North Carolina rolls past Michigan State 89-72 to win the NCAA tournament championship/Connecticut Women Win National Title

North Carolina rolls past Michigan State 89-72 to win the NCAA tournament championship - Tar Heels finish season how they started—on top
By Shannon Ryan
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
April 7, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-07-ncaa-title-game-chicagoapr07,0,6898850.story


DETROIT — Nobody disagreed that North Carolina was the best team in the nation at the start of the season. There's no argument at the end either.

The Tar Heels capped an outstanding season by dismantling Michigan State 89-72 in Monday night's NCAA tournament championship game at Ford Field, delivering on preseason hype when they were selected as a unanimous No. 1 team and predicted by some to go through the season undefeated.

The title victory may be even more special because North Carolina survived despite taking some unexpected lumps, such as an early-season injury to Tyler Hansbrough, losing Marcus Ginyard for the season, an 0-2 ACC start and playing the championship game in front of a nearly all-green, Spartans-adoring, tournament-record crowd of 72,922 just 90 miles from Michigan State's campus.

"We lost two games and everybody was doubting us," said Wayne Ellington, the tournament's most outstanding player.

North Carolina's Ty Lawson wins Bob Cousy Award as top point guard

The championship marks the fifth for North Carolina, moving the Tar Heels into a third-place tie with Indiana for NCAA titles.

The victory solidified the mission of several Tar Heels players who came back to school instead of opting for the NBA after last season's Final Four loss to Kansas.

Ty Lawson, Hansbrough and Ellington decided last summer to return to North Carolina to polish their games.

"It sounds like I made a pretty good decision," Hansbrough said.

Now they have a gleaming trophy to back up their games.

"It feels great," Ellington said. "It's something you can't explain. I thought about how hard we worked. We've been working so hard since last year when we fell short. We wanted to redeem ourselves."

After the final horn, Hansbrough ran to the pocket of North Carolina fans in the stands and whipped his championship T-shirt around his head as yellow streamers and blue confetti rained from the ceiling.

The victory proved the gritty Spartans were no match for the Tar Heels' smooth offense, following up on their 35-point December victory against the Spartans (31-7) at the same site with another thorough thumping.

The Spartans' trademark defense was as difficult to find as a happy Michigan State fan.

Michigan State had outmanned both top-seeded Louisville and Connecticut in the previous rounds, but the Tar Heels (34-4) are the nation's best transition team and averaged 87.6 points per game heading into the matchup.

This was a game of soon-to-be pros against not-quite-there-yet college kids.

"They could probably beat the worst team in the NBA," Michigan State guard Travis Walton said.

From the jump, the Tar Heels looked cool and controlled. The Spartans looked like they were heading off a cliff, falling behind by 10 in the first four minutes.

The Tar Heels set an NCAA tournament record by scoring 55 points in the first half. That's three more points than Louisville scored against the Spartans in their entire Elite Eight game.

"It was a blur," Walton said.

Michigan State can blame Lawson for many of the Spartans 21 turnovers. He finished with a championship-game-record eight steals, 21 points, six assists and only one turnover.

He clearly outplayed Kalin Lucas, who tossed the ball away six times.

Playing on a national stage in front of a host of NBA scouts, perhaps nobody helped their pro stock more than Ellington. The junior guard scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half.

"I saw a pretty big basket tonight in the first half," he said Ellington, who had little trouble with Big Ten defensive player of the year Walton on him.

Other than center Goran Suton's 17 points and 14 more by Lucas, Michigan State was off the mark.

Suton left the court to a standing ovation with 2:36 remaining for grabbing 11 rebounds and shooting 7-for-10 in his final game for Michigan State.

sryan@tribune.com





Connecticut Women Win National Title
By JONATHAN ABRAMS
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: April 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/sports/ncaabasketball/08women.html?th&emc=th


ST. LOUIS — From beginning to end, Connecticut remained peerless, and on Tuesday it bookended and bow-tied a perfect season in its usual dominating fashion, unwrapping Louisville for its sixth women’s national championship.

