AT A GLANCE
* How they got there: Beat Missouri, 84-70, in the first round of the South Regional at Birmingham, Ala.; Stanford, 60-53, in the second round; Tennessee, 74-69, in the regional semifinal at Austin, Texas; Tulsa in the regional final, 59-55.
* Leading tournament scorers: Joseph Forte 20.0 points a game, Brendan Haywood 14.8, Jason Capel 9.8, Kris Lang 8.8, Ed Cota 7.2.
* Leading tournament rebounders: Haywood 9.0, Capel 6.5, Forte 6.5, Cota 5.5, Julius Peppers 5.2.
* Key to the season: Coach Bill Guthridge put the Tar Heels through a practice in Charlotte the day after a second-round loss to Wake Forest in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament then returned to Chapel Hill for several more days of intense workouts. Since then, the defense has improved, and the proof is in the shooting percentages: Missouri (40.9%), Stanford (34.5%), Tennessee (35.6%) and Tulsa (37.3%). Rebounding and turnover problems have also diminished. Teams that concentrate on 7-foot center Haywood have created openings for freshman guard Forte.
* Key fact: Indianapolis hasn’t been good to North Carolina in the Final Four. The Tar Heels lost to Kansas in the 1991 semifinals and to Arizona in the 1997 semifinals. This is North Carolina’s sixth Final Four in the last 10 years, but the Tar Heels have reached the title game only once in that span, when they won the NCAA championship in 1993.
LOG
82 USC-x 65
85 Georgetown-x 79
90 at Purdue-x 75
76 Michigan St. 86
72 Coll. of Charleston-y 54
102 UNLV-y 78
91 at Buffalo 67
68 Cincinnati 77
85 Tennessee Tech 59
78 at Miami 68
73 Indiana 82
80 at Louisville 97
86 Howard 53
65 Clemson 45
83 N.C. State 75
57 at Wake Forest 66
68 UCLA 71
85 at Virginia 87
71 Florida St. 76
75 Maryland 63
70 at Georgia Tech 53
86 Duke, OT 90
73 at Clemson 60
70 at N.C. State 62
87 Wake Forest 64
76 Virginia 90
70 at Florida St. 67
73 at Maryland 81
74 Georgia Tech, OT 72
76 at Duke 90
52 Wake Forest-z 58
84 Missouri-xx 70
60 at Stanford-xx 53
74 at Tennessee-xx 69
59 at Tulsa-xx 55
x-Maui Invitational; y-Food Lion MVP Classic; z-Atlantic Coast Conference; xx-NCAA