Cougs aren't just going up against North Carolina

They're taking on one of the greatest basketball programs ever

By J.P. GIGLIO
SPECIAL TO THE P-I

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Buildings don't win basketball games, at least that's what North Carolina coach Roy Williams says.

Feel free to substitute that mantra for your Lunesta to help yourself sleep tonight, anxious Washington State fans, because rest assured, you're not playing a building or the history of UNC basketball or the tens of thousands of Tar Heel fans who'll be in Charlotte for Thursday's third-round NCAA Tournament game between your Cougars and UNC.

Nope, you're getting the whole barbecue-hush puppie-cole slaw combo platter all wrapped into one basketball game, with a big glass of sweet tea to wash it down.

As Washington State prepares for its first Sweet 16 game, first game against the Tar Heels and first game in the state of North Carolina, please ignore these minor footnotes of history as well. Ol' Roy -- as he's apt to refer to himself -- wouldn't want the focus on anything but the game's participants, or, ahem, its coach(es):

For UNC, or just Carolina as it is called in this portion of the country, this is the 22nd time in the Sweet 16, an NCAA record.

This is the Heels' 12th time as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, also an NCAA record.

UNC is 7-0 in NCAA Tournament games in Charlotte and 23-1 in its home state, including the first two rounds of this year's tournament in Raleigh, where the Heels won twice by a combined 70 points. And while Carolina has never won an NCAA Tournament game at Charlotte Bobcats Arena, the site of the East Regional, the Heels won the ACC Tournament at the same building last week.

Congratulations on the Sweet 16, Cougs, but a loss on either Thursday or Saturday would qualify this season as a failure for the Heels, who have been to the Final Four 16 times, which is -- you guessed it -- an NCAA record (shared with UCLA). Seven of those Final Four trips have come since 1991.

UNC owns four NCAA championships, winning in 1957, 1982, 1993 and 2005. The '82 team, with some freshman named Michael Jordan, traveled a championship path from Raleigh to Charlotte to the Final Four. Sound familiar?

The current version of the Tar Heels has done its part to make Duke fans, or ABC (Anybody But Carolina) fans cry, or at least rue the day Williams left Kansas.

At 34-2, these Heels have won more games than any in the program's rich history. They went 14-2 in the ACC and then won the conference tournament for their record 17th league title. Junior forward Tyler Hansbrough, or Psycho T as he is known in Chapel Hill, became the 11th player in school history to be honored as national player of the year. He did so because of a 22.8 scoring average and a legendary work ethic, hence the nickname.

Sophomore guards Ty Lawson, the point man, and Wayne Ellington, the team's best shooter, are relegated to second-class status behind Hansbrough when it comes to headlines but they are the key to this team's success.

And since losing to Duke on Feb. 6, the Heels have been unbeatable. They've won 13 consecutive games -- six without Lawson, who sprained his left ankle. Without Lawson, a 5-foot-11, thicker version of UCLA's Darren Collison, the Heels adapted their speed-burner style to become more efficient in the halfcourt sets, both offensively and defensively.

With Lawson back at full speed, the Heels have maintained their renewed defensive sensibilities, while adding a sixth gear, which in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament equaled 221 total points. Lawson combined to score 40 with 11 assists and no turnovers. Ellington was equally effective, hitting 14 of 22 shots for 36 points.

This season's team is also responsible for the latest chapter in postseason disappointments. UNC, with essentially the same lineup it will use Thursday minus first-round pick Brandan Wright, let an 11-point lead evaporate in the second half against Georgetown in the Elite Eight in 2007. The Hoyas eventually won the game 96-84 in overtime, denying Williams his sixth Final Four appearance.

For every fan who remembers Jordan's last-minute jumper to beat Georgetown in the 1982 title game, there are 10 more, mostly from Duke, the rest of the ACC or Kentucky, eager to point out the Heels' tournament failures.

Carolina won the 1957 national title by beating Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain in triple overtime, but Dean Smith, who was on that losing Kansas team, inherited a program decimated by a gambling scandal in 1961. Before the end of the decade, Smith remade the Heels into a national power.

Seven empty trips to the Final Four fueled the belief that Smith couldn't win the Big Game.

Even after winning his first national title, Smith put together perhaps the best team in ACC history with a starting lineup that included Jordan, Kenny Smith, Brad Daugherty and Sam Perkins. But that team lost in the Sweet 16 to Indiana in Jordan's last college game. He went out with 13 points in defeat, hence, the popular refrain "The only person who could stop Michael Jordan was Dean Smith" was born.

When Smith retired in 1997 with more wins (879) than any other Division I coach, there were still critics who thought he should have won more than two national titles. Even those titles, in '82 and '93, the ABCers are quick to note, came courtesy of epic blunders at the end of each game. In '82, Georgetown's Freddie Brown thoughtlessly passed the ball right to a surprised James Worthy. In '93, Michigan's Chris Webber infamously called a timeout he didn't have.

But for those without a bias against Smith -- and they far outnumber his critics -- he's remembered as the game's best and brightest coach. His "Four Corners" offense, quarterbacked by point guard Phil Ford in the mid-1970s, forced the NCAA to eventually adopt a shot clock. His progressions of fast-break offense and trapping defense were hallmarks of a program that went to the NCAA Tournament 23 consecutive times from 1975 to 1997.

Smith's organization and innovation are legendary. He popularized the tired signal, pointing to a teammate after a good play and the huddle at the foul line. He began every practice with a "thought of the day," a concept still used by the generation of coaches he spawned while teaching the game he learned as a player at Kansas from Phog Allen, who learned the game from its inventor, Dr. James Naismith.

The Smith coaching tree includes Larry Brown, George Karl, Doug Moe and, of course, Williams.

Williams grew up in the mountainous, western end of North Carolina, near Asheville, and dreamed of playing for Carolina. He made the freshman team in 1968 before he had the prescience to realize his future was in coaching. As a young assistant for Smith, Williams made $2,700, so he traveled around the state selling calendars out of the trunk of his car to make ends meet.

After absorbing Smith's system for 10 years as an assistant, Williams got his first college gig. Smith persuaded his alma mater, on NCAA probation for recruiting violations, to take a chance on the young, unproven coach.

In his third season at Kansas, Williams rewarded the Jayhawks with a trip to the Final Four, where he beat Smith and UNC in the semifinals but lost in the title game to Duke. In 2003, after 518 wins and four fruitless trips to the Final Four, Williams left Lawrence and returned to UNC.

Smith tried to lure Williams back to Chapel Hill in 2000, when his lieutenant Bill Guthridge retired after a three-year stint as head coach. UNC stayed within the "family" and hired an unprepared Matt Doherty.

In Doherty's second season, the Heels bottomed out at 8-20. All the historic streaks from Smith's era had ended. Even worse, Doherty made unpopular personnel changes in the offices of the Carolina program and moved Smith and Guthridge's actual offices to the basement of the Smith Center.

When a talented crop of freshmen and sophomores -- the nucleus of the 2005 national championship team -- threatened to transfer if Doherty stayed for a fourth season, Doherty was forced to resign after the 2002-03 season.

This time, Williams couldn't resist Smith's plea to save the program. He succeeded Doherty, his former assistant at Kansas.

"Ol' Roy ain't that good," was another popular mantra repeated by Williams when he was hired in an effort to quell expectations.

Like his opinion on basketball games and buildings, most people disagree with Ol' Roy, now with one national title in his back pocket and a second within reach.