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	<channel>		<title>RUWT? News</title>
		<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com</link>
		<description>RUWT? News for Villanova vs. North Carolina 4/5/2009</description>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:10:53 GMT</pubDate>
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				<title><![CDATA[North Carolina too much for Villanova in 83-69 win]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[DETROIT (AP) -- Men vs. boys. Big brother vs. little brother. 
Future pros against a bunch of good college kids.

That summed up North Carolina's 83-69 victory over Villanova on 
Saturday night. The ultra-talented Tar Heels simply never gave 
the Wildcats a chance to breathe, let alone whip up a fresh dose
of Final Four magic.

Ty Lawson scored 22 points, Wayne Ellington had 20 more and the 
Tar Heels, with their four, five, maybe more NBA-caliber 
players, stayed on a path that has seemed almost certain since 
the season began in November.

Tyler Hansbrough had 18 points and 11 rebounds to make this a 
quite successful return to the Final Four after a remarkable dud
last year in a semifinal loss to Kansas. Next up, North Carolina
(33-4) goes for its second title in five years Monday against 
Michigan State, an 82-73 winner over Connecticut.

"It feels good to be back here to get another shot," Carolina 
forward Deon Thompson said. "Now that we have an opportunity, we
have to seize it."

The Spartans, located 90 miles up the road in East Lansing, will
certainly have the crowd on their side. The talent gap, though? 
Eek. They'll have to be at least 35 points better than they were
in December when the teams met in this same building - a 98-63 
UNC romp.

"They had a couple players that were hurt and came off a long 
road stretch," Lawson said. "We know they're a better team right
now."

Meanwhile, Villanova (30-8) ends a successful season two wins 
short of its first title since 1985, when Rollie Massimino 
coaxed one of the greatest upsets in sports history out of his 
guys - 66-64 over Patrick Ewing, John Thompson and Georgetown.

Thompson was on press row doing radio and Massimino was chomping
his gum nervously behind the Villanova bench, part of the record
crowd of 72,456 at Ford Field - half gone and streaming toward 
the exits with 5 minutes left.

But James Naismith himself probably couldn't have helped 
Villanova out of this one.

North Carolina simply had too much talent.

"They played a great game and are playing extremely well," 
Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "They've got all the pieces, 
and we have great respect for them. We've been getting better 
every game, and we did not get better tonight."

Carolina did.

Last season, in one of the more inexplicable performances in 
Final Four history, the Tar Heels trailed Kansas 40-12 midway 
through the first half.

This time, they led 40-23.

"I've been there. I was there a year ago," North Carolina coach 
Roy Williams said. "It feels like somebody jerks your heart out 
and shakes it."

Ellington made five of his first six shots, including a 
3-pointer after a perfect crosscourt pass over the top from 
Danny Green. Nobody had an answer for Hansbrough, who once found
himself bodied up with Dante Cunningham, faked left, then spun 
to the baseline and saw no more resistance - a way-too-easy 
layup.

Lawson, he of the injured toe and the successful trip to the 
craps table in downtown Detroit a few nights previous - well, he
stayed on a roll, going 5-for-11 with eight assists and seven 
rebounds. Had he shot better than 10-for-17 from the line, this 
game might have been more lopsided.

And so, what began as tournament with great potential for the 
Big East - three top seeds, two in the Final Four - will end 
with the conference on the sideline.

"Right now, Carolina proved that regardless of conference, 
they're playing the best basketball in the country right now," 
Wright said. "So did Michigan State."

No disrespect to Villanova, which did, in fact, make this 
interesting for a brief time. The Wildcats cut the deficit to 
five early in the second half. It could have been three, but 
Cunningham's jumper went halfway in before cruelly rimming out.

Green answered with a 3-pointer, then the Tar Heels got a steal 
and layup from Lawson to push the lead back to 10. That took all
of 64 seconds.

"Big-time players make big-time shots in big-time games," 
Ellington said of the Green 3-pointer.

Though the rest of the second half was a jumbled mess for both 
teams - which allowed Villanova to stay in shouting distance - 
the Wildcats never got it back under double digits.

It was a typical no-quit effort from Wright's group of seasoned 
upperclassmen, who battled through the Big East and started 
putting it together come tournament time.

Scottie Reynolds will always have that indelible end-to-end 
game-winning layup against Pittsburgh last weekend that got 
Villanova to its Final Four since 1985. His first basket in this
one, however, didn't come until more than nine minutes were gone
and the deficit was in double digits. He finished with 17 points
on 6-for-18 shooting.

Cunningham, the Wildcats' leading scorer and rebounder this 
season, had 12 and 12. Reggie Redding had 15 points, and Corey 
Fisher scored 13 on 5-for-19 shooting.

A lot of the Villanova stats didn't look so bad. They got five 
more rebounds and were even in the turnover battle. They hustled
and dove on the floor all night.

But as the game was getting out of reach early, they simply 
couldn't defend. North Carolina shot 67 percent while opening 
that 17-point lead in the first half. The Tar Heels led 49-40 at
halftime.