Connecticut (39-0), the nation’s top-ranked team, defeated Louisville, 76-54, at the Scottrade Center to end the third undefeated season in the program’s impressive history.

The Huskies left blowouts in their wake and demoralized teams on their coronation route. The junior center Tina Charles provided the punctuation mark, controlling the interior with resolve and a smile while earning the Final Four’s most outstanding player award.

Charles had often been the object of criticism from Coach Geno Auriemma. While her potential had always been there, the product had occasionally been lacking.

While the all-Americans Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore routinely received Auriemma’s praise, Charles was more likely to get scorn. To hear Auriemma tell it, he polished the rough spots to discover the diamond.

“I’ve seen her in college do some things that lead you to believe that somewhere inside there, there’s the potential to be the best player in the country,” Auriemma said. “But Tina may not see that. And as long as Tina doesn’t see that herself, then it was a struggle.”

Her eyes opened under the brightest lights. She amassed 25 points, and her 19 rebounds tied a career high. Auriemma’s tactics worked until the end.

“Tina missed so many box-outs in the first half that I can’t believe she got the M.V.P.,” he deadpanned.

At first, Louisville limited Montgomery and Moore. But once Charles started rolling in the inside, cracks began to show on the perimeter.

Montgomery capped her career with 18 points, while the sophomore Moore added 18 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists.

In 1994-95, the Huskies ended with a record of 35-0. In 2001-2, they went 39-0. This year’s Huskies joined those teams, Texas in 1985-86 and Tennessee in 1997-98 as the only squads to finish a championship season with flawless records.

The final margin was wide, but for Louisville the defeat was not quite as demoralizing as two earlier losses to Connecticut. In Big East play, the Huskies dismissed the Cardinals by a combined 67 points. On Tuesday, Connecticut’s execution was effective, and the result was predictable.

“We have nothing to be disappointed about,” said Louisville’s all-American forward Angel McCoughtry, who scored 23 points on 24 shots. “We’re going to hold our heads up high.”

There were a few hiccups for the Huskies at the start of the game. Within eight minutes, McCoughtry had equaled the 9 points she amassed in the Big East final against Connecticut. A rainbow jumper from the baseline gave her 11 points within the first 10 minutes.

Montgomery and Moore each uncharacteristically turned the ball over, and Connecticut missed its first seven 3-pointers.

Then Charles erupted amid a flurry of points beneath the basket. She was the beneficiary of nifty passes from Montgomery and Moore and ended the first half with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Charles scored another basket quickly in the second half, pushing the score to 44-25. Connecticut led by as many as 26 points, while Louisville shot only 30.9 percent from the field.

A groundbreaking season for Louisville (34-5) ended softly after it surprised the N.C.A.A. field. The Cardinals, a No. 3 seed, beat the No. 1 seeds Maryland and Oklahoma, as well as Baylor, a No. 2 seed, to reach the championship game.

“Tina Charles did an outstanding job of intimidating us,” Louisville Coach Jeff Walz said. “We had no answer for her.”

No one had an answer this season for the Huskies. From its torrid beginning, Connecticut raised comparisons to its two previous unblemished teams. The Huskies went through the season holding their breath and watching their steps. They can finally exhale.

The Huskies dominated in stunning fashion, becoming the first team to beat all of its opponents by double digits.

Connecticut remains two titles short of Tennessee’s eight championships, but it appears to have the talent to further close the gap. Montgomery was the only senior in Auriemma’s rotation.

So the mind games are already in place for next season, when Charles returns. ”She’s kind of like a legend, like a blockbuster movie, and now we’re going to see how she’s going to do next year,” Auriemma said.

Auriemma said earlier this week that he desperately wanted to end Montgomery’s career with a title and that he had become physically sick at the thought of not having a storybook ending for her. The Huskies had not won a national championship since 2004.

The debate about which Connecticut team is the best will go on. Auriemma will not take part in it.

“How do I say this team is more driven then the ’95 team or more than the 2000 team that won in Philadelphia or the 2002 team that was undefeated or 2003 and 2004?” Auriemma said.

One thing was as clear as the championship trophy that Connecticut hoisted again. In 2009, the Huskies were incomparable.