Dick Weiss on NCAA Tournament
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NCAA sub-region site here has turned into a disaster for Atlantic Coast Conference teams.
First, 16th seeded Cinderella University of Maryland-Baltimore Country dispatched of ACC champion and overall top-seeded Virginia, 74-54, Friday in a South Region first round game the Spectrum Center.
Now, Texas A & M has blown away West Region second seeded North Carolina, 86-65, in a second-round game here yesterday before a pro Carolina sellout crowd. further turning this NCAA tournament upside down.
The epic collapse in this town was reminiscent of Black Sunday on Tobacco Road in 1979, when Penn defeated North Carolina and St. John’s defeated Duke in first round games at Raleigh.
The ACC still has four of its nine teams left in the field– Duke, Clemson, Florida State and Syracuse — still playing and the Orange and Blue Devils meet each other Friday in the Midwest Sweet 16 in Omaha.
The A & M win was impressive on many levels. The Aggies dominated North Carolina with their size and length, which overwhelmed Carolina in the paint and a sticky zone defense, which limited the normally poised, efficient Tar Heels to just 33.3 percent on 78 field goal attempts and an ugly 6 for 31 from beyond the three-point arc.
Powerful 6-8 junior center Tyler Davis, a first team All SEC selection, led the Aggies, who shot 51.7 percent for the game and made 10 threes, with 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Forwards DJ Hogg and Robert Williams both came close to triple doubles. Williams, a 6-9 sophomore who is a potential NBA lottery pick, had eight points and 13 rebounds while Hogg had 14 points and 8 rebounds. Defensively, the Aggies took control of the game when they held Carolina scoreless for close to six minutes midway through the first half to dig through way out of a 20-13 deficit and take a 28-20 lead.
“We know we have an advantage on the inside with most teams,’’ Davis said. “We do what we do every day, go to war on the inside and eat glass.’’
Carolina never recovered from the initial shock wave. They were never in the game during the second half.
“Our goal was to defend the three-point line and make them take tough twos,” Aggies coach Billy Kennedy said. “You block eight shots, there’s a lot of tough twos. Our game plan worked. They didn’t shoot the ball well, we took them out of their rhythm, out of transition, and fortunately when they did get some open looks at the free throw line in the first half against our zone, they missed some shots they usually make. And you got to have some of that happen at this time of year to advance. I don’t think they played their best and hopefully we had something to do with that.”
A & M will advance to a Sweet 16 matchup against Michigan in Los Angeles.
Carolina will take the bus home to Chapel Hill.
This was not the way North Carolina coach Roy Williams envisioned this season ending. But he has been through a lot with the NCAA investigation in academic scandal and the vicious backlash he has felt from opposing fans who felt the Tar Heels weren’t hammered enough with sanctions.
“Three of the last four years have been very difficult,’’ Williams said. “I didn’t like the things people were saying to me. I didn’t like what they were saying about me. I didn’t like getting a piece of mail that was addressed to ‘Mr. Cheating Bastard’ so these kids on the court were my salvation. They made my day because I’ve had kids that made me feel like I was semi-important.’’
Williams is 67-years old and he is starting to get questions about how much longer he wants to coach this storied program. He was asked how often he thinks about it after the game.
“The last 30 minutes,’’ he said. “I don’t do that guys. I think about it the next practice, the next game. I realize I’m 67. I can’t run up and down the sidelines and get out and demonstrate like I used to. And I wasn’t a very good player, but I could demonstrate what I wanted to. So, no, I don’t think about it. I think about jumping off the top of a building right now, but I don’t think about retirement.’’
