Guthridge, Saving Best for Last, Has His Team Clicking Its Heels

Soft. Passive.

That’s what people said about North Carolina.

Sweet, too, it turns out.

As in Sweet 16.

There are two great revival stories in the NCAA tournament: UCLA and North Carolina, two bluebloods rising from their sickbeds.

The coach wasn’t worthy, alumni grumbled.

The players couldn’t defend.

The big men didn’t dominate.

UCLA/North Carolina just isn’t UCLA/North Carolina anymore.

What do you know, check out the Bruins, and how ‘bout them Heels?

Even the morning after North Carolina beat Missouri in the first round, a story appeared in the Birmingham (Ala.) News that columnist Paul Finebaum presumably would like to have back:

“Quick memo to Bill Guthridge: Put everyone out of their misery and announce your retirement.

“Do it now while you still have credibility and a modicum of respect. Do it before Dean Smith regains his faculties behind that silly Wizard’s curtain. . . .”

The next day, the Tar Heels upset top-seeded Stanford in the second round.

“We’ve been criticized so much this year, especially our coaching staff and Coach Guthridge,” center Brendan Haywood said.

“I mean, people were saying he should be fired, or Coach Roy Williams was going to be coaching here next year. It means a great deal for our team, especially that he could finally shut everybody up and prove that he is a good coach.”

The way most of the season went, who would blame point guard Ed Cota for wishing he was still throwing alley-oops to Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison instead of living through his senior year in Carolina blue?

“We’ve had a rough season, up and down,” Cota said.

“Everybody was counting us out before the tournament. Everybody was saying this is the worst Carolina team in a long time, or in history or whatever. We felt we were capable. We definitely believe in ourselves and feel we can go far.”

Could everybody have been so wrong about North Carolina, and for that matter, UCLA?

Not in this case.

Truth is, both were once bad teams--although UCLA was better on Jan. 15, winning 71-68. Both have found themselves just in time.

Consider a few statistics on the Tar Heels:

* They lost four games in a row in January.

* They lost four of their final six before the tournament.

* They gave up 10 or more three-point baskets five times, and 13 in a victory over Tennessee Tech.

* They gave up 19 offensive rebounds against UCLA, 25 against Georgia Tech, and were outrebounded eight times despite a front line that goes 7 feet, 6-11, 6-8.

* They averaged 17 turnovers in losses, and won the turnover battle only five times in 31 games.

So they didn’t defend, they didn’t rebound, they didn’t take care of the ball, and they didn’t win: The 13 losses were the most by a North Carolina team since 1952.

On Jan. 24, North Carolina fell out of the Associated Press top 25 poll for the first time in 172 weeks, ending the second longest all-time streak behind UCLA’s 221-week streak from 1966-80.

After losing in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament--and facing the prospect of a second consecutive first-round loss in the NCAA tournament--the Tar Heels finally got it together.

Before the team left the ACC tournament site in Charlotte, Guthridge put his team through a tough practice Saturday. Ditto Sunday and Monday in Chapel Hill.

“We worked pretty hard,” said Guthridge, 62, whose habitually bland understatement obscures an arid wit. “We really tried a different approach. We broke things down a little differently.”

That’s about all you’ll get from him, but figure Guthridge got tougher, demanded the Tar Heels defend the three-point shot and rebound, and started looking for more ways to get the 7-foot Haywood the ball.

(By the way, forget any talk about Guthridge being fired. Not while Dean Smith is calling the shots. Guthridge will retire when he wants to.)

“We haven’t always been able to push the right buttons,” Guthridge said. “Maybe we’re pushing the right buttons now.”

It looks that way.

Missouri, one of the tournament’s best three-point shooting teams, was held to eight of 31--two for 17 in the second half.

Stanford was six for 22, and Casey Jacobsen went one for eight.

North Carolina did it with a mixture of man and zone defense, and for a change, the Tar Heels extended their huge zone--6-8 Jason Capel is on the wing--and didn’t give up open shots inside about 22 feet.

The Tar Heels also dominated undersized Missouri on the boards, and kept it close with Stanford.

“That was our problem: We were getting outrebounded and we were letting people shoot threes,” Haywood said. “Now we’re cutting down teams’ three-point looks, and we’re definitely going ‘one-and-done’ when it comes to the second-chance points.”

Haywood--the player most criticized for playing soft and the one on the most emotional mission--had a 28-point, 15-rebound game against Missouri, then banged with Stanford’s front line, scoring 12 points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking four shots.

That began to make amends for his four-point, one-rebound performance against Michigan State this season and his notorious one-point, zero-rebound performance in the first-round loss to Weber State last season.

“To be upset like we were last year, knowing how it’s going to be in the paper, how people are going to be talking about it for years to come, that kind of hurt me,” said Haywood, who leads the nation in field-goal percentage at .713 on a diet of dunks and two-footers.

“Then the way people blamed it on me, that definitely hurt me. For me to play well in this tournament so far, I’m just happy I could do it, and happy for this team so far.”

So far, so good, although maybe erratic Tennessee will give the big, slow Tar Heels some trouble with quickness. Wait and see.

“A lot of you, a lot of our fans, have said we don’t have much heart and passion,” Guthridge told reporters. “I think we’ve had heart and passion. It shows more when you win.”

It’s time to stick his chest out a little bit, but he isn’t going to gloat.

“None of us are,” Capel said. “We’ve received so much criticism this year, we don’t have room to gloat. We have so much to prove. Mainly to ourselves.”