WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Heels and Zags second act has more on the line

By David Reynolds

Mar 23, 2009

Act II between North Carolina and Gonzaga will resume Friday after a two-and-a-half year intermission, this time with the stakes much higher than in round one.

The Bulldogs bested the Tar Heels 82-74 at the Preseason NIT semifinals in 2006, in which guard Derek Raivio poured in 21 points and Gonzaga’s post defense stymied Tyler Hansbrough into just nine points.

Several of the same actors will renew their roles in the second-ever meeting between the two schools – Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington are just a few the Tar Heels who will looking for revenge, and Josh Heytvelt, Matt Bouldin, and Jeremy Pargo return for the Bulldogs – this time with a berth to the Elite Eight on the line.

“We had to be physical inside with Tyler (Hansbrough) and it ended up working to our favor,” Heytvelt said about the first meeting. “Both of our teams this year are completely different teams and we’re going to have to do a bunch of different things this year. I know that they are very physical and rebound very well, they’re a transition team so we’re going to have to work very hard to slow those guys down.”

But even though several of the same players will be reprising their roles, Gonzaga coach Mark Few said they will “look different” from how they appeared in Madison Square Garden at the beginning of the 2006 season.

Few started with the development of North Carolina’s most recognizable player the past four seasons – Hansbrough.

“I would describe him as much more confident today, much more aggressive than he was at the game in the Garden,” Few said. “He’s expanded his game, he’s banging in some threes now which he wasn’t doing back then. He’s really grown into the player he is now.”

Few also complimented the Tar Heels on a facet of the game that UNC is regularly criticized for in the media and on Internet message boards – its defense.

“Their defense is so much better than people give them credit for, they just play a more up-tempo game so there are more possessions and more points allowed,” he said. “Night in, night out, their defense is as good as anybody’s.”

The Bulldogs earned a trip to South Region semifinals in dramatic fashion on freshman Demetri Goodson’s jumper with 0.9 seconds left against Western Kentucky, pushing Gonzaga past the Hilltoppers 83-81.

Goodson said he didn’t sleep the night he made the game-winning shot because of all the calls from his friends and family congratulating him in the aftermath of the victory. But don’t expect the point guard to be thinking about it when he steps onto the floor against the Tar Heels.

“I’ll probably forget the shot after practice today as far as concentrating on North Carolina because they’re such a great team,” Goodson said. “Ty Lawson is a hell of a point guard and I can’t be thinking about that shot when I try to guard him.”

Gonzaga arrives in Memphis riding an 11-game winning streak, with its last loss coming at the hands of Memphis on Feb. 7. Heytvelt and Bouldin both said that the 18-point blowout that the Bulldogs suffered at the hands of the Tigers helped spark Gonzaga to its strong finish to the season.

“We were sitting in a good spot before that game and we were kind of happy, maybe even content with what we were doing,” Heytvelt said. “Then a really good team came to Spokane and played really, really well and we didn’t and they beat the heck out of us. It was a wake up call to us to let us know we had to get back on track and play a lot harder.”

This season marks Gonzaga’s 11th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, but the team still plays under the banner of a mid-major team. Fair or unfair, the West Coast Conference doesn’t garner the same amount of national respect as BCS-affiliated conferences, and many pundits see this match-up as a “little guy” against a “big guy.”

But this Gonzaga team is a talented and confident bunch that is ready to prove their worthiness on the national stage. A win against UNC, a trendy pick to win the tournament, would certainly further establish credibility for Gonzaga’s program.

“If we played in the ACC or the Big East or anything like that, our record might show a little bit different,” Heytvelt said.

“It’d be crazy to say we’re not a top-level team in the country.”