These Two Set to Clash Over Style

The tug-of-war will be over tempo.

Florida wants to play fast.

North Carolina prefers cool and collected.

The team that dictates the pace probably will play for the national championship Monday night.

Florida will try to press and harass North Carolina into 20 or more turnovers, make nine or so three-point shots and wear out the Tar Heels’ top six so thoroughly they have no fight left at the end of tonight’s NCAA semifinal at the RCA Dome.

Underdog North Carolina likes the idea of handing the ball to point guard Ed Cota to try to use the savvy of a senior playing in his third Final Four: Ask Cota to break the press with help from Joseph Forte and Jason Capel, then go to the Tar Heels’ strength inside in a half-court game.

“We’ve just got to try to control the game,” Cota said. “If we start turning the ball over and they score off our turnovers, that could definitely hurt us.”

These teams have little in common:

Florida Coach Billy Donovan is 34. North Carolina Coach Bill Guthridge is 62.

Florida (28-7) is playing in its second Final Four. North Carolina (22-13) is here for the 15th time.

So many contrasts, but one thing in common: They weren’t supposed to be here.

As talented as Florida is, only Mike Miller’s shot at the overtime buzzer helped the Gators survive Butler in the first round.

“I think we learned that it’s going to take all 10 of us to win,” said Miller, the Gators’ leading scorer. “It also taught us that anyone can win. It doesn’t matter what it says on the front of your jersey. Butler was a great basketball team. They didn’t get a lot of pub going in, probably just because they’re Butler.”

The jerseys will say North Carolina today--even if they aren’t your father’s Tar Heels, a borderline selection for the NCAA field after an 18-13 regular season.

The record is ugly, but Donovan doesn’t think it means much now.

“Carolina, a lot of preseason publications ranked No. 1 in the country,” he said. “Without question, top five.

“They’re gelling, meshing, playing great basketball.

“They have a combination of great, great perimeter play and great low-post presence. [Center Brendan Haywood] is a very, very difficult guy to defend. This will be, by far, the biggest team we have ever seen.”

Florida’s trump card is its depth, with 10 players who play at least 14 minutes a game.

Any team that brings freshmen Donnell Harvey and Brett Nelson off the bench is deep.

North Carolina?

The program once famous for sending in its “blue team”--a five-man unit of reserves that could keep the margin steady--now uses only seven players.

Against Tulsa, the starters and sixth man Julius Peppers carried almost the entire load. North Carolina got one minute from its bench.

Cota has played 159 of 160 minutes in the tournament.

“The starters, we’re used to playing 38 minutes and better,” Cota said. “Like I said, we might have some turnovers, but as long as we have a chance to set up our defense we should be just fine.

“The biggest factor is us playing defense. That’s why we lost a lot of games this year. We really weren’t defending well. We led the nation in field-goal percentage and still had a rough season. So our defense definitely picked up, and that’s why we’re here now.”

He has a point. North Carolina has limited its tournament opponents to 37% shooting.

But it will be a tall task to hold Florida to that mark. The Gators have made 48% of their shots this season.

Florida will try to wear out the bigger, slower Tar Heels with a pace so fast they literally can’t keep up.

“Hopefully, you know, we can create a situation where some of their frontcourt players are playing top-of-the-key to top-of-the-key a little bit,” Donovan said.

“People think we force tempo with our offense. We don’t force tempo with our offense; we force it with our defense.

“Our offense, by scoring, allows us to press.

“So by running your half-court offense, being patient, executing, that enables you to press, get tempo going, allows you to trap, be a little more disruptive on the defensive end of the floor.”

No surprise to Guthridge.

“I know that Florida wants to play a 94-foot game,” he said. “We like to play that too, under certain situations. We’re going to play it, but there will be times when one of our strengths is the ability to get the ball in to Brendan Haywood or Kris Lang or Julius Peppers and we still want to do that.”

Lang is a bit of a question mark after suffering a sprained right ankle against Tulsa in the regional final.

On crutches until Tuesday, he practiced Friday but sat out a full-court drill.

“I’m not in much pain. Just a little sore,” he said.

Lang at less than 100% means more time for Peppers--who might be better suited to a faster-paced game anyway--but it shortens the North Carolina bench that much more.

Even when the Tar Heels break the press, they’d better be cautious not to let that speed up the game.

“Yeah, we’re going to try to make Florida pay for pressing, but at the same time, take good shots,” Cota said. “We can’t go out there and just take the shots they want us to take. We might get across half court and then run our offense.

“Florida has a lot of guys they’re going to throw at us. We need to go out there and try to control tempo. We might get tired some.

“As long as we don’t get tired mentally, we still have a chance.”