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del.icio.usFinding right tempo key to beating UNC
BY RICK PLUMLEE
The Wichita Eagle
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
SAN ANTONIO - The Final Four stage can't get much more crowded than the one tonight.
Roy Williams vs. Kansas. Bill Self vs. Roy Williams. Williams' fire-alarm offense against KU's balanced offense and pressure defense. Self's first trip to the Final Four vs. Williams' sixth.
Not to mention the real game -- KU vs. North Carolina in a national semifinal.
So let's keep it simple.
What it's really all about is whether KU can hang with Williams' style of basketball.
"We haven't seen anything like it," guard Mario Chalmers said. "Maybe Texas some. But this is a lot, lot faster."
No kidding. There's D.J. Augustin and then there's Ty Lawson. There's the one-man band of Michael Beasley and then there's Tyler Hansbrough surrounded by an orchestra.
Self knows all about Williams' style. Twice while coaching Illinois, Self met Williams' Kansas teams in the Sweet 16, and split.
Right here on this very Alamodome court where they'll square off tonight, Self's Illini clobbered Williams' KU team that included Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich and Drew Gooden, 80-64 in 2001.
The next year in Madison, Wis., Williams' more experienced KU team slipped past Illinois 73-69 and went on to the Final Four.
"No disrespect to the players that Kansas had in those games," Self said, "but now you have a point guard in Lawson that can push it the way he wants to play. As fast as Kansas' guards were, North Carolina has a guard that has a different gear. And as great as Kansas' big guys were, and we're talking about two lottery picks, North Carolina has the national player of the year (Hansbrough).
"We've had success against Roy's style. But my style at Illinois is different than it is now. We didn't try to run around anybody, we tried to run through them. Here we're much more of a finesse, move-and-down-the-floor team. So I haven't coached a team like I have now against this style."
North Carolina has averaged 93 points in the tournament, up some from its 89.2 pace for the season. KU's tournament average of 72.8 is eight points below its season average, largely because of its 59-57 regional final victory over Davidson.
So are we to expect a shootout? Or will defense be the deciding factor?
"You never know about these kind of games," Williams said. "It could be that everybody is hitting on all cylinders, going up and down and it's pretty. But it can also be an ugly game because of how effective defenses are."
KU's defense has been duly admired. The Jayhawks rank third nationally in field-goal defense at 37.9 percent. The Tar Heels don't even crack the top 50 at 42.3.
But that could be a misleading stat, since Carolina is constantly in transition. Easy baskets scored, easy baskets allowed.
Bottom line:
"I have never seen a bad defensive team in the Final Four," Williams said. "Kansas and UCLA just undress you defensively. Memphis plays so hard and athletically, they block a lot of shots and intimidate you around the basket.
"We're somewhere in between those. We haven't done exactly like we wanted to by any means."
This is where the coaches start trying to oversell the opponent.
"We could be great defensively and they could still hang 80 on you," Self said. "It's not that complicated. We'd better run. We'd better get our butts back when it's their possession, and we better attack them.
"They shoot the ball so quick. It's not like Davidson where you have one guy running through 10 screens on one possession, because they have good-enough guys that they can throw to him, jab step you and next thing you know, he's shooting."
Williams looks at the Jayhawks' balanced scoring, not so unlike many of his KU teams, and said, "Kansas presents more problems for us than anybody we've faced all year.
"We really have to play our best defensive game of the year. You've got to play your man and be aware of what is going on, but you can't ignore your man. That's a difficult defensive assignment."
Fortunately, it's the players and not the talk that will decide whether KU or North Carolina will advance to Monday's title game.
"I haven't seen anything from Kansas that we can't defend," sophomore guard Wayne Ellington said.
KU's Russell Robinson said, "I see it as us playing our game. There's going to be some defense played, and hopefully we're the ones playing it. We need to pressure, just like we always do. They've got some good guys, and we've got some good guys.
"We play a defensive-minded game, and good things will happen."
Like Hansbrough, KU forward Darnell Jackson is forever chasing down a loose ball. He'll also draw the bulk of the time trying to stay with the Tar Heel All-American.
"This will be about defensive stops," Jackson said. "I really believe it'll come down to the last possession. It'll come down to a loose ball, a 50-50 ball. The one that gets it wins."
