Man's swimmers earn All-America lienors —Pago 7
Sports Monday
Lynch wills Tar Heels
back into Final Four
By Warren Hynes
Senior Writer
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ. lt
wouldn’t have been enough for George
Lynch.
Thirty-one wins, an ACC regular
season title, an appearance in the
NCAA’s “elite eight” all were not
enough.
Only a Final Four. Nothing less.
“It definitely would have been a dis
appointing season,” he said. “With our
team, I think we deserved nothing less
than another trip to the Final Four.”
North Carolina’s senior leader had
watched his team mature in the 1992-93
season. He knew how good this squad
was, and he wasn’t going to let tough
Arkansas and Cincinnati teams keep his
men from getting to New Orleans.
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MICHIGAN 77. TEMPLE 72
The Associated Press
SEATTLE Michigan, perhaps the best team in the country at playing half a
game, is going back to the Final Four after a show of brute power and raw talent
overcame a big deficit against Temple.
The Wolverines danced on the court and donned Final Four shirts at the end of
their 77-72 victory Sunday, awaiting a meeting with Kentucky in New Orleans.
Fortunately for the Wolverines, they put together their best play in the second
half against the Owls, coming back after trailing by eight points at the half.
Jalen Rose led Michigan with 17points, 13 in the second half, as he took control
of the offense along with off-guard Jimmy King, who had 14 points.
Michigan (30-4) was aided in the final minutes by a technical call against
Temple coach John Chaney. The Owls trailed only 67-62 with 1:49 left when
Chaney complained about a call.
That allowed Michigan to pull away with five free throws —one on the
technical, two on the call and two more on another play on Michigan’s regaining
of possession.
KANSAS 83, INDIANA 76
The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS Poise. Patience. Toughness. Confidence. They are the ingredi
ents Kansas coach Roy Williams believes are needed to beat a team the quality of
top-ranked Indiana.
His Jayhawks displayed all four Saturday night, and more like hustle,
unselfishness, aggressiveness, desire. Consequently, they are in the Final Four for
the second time in three years, and will play North Carolina.
The Jayhawks (29-6) extended their halfcourt man-to-man defense against
Indiana and it worked. The Hoosiers (31 -4) only shot 45 percent and All-American
Calbert Cheaney had to work exhaustively for his 22 points.
“They just take you out of your game,” said Indiana guard Damon Bailey, who
scored just seven points and was in second-half foul trouble. “They put a lot of
pressure on you. We weren’t pressured all year like we were tonight.”
Kansas used its depth to wear down the Hoosiers, who had five players play 27
minutes or more but didn’t have anyone else play more than 11 minutes. Williams
shuttled 10 players in and out eight of them for 14 minutes or more.
KENTUCKY 106,FSU81
The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Kentucky made sure a last-second shot wouldn’t stop
its run to the Final Four this time.
The Wildcats, getting 22 points and 11 rebounds from unlikely star Jared
Prickett, defeated Florida State 106-81 Saturday in the Southeast Regional final.
Kentucky’s fourth consecutive blowout, by an average margin of 31 points,
moved the Wildcats into next Saturday’s NCAA semifinal in New Orleans against
Michigan.
The Wildcats (30-3) are going to the Final Four for the 10th time and the first
time since losing to Georgetown in the 1984 semifinals. It will be the second Final
Four for Kentucky coach Rick Pitino, who took Providence to the national
semifinals in 1987, the last time the Final Four was in New Orleans.
Like Kentucky’s three previous tournament games, this one was over long
before the final buzzer. The Wildcats, who averaged 97 points in roaring through
the Southeast Regional as the No. 1 seed, took an eight-point halftime lead, then
broke it open with an 11-0 run in the second half.
Van Exel cools in 2nd half as UNC forges comeback
By Bryan Strickland
Senior Writer
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ. ln a hotly
contested game between teams of similar talent,
the performance of a single player often spells
the difference between victory and defeat.
In the first half of Sunday’s East Regional
final between No. 1 seed UNC and No. 2 seed
Cincinnati, Bearcat guard Nick Van Exel was
that one player. Van Exel burned the Tar Heels
—and the Brendan Byrne Arena nets in the
first 20 minutes, strikingfor2l points on 7-of-14
shooting.
He was the difference.
In the second half and subsequent overtime
period. Van Exel was again that pivotal player
for all the wrong reasons. Van Exel struggled
with his shooting throughout the second stanza,
hitting just 1 -of-10 shots to finish with 23 points.
The result: a 75-68 overtime victory and a trip to
the Final Four for North Carolina.
After Sunday’s up-and-down performance
the final hurrah of Van Exel’s brilliant colle
giate career many wondered if the real Nick
Van Exel would step up. But the fact is, Van Exel
was probably too worn down to step up.
“I just got tired in that second-half stretch
where I took myself out,” Van Exel said.
In the East Regional semifinal and
final games at the Brendan Byrne Arena
this weekend, George Lynch scored 44
points, pulled in 24 rebounds and made
seven steals. He came up big—real big
in the clutch. And he led his team to
two tough wins and a berth in that Final
Four he had been thirsting for.
“He’s not as flashy as the other guys;
he just does the dirty work,” said Cin
cinnati head coach Bob Huggins. “He
gets position inside and does a good job
getting the ball. He doesn’t get the credit
he deserves.”
Sunday, the 6-foot-8,218-pound for
ward got some credit. He was named
most valuable player of the East Re
gional. “I’ve been playing the last few
days the same way I have all season,”
Lynch said. “Things probably just look
better considering this is the East Re-
“They’ve got so many players that they run at
you. They were coming after us.”
Actually, the “stretch” that he sat out couldn’t
have rested him much —it ran from the 11:17
mark to the 10:21 mark of the second half.
