Apparently it pays to stay in school. Just ask North Carolina Tar Heel Tyler Hansborough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green who withdrew their names from the NBA Draft last summer, to come back to school to win a national championship. That is exactly what they did Monday night. North Carolina blew out Michigan State 89-72.
Carolina dominated Michigan State from the start. In fact, Michigan State only lead of the game was 3-2 and it lasted for 19 seconds. After four minutes that Tar Heels led by 10 and then by 15 nearly 10 minutes later. The Tar Heels jumped quickly on the Spartans and never looked back.
It was a balanced attack by Lawson, Hansborough, Green, Ed Davis, Deon Thompson, and the games' Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, Wayne Ellington, proved to be too much for the younger Spartans team.
-----------Tar Heels' Balanced Scoring-
-----------------Lawson: 21 Pts
-----------------Ellington: 19 pts
-----------------Hansborough: 18 Pts
-----------------Davis: 11 Pts
-----------------Thompson: 9 Pts
-----------------Green: 6 Pts
----------"You've got six NBA players that could be drafted in the first round or early second. You're looking at a team that could probably beat the worst team in the NBA." -Michigan State Guard Travis Walton
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Carolina played Michigan State back in December in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and crushed the Spartans by 35 points. Back in December, the Spartans were without its star center Goran Suton and were coming off playing three games in six days. Playing at Ford Field in Detroit, just 92 miles away from campus at East Lansing, seemed to give the Spartans a home court advantage. With a total of 72, 922 in attendance (the largest crowd ever to attend a NCAA Final Four), and mostly Spartan fans, Michigan State was looking in the driver seat to pullout a upset.
So Monday night was supposed to be a different game...right? WRONG!
Adding a healthy Suton, a couple days of rest and the "home court advantage" had ingredients for different game. But the skill, athleticism, talent, coaching, and team chemistry of the Tar Heels proved to me too much for Spartans.
The Spartans never got a in groove on the offensive end. Michigan State guards, Kalin Lucas and Durrrell Summers struggled shooting a combined 8-24 from the field. Goran Suton was the only Spartan that could get into a rhythm, shooting 7-10 from the field and a team high 17 points. They did not fair well from beyond the arc either. MSU shot a dismal 7-23 from 3-point range.
But shooting was not the only problem. The Spartans turned the ball over 21 times, including 15 turnovers from its starting five, resulting into 25 points for Carolina. You can thank Carolina's Ty Lawson for eight of those 21 turnovers, as he set a record for eight steals in a championship game.
This game was being played at the site where the NFL's worst team the Detroit Lions play. By the way the Spartans played, it looked like they stole some plays out of the Lions' playbook.
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---------"When you play North Carolina, there's nothing you can do. Lawson says it all. He does stir the drink." -Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
You cannot take too much away from the Spartans though. After all, no one including me, picked them to make it the Final Four, let alone beat UConn to get to the title game. They did everything right in the UConn game, surprising me and most of the country. Suton and the rest of the MSU defense dominated UConn's star center Hasheem Thabeet. That was something I did not think they could do. I was wrong to pick them against them in that game, but prior to Carolina game, I knew the Spartans would not pull out a victory.
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North Carolina just had too much fire power in the end. Their dominating defense, great perimeter shootings and unstoppable inside game proved to be the difference. This team had no weakness and was the total package. They were focused, unselfish and were relentless to win.
------------------"Heel" of a Season
--------*Carolina won all of its NCAA tournament games in double digits --first time that's happened since Duke in 2001.
--------*Average margin of victory was 20.2 points --largest since Kentucky in 1996.
--------*Second largest tournament point differential by a champion +121. (Kentucky +129 in 1996)
--------*UNC led 55-43 at halftime, which set the marks for the most points scored in a first half and the biggest halftime lead in tournament history.
--------*Ty Lawson equaled a Final Four record with 10 steals (2 vs. Villanova & 8 vs. MSU), set championship game record 8 steals and became just the fifth player since 1997 to total 100 points, 30 rebounds and 20 assists in a single tournament.
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--------*Tyler Hansborough set NCAA record for Free Throws made: 907
--------*Hansborough also set ACC record for most career points: 2,789
--------*North Carolina Fifth National Championship-second since 2005.
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--------*Roy Williams in the last seven years: 3 Final Four Appearances and 2 National Titles (Tied with legendary UNC coach Dean Smith with two).
This championship journey for North Carolina started last spring right after Carolina got embarrassed against Kansas, losing 84-66 in the semifinal game of the Final Four. That loss left a sour taste in the mouth of Ty Lawson, Danny Green, Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansborough. That taste was so bad, those kids held off jumping to the NBA and put the draft on hold for one more year. It is not to often these days you see college athletes leave an NBA contract worth millions of guaranteed money.
-------------"Sounds Like I made a pretty good decision. Nothing beats this feeling right here." -North Carolina Center Tyler Hansborough
I can guarantee, kids who watched this game and heard this, now know the lessons of staying an extra year in college. It not only provides you more education, but shows if you set a goal and work hard enough, it will be accomplished. Just ask those players.
North Carolina had a magical and historical season that everyone will remember. This is arguably one of the best college basketball teams ever assembled. There will never be another team like this. Putting the historical stats, numbers and highlights to the side, the biggest story from this team is what those four players did. They are the definition of team. They stuck together and led this team to success and maturity. They went against the norm to better themselves as basketball players and as young men.
~Sabol
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