Tar Heels Are Planning to Test the Speed Limit

North Carolina point guard Raymond Felton apparently works quickly off the court too.

While his teammates responded to a volley of reporters’ questions about the contrasting styles of North Carolina and Wisconsin, Felton succinctly summarized the situation in today’s Syracuse Regional final at the Carrier Dome.

“They play a slow-paced game,” Felton said, “and we play really fast.”

The Tar Heels strive to do everything swiftly in Coach Roy Williams’ up-tempo system, and the Badgers prefer to take things slowly under Coach Bo Ryan.

The opposite approaches will be on display with a Final Four berth at stake, which could make things even more interesting.

Will it be run and gun or pick and roll?

“They slow you down with screens and picks, and we have to make them play a faster game,” Felton said. “We definitely want to control the tempo.”

Top-seeded North Carolina (30-4) accomplished that in the first two rounds.

The nation’s highest-scoring Division I team, averaging 88.4 points, the Tar Heels defeated 16th-seeded Oakland of Rochester, Mich., 92-68, and ninth-seeded Iowa State, 92-65.

But in Friday’s regional semifinal, fifth-seeded Villanova shot well early, frustrating North Carolina and taking a 12-point first-half lead. The Tar Heels won, 67-66, but were upset because their fastbreak was slowed.

“They didn’t really stop our break,” North Carolina forward Jawad Williams said. “They just made shots, so we couldn’t get into our break off misses like we do.

“But they’re a good team. All the teams left are good teams, so you can’t expect to blow out everybody by 20 points right now.”

Sixth-seeded Wisconsin (25-8) defeated 11th-seeded Northern Iowa, 57-52, 14th-seeded Bucknell, 71-62, and 10th-seeded North Carolina State, 65-56. Wisconsin acknowledged it played too fast in the first half against North Carolina State, contributing to a nine-point halftime deficit.

The Badgers, who were more deliberate on offense in the second half against the Wolfpack, said they must be sharp from the outset against the Tar Heels.

“Obviously, the tempo will be very important,” Badger point guard Sharif Chambliss said. “We know that North Carolina likes to get up and down, and we have to get guys back on defense.

“On offense ... we want to establish and make the extra pass. No quick shots unless it’s a good shot, and everybody on the team knows what’s a good shot. We just need to play Wisconsin basketball.”

Wisconsin averages only 66.9 points but limits opponents to 59.4 points, 12th in the nation. North Carolina has scored fewer than 70 points only twice.

Even if the Tar Heels win the tempo battle, though, the Badgers said they wouldn’t necessarily be doomed.

“Every team believes that another team is vulnerable, from the standpoint of they also have to play us,” Ryan said. “I don’t know why competitors would ever go into an environment other than thinking that, ‘Well, if I could do this, this and this, then here is our chance, so let’s do this, this and this.’ ”

And if Wisconsin sets the pace, North Carolina says it can adjust and succeed.

“There are several teams that have tried to slow it down against us,” Felton said. “We want to run, and it’s our job to make them run, but we can play that way.”