That’s one minute on the bench, 44 on the floor.
“In the second half, I thought he wore down,”
said UNC guard Derrick Phelps, the person
mainly responsible for the second-half shut
down of Van Exel. “He was real tired, and he
couldn’t get his shots off.”
This is nothing new for Phelps, long-regarded
as one of the nation’s best defensive stoppers.
After leaving Van Exel much of the first half to
give aid to other players in Dean Smith’s help
defense scheme, Phelps received instructions
not to leave Van Exel in the final 20 minutes.
“Early in the game, he was getting off some
good shots while I was trapping and trying to
help other people,” Phelps said. “Then Coach
wanted me to concentrate on him.”
Good thinking. In a seven-minute stretch
midway through the first half. Van Exel had
taken over the game, scoring 15 of Cincinnati’s
17 points in a 17-8 Bearcat run.
“If someone’s hitting shots like that every
time, you can’t always worry about playing
good team defense,” Phelps said.
So Smith turned to Phelps. “We started out
'The Daily Tar Heel/Monday, March 29,1993
12
gional.”
All year long, Lynch has been there,
scoring inside, pulling down rebounds,
hitting short jumpers, making key steals.
He has been there off the court, steady
ing his team, guiding it along with his
unflappable team attitude.
Sunday, North Carolina found itself
up against a Cincinnati Bearcat squad
that simply would not let up on its
tenacious defense.. The scratching and
clawing led to a 29-14 Cincinnati lead
when Nick Van Exel hit a 3-pointer at
the 7:08 mark of the first half.
Lynch had four points at the time. He
knew that in order to stop these Bearcats,
he had to scratch and claw, just like
them. His teammates would follow, just
as soon as he took the lead.
See LYNCH, page 6
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the second time in three years as North
Carolina returned to the Final Four, courtesy
of a 75-68 overtime victory against the Gin
(the second half) in a key matchup, and Derrick
was not supposed to leave him,” Smith said. “I
told the team to go back to regular pressure, but
I whispered to Derrick not to leave Van Exel.”
And Phelps didn’t leave him at all..
“It was just more of me playing man-to-man
and not helping anyone else on the team,” Phelps
said. “He wasn’t looking for the ball as much,
and if he did look for the ball, I made him work
to get it.”
Indeed, Van Exel took just six shots in the
second half, and four more in the overtime.
“I probably wasn’t looking for my shot as
much as I should have,” said Van Exel, who
scored nearly 60 percent of the Bearcats’ first
half points. “I was trying to get everyone else
involved so that they would have a little more
confidence down the stretch.”
Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins defended
his star’s second-half approach. “Our other
people have to do something,” Huggins said.
“Nick’s not going to get 50 against them.”
But did Huggins go so far as to encourage his
hot hand to not pull the trigger as much in the
second half?
“I would never tell Nick not to shoot,” Huggins
said. “All I said was that we weren’t running our
offense and that we’d have to run our offense to
be successful.”
Special to the DTH/Andrew Cline
UNC's George Lynch (34) calls a time out with :00.8 left in regulation as Brian Reese (31) screams for a foul
(Clockwise from top) UNO faithful gathered
’round a makeshift hearth, fed by a burning
Bufcesign.The fire wouldn’t last long. Beer
seemed to be the constant for the revelers,
whether if was for consumption or headgear.
Smote from the bonfire and toilet paper made
for sn eerie victory scene on last Franklin
Street Even the young got into the celebration,
learning the tine art of treeroiiing {the beer part
will have to wait).
g . MM
.. . Special to the DTH/ Andrew Cline
Cincinnati's Nick Van Exel battles Tar Heel counterpart Derrick Phelps in Sunday's 75-68 UNC win
8 a.m. today -12 noon Tuesday
I Dean Smith Center
Reese miss
at buzzer
nearly fatal
By Bryan Strickland
Senior Writer
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ln
the final second of Sunday’s East Re
gional final, time seemed to stand still.
Actually, it did stand still.
With :00.8 seconds showing on the
Meadowlands’ scoreboard, UNC and
Cincinnati stood tied at 66, a trip to New
Orleans for the Final Four hanging in
the balance. The Tar Heels had the ball
underneath their own basket, possess
ing one last-gasp opportunity to avoid
an extra five-minute session.
“Originally, our play was to be run
for (Eric) Montross,” UNC head coach
Dean Smith said. “Then we changed it
and used Eric as a decoy. We moved
Brian (Reese) out there, and he was just
to touch it and score.”
But Reese did more than just touch it.
He grabbed Derrick Phelps’ lob pass
five feet from the basket, turned, jumped
and dunked. He missed it.
“Coach told me just to tap it,” Reese
said. “But I was so open that I had to try
and shoot it. Coach said it wouldn’t
have counted anyway.”
Apparently it would have counted.
The official under the basket appeared
prime to score the goal. The tardy shot
would have given the Tar Heels the win;
it would have also sent Cincinnati head
coach Bob Huggins and the entire state
of Ohio into a frenzy.
“I can’t talk about that,” Huggins
said following the game, “unless you
want to pay the fine.”
So assuming the dunk try would ha ve
indeed counted, Reese was faced with
the unenviable task of forgetting about
the dunk he missed that would have
propelled his team into the Final Four.
But he had an overtime period to play.
“We felt like it was anew ball game,”
Reese said. “We picked up a lot of
momentum in the second half.”
Reese put the incident behind him
quickly, feeding a nice pass underneath
to George Lynch for a layup at the 4:14
mark. The Lynch basket tied it at 68,
and the Tar Heels went on to score the
final seven points of the game.
Still, it was another close call for the
Tar Heels. UNC got a 40-minute battle
from Arkansas Friday night in the Mead
owlands, escaping 80-74.