April 5 - Nothing Could Be Finer . . . .

There are more names and numbers hanging from the rafters of the Smith Center then I can count on six hands, but to this old fan, four deserve special recognition. If I were curator of that jersey garden, I would carve out a special section next year and in that section would be the names of Lennie Rosenbluth, James Worthy, Donald Williams and Sean May. Why should these four be singled out? Well, it is really quite simple. Unlike dozens of other UNC all-Americans that played before, during and after - these four were able to carry their teams when it mattered most. Guys like Charlie Scott, Larry Miller, Phil Ford, Walter Davis, Mike O’Koren, Al Wood, Kenny Smith,, Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison were all great players, but none was able to shoulder the load and carry his team to a championship. Now I am not going to sit here and argue that the four aforementioned players didn’t have help, and plenty of it. But I will argue that the contributions of these four Final Four Most Valuable Players made the difference in UNC’s title runs. Rosenbluth was clearly the key in 1957 and there is no way Carolina wins championships in 82 and 93 without Worthy’s jams and Donnie’s threes. Moreover, there was no way Carolina was winning number four last night without Chapel Hill’s favorite doughboy. With that said, I feel this group deserves special recognition high above the floor of the Smith Center. I realize Deano would never sign off on such an overt display of individualism, but its time for UNC to honor its true heroes.

Well, it wasn’t easy, but sixty year old UNC fans got their fourth ring last night, courtesy of Mr. May and my favorite whipping boy, Raymond Felton. To say Sean May was unstoppable last night is a gross understatement and along the lines of saying something like Tony Montana liked his blow. May, doing his best of impression of Bill Walton, was great from the get go, scoring UNC’s first deuce one minute into the game. Whether Illinois stuck him with James Augustine, Roger Powell or a double team, May delivered. He made great decisions all night and he made Illinois pay when they attempted to bring weak-side help. He finished with 26 on 10/11 shooting. That isn’t quite the 21 of 22 Walton had in 1973, but its right up there in Championship game lore. But May wasn’t alone. He got a lot of help last night from Ray Felton who saved his best for the last game of the season. Ray played under control all night long and only turned the ball over twice. Although saddled with some early foul trouble, Felton remained aggressive on offense and his three with five minutes to go was huge for the Heels. UNC was under siege at the time and Felton’s bomb gave the team some needed oxygen.

As I said yesterday, UNC had to do three things to win. They needed at least 20 from May, which they got. They needed Felton to keep to his turnovers to four our less and he only coughed up two. And they needed to keep Illinois to less than 35 percent from three. That they got (30 Percent on 12/40), but if Illinois made a single extra three and bumped against that 35 percent target, the game’s outcome may have been different. Illinois couldn’t hit a whole lot in the first half, but the Illini zeroed in early in the second half and for ten minutes, it felt as if they couldn’t miss. They finally cooled off but that didn’t stop them from getting a few late opportunities to win the game. In fact, had Luther Head connected on a three with 20 seconds to go, the game would have been tied and UNC would have needed a Michael Jordan moment to win the game in regulation. Luckily for Carolina fans and bettors who had the under, such drama was not needed.

So what is the fallout from this game? Well, most importantly, Roy Williams is now off the hook. Had he lost last night, Williams would have been carrying around a stigma for the next year that is as heavy as anyone in coaching today, all sports included. We are talking Schottenheimer and Dusty stuff here. But UNC, with all that talent, found a way get Williams the ring he has been chasing since he first showed up at the 1991 Final Four. I am still no fan of Williams, but he earned some equity last night. He still isn’t up there with K and Izzo, but he now fits right in there with Skin Flute and Boeheim. With that said, Eddie Sutton probably assumes the title of best coach in college basketball who has not won a title.