NCAA Tournament 2000 - Heels kicking up at right time

Heels kicking up at right time
By Pat Forde
Special to ESPN.com

"We showed everybody that we're good enough to win a national championship." -- Ed Cota.

Had the North Carolina point guard said that a week earlier, we'd have cackled at him like the grandma who howls at the thirtysomething, live-at-home son on those great Holiday Inn commercials.


	Ed Cota says the Tar Heels are a different team now.

What do you think this is, Ed, the NIT?

The consolation tourney bestows a national title, too. And prior to Selection Sunday, that looked like the most realistic tournament for Carolina to win.

But Cota didn't make that comment last week, when the Tar Heels' NCAA bid was being eyed with skepticism. He said it Sunday, after Carolina had justified its tournament existence by shocking top-seeded Stanford 60-53 in the South Regional second round.

(History students will discern a trend here. The last time the Heels were so ignobly seeded -- a No. 8 -- was 1990. That team responded by upsetting No.1 seed Oklahoma in the second round.)

Suddenly, nobody is chuckling at Cota or his teammates. Suddenly, after tornadoes leveled large sections of Bracketville in the NCAA's Wipeout Weekend, North Carolina is again being taken seriously as a national title contender. Suddenly, the battered Carolina rep has been restored.

Given the shattered state of the South Regional, it's not impossible to envision the Heels making their 15th Final Four appearance. Up Friday is a date with Tennessee, a program that has never been this far and whose talent is counterbalanced by a suspect mental makeup. On the other side of the South bracket is Miami and Tulsa, neither of which has ever played in a regional final.

Advantage, Heels?

It's quite the surprising development. Again, we refer to Cota for context.

The Carolina point guard stepped off the postgame interview podium in Birmingham, Ala., on Sunday, turned to 7-foot teammate Brendan Haywood and asked, "Yo, where did that come from?"

Where indeed?

Where did an underachieving team that largely owed its bid to reputation find the verve to upset a Cardinal group that had been November-to-March excellent?

Where did a Carolina team that staggered into the tournament with a 2-4 record down the stretch discover the tenacity to win two straight?

Where did the Heels figure out how to go from a 13-loss wreck -- their most defeats in the regular season since 1951-52 -- to one of 16 teams still standing?

Coach Bill Guthridge, widely pilloried for his work in succeeding Dean Smith, didn't reach for any complicated explanation.

"Our team is very resilient," Guthridge said. "They help keep the coaches up, and they work hard. I've always said that I really like this team. The coaching staff and I have been trying to push the right buttons with them, and maybe we're doing that right now."

You certainly can't begrudge Guthridge, who thrust two fists into the air at the horn Sunday, his satisfaction. For the first time in a long time, nobody is asking the genial gentleman to justify his employment. Following Smith never figured to be easy, but a tough job has steadily gotten tougher in his three seasons in charge.

Guthridge took Carolina to the Final Four in his debut. It was a fine accomplishment that looked less impressive in retrospect when you consider that he was working with Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison and still managed to be blown out of the national semifinals by Utah.

Last year, Carolina was completely overshadowed by hated rival Duke, then bowed out in the first round of the NCAAs to (ugh!) Weber State. It was UNC's first one-and-done in NCAA play since 1980, and the critics got busy.

Then came this, the plague year. Again, Duke owned Carolina. Worse, so did several other opponents. Michigan State, Cincinnati, Indiana and Louisville whipped the Heels. Virginia swept them.

When they wobbled near the end, their record 25-year streak of consecutive NCAA bids was in danger. And when they got in ahead of the Cavaliers -- who had a better overall record -- some folks cried foul.

Even during the bad times, word out of the Piedmont was that Guthridge's job was completely safe. But there's little doubt he and his players arrived at the Dance with plenty to prove.

In order to prove themselves, Guthridge threw the team on Cota's back. The senior point guard, a key member of Carolina's 1997 and '98 Final Four teams, has yet to sit down during this NCAA Tournament. He played 40 minutes in the opening round against Missouri and 40 again less than 48 hours later against the Cardinal.

But Cota received plenty of help from a roster that has never been short on players.

Freshman guard Joseph Forte scored 17 points against Stanford, including some big hoops down the stretch. Jason Capel and Kris Lang showed the toughness some thought was lacking in this team. And Haywood keyed the interior defense that shut down the Cardinal's skyscraping front line, holding Mark Madsen and the Collins twins (Jason and Jarron) to a total of 17 points.

"It all started with our defense," Haywood said.

Where will it all end?

Carolina will certainly meet its athletic match -- if not its superior -- in Tennessee. Beyond that looms the possibility of meeting up with Tulsa, the kind of quick-on-quick team that has tortured the Tar Heels all season.

But anyone who wants to knock this newly restored behemoth does so at his own risk.


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