1995 TAG: 9503270130
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BIRMINGHAM, ALA. LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Dean Smith has built such a hungry monster at the University of North Carolina that if he doesn't feed it a national championship every year, he hears about it.
Considering that Smith has produced only two national championships in an otherwise brilliant 33 years at Chapel Hill, he has heard plenty, too.
A few years ago, after another fruitless postseason venture, one of the state's largest newspapers printed an editorial cartoon, showing a couple strolling down a sidewalk.
``Must be spring, the Tar Heels are choking again,'' read the caption.
That was mild compared to some of the things said about the Tar Heels last year.
Seeded No. 1 in the NCAA tournament with what many considered the most talented team in school history, the Tar Heels struggled by Liberty in the first round and were beaten by unranked Boston College in the second round.
Well, here it is spring again, but you have to check the budding trees and blooming daffodils to be sure.
The Tar Heels are headed for the Final Four, and whether or not they bring home another national championship, no one can say they choked this time.
Indeed, critics who said Smith did his worst coaching job last season should be willing to admit that getting this year's team to the Final Four is his finest effort.
While Smith had his usual starting lineup of former high school All-Americans, he also had what may be his least impressive bench.
When the season began, he did not have anyone on the bench with much experience, or potential.
Even Smith admitted in midseason that ``you normally don't see a team with five walk-ons playing for the national championship.''
Smith, one of the great teachers of the game, developed enough reserve strength in Pearce Landry and Serge Zwikker to finish in a tie for first place in the ACC regular-season and go into overtime in the tournament championship game before losing to Wake Forest.
But the Tar Heels had never seemed so outmanned as they were Saturday night in the Southeast Region championship game against a top-seeded Kentucky team that played 10-deep and had crushed its first three playoff opponents by an average of 31 points.
The odds against the Tar Heels grew even higher with center Rasheed Wallace still not completely recovered from a two-week-old ankle injury, Donald Williams nursing a bad case of tendinitis, and Jeff McInnis playing with a painful groin injury.
As bleak as it seemed, the Tar Heels battled through those adversities, and foul problems that sent Wallace on the bench for 17 minutes, to beat the favored Wildcats, 74-61.
Kentucky had its worst shooting performance of the season, making only 28 percent of its 75 field goal attempts, but that was not the most startling statistic.
Even more surprising, the North Carolina bench outscored Kentucky's blue-chip reserves, 12-11.
``We are not overly deep, with five walk-ons, but I've had confidence in our bench all year,'' Smith said.
``They stepped up again when we needed them.''
Smith showed his confidence when the Tar Heels were clinging to a five-point lead with seven minutes left to play.
He gave Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, McInnis, and Calabria a couple of minutes of much-needed rest while going with a lineup of Shammond Williams, Serge Zwikker, Pat Sullivan, Pearce Landry, and Donald Williams.
The four starters returned with 5:30 left and Stackhouse fed Wallace for two quick goals and a 62-54 lead. Kentucky responded by calling timeout, but the Wildcats had nothing left for a comeback against the refreshed Tar Heels.
Kentucky coach Rick Pitino was at a loss to explain why the Wildcats failed to take advantage of Wallace being out for 10 minutes in the first half because of his foul problems.
``We wanted to get him in foul trouble, but we didn't take advantage of it when we did,'' he said. ``I don't know what happened to us.''
Pitino eventually got around to giving both Smith and North Carolina the credit they deserved.
``We do not have great perimeter shooters, and Coach Smith was smart enough to figure that out,'' Pitino said.
Earlier in the week, Pitino had called Smith the ``premier coach in the business,'' and compared him to ``a bottle of fine wine that gets better with age.''
When told of Pitino's comment, the 64-year-old Smith blushed like a bottle of white Zinfandel.
``I guess that is just a nice way of saying the guy is old,'' he replied.
Maybe so.
But even that monster down in Chapel Hill will tell you that both Smith and the Tar Heels have gotten much better with age since a year ago. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dean Smith has faced just about everything in the NCAA tournament.
This year's team, thought to be thin and beatable, is still alive.
by CNB