And the Wildcats couldn't shoot. Villanova shot 33 percent from 
the floor, not exactly the 78.6 percent from that "perfect game"
back in '85. They were even worse from 3-point range - 5-for-27.
And there were way too many scenes reminiscent of big brother 
vs. little brother: Where the Villanova player would drive the 
middle, make a few head fakes and the Carolina guy would just 
stand there, wait for the histrionics to end and block or alter 
the shot.

"Even when shots don't fall, we pride ourselves on find a way to
win," senior Dwayne Anderson said. "We didn't find a way 
tonight."

What resulted was, quite simply, what it looks like when a 
roster of very good college players goes up against a team full 
of NBA-caliber talent.

Hansbrough. Freshman forward Ed Davis. Lawson. Green. Ellington.
The last three in that group actually considered the NBA after 
last season but didn't get the right feedback from scouts. 
Another year of seasoning couldn't hurt, they figured, and that 
made the Tar Heels the team to beat starting in preseason, when 
they were the unanimous No. 1 in The Associated Press poll.

The last time the Heels were No. 1 at the beginning and the end 
was 1982 - when a guy named Michael Jordan wore Carolina Blue.

Yes, there were hiccups along the way this season, such as when 
the Tar Heels lost their first two ACC games, and when Lawson 
missed three games with the toe - one of an assortment of 
injuries they endured.

But none of it was enough to derail this ride from Tobacco Road 
to Motown. Carolina has won every tournament game by 12 or more.
Now, Williams finds himself one win away from leading his alma 
mater to its fifth national championship.]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaab]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/93164-North-Carolina-too-much-for-Villanova-in-83-69-win</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/93164-North-Carolina-too-much-for-Villanova-in-83-69-win</guid>
				<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:46:22 GMT</pubDate>
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				<title><![CDATA[UNC's Lawson, Nova's Cunningham meet again Saturday]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[DETROIT (AP) -- The friendship that became a friendly rivalry 
has been brewing since they were 7.

Ty Lawson of North Carolina and Dante Cunningham of Villanova 
were teammates back then. The team, based in the Washington 
area, was called the St. Andrews Magic. The coaches were their 
dads.

No doubt that even back then, they dreamed of a day like 
Saturday. They'll both be in the starting lineup in the Final 
Four - Lawson the point guard for North Carolina and Cunningham 
in the frontcourt for Villanova.

"What I remember most about his dad was he was always telling 
him, 'Bust a move,'" Lawson said. "Because Dante would get the 
ball, and he wasn't real aggressive."

That still bugs Cunningham to this day, Lawson said. He'll 
probably say it a few times on the court come Saturday night.

There was other impressive talent among that group of 
7-year-olds, which rarely lost while routinely playing teams 
with kids who were 9 and 10. Cedric Jackson, the guard who 
helped Cleveland State beat Wake Forest in the first round of 
this year's tournament, was on that team. So were a few more 
kids who went to smaller schools (Bucknell and Siena) that have 
pulled off NCAA upsets the past few years.

Lawson may have been the best of them all.

"Tywon was always the one with the ball in his hands," 
Cunningham said. "We were playing an AAU game once. He's 
dribbling, we're down one with a few seconds left. The coach is 
saying 'timeout, timeout,' and Tywon just runs down the court, 
shakes his head 'No' and makes a layup. Game over."

There have been times over the past few years when Lawson's 
current coach, Roy Williams, wished he could get that kind of 
shoot-first-think-later mentality from his talented point guard.

It has been Lawson's transformation, from one who liked to 
distribute to one who would look more for his own shot, that has
made a big difference this year and helped bring North Carolina 
(32-4) back to within two wins of the championship.

Despite playing with a toe injury that has left him at what he 
says is about 80 percent, Lawson has averaged a bit over 20 in 
the three tournament games he's played. That's about four over 
his season average, but might have been even better had North 
Carolina not been rolling over teams en route to Detroit.

"Some people probably took that as me being lazy, not 
unselfish," Lawson said of the earlier reluctance to shoot. "I 
never saw it that way. I was just looking at it as trying to 
move the ball around more, keep people involved."

Cunningham remembers coach George Lawson, who served on base 
along with Cunningham's dad, Ron, as the guy who taught him the 
fundamentals of the game.

"Pretty intense," Cunningham said. "Not yelling and screaming. 
He wanted us to have fun. But even at that age, he said when 
you're on the court, you're competing. You're playing. You're 
trying to win."

That part has pretty much stayed the same, even though the 
stakes have grown as the years have passed. The Air Force base 
has turned into Ford Field, with 70,000-plus watching come 
Saturday.

On paper, this game looks like a bit of a mismatch.

North Carolina is a 7-point favorite in large part because the 
Tar Heels have four players - Lawson, Danny Green, Tyler 
Hansbrough and Wayne Ellington - who are considered NBA draft 
picks.

All but Hansbrough considered going pro after last season, but 
none got the feedback from scouts they were hoping for. So, they
came back and tried to make another run at a championship.

They can only hope for a better Final Four than last year. They 
fell behind 40-12 to Kansas in the first half, drew within four,
but ran out of steam before they could complete the comeback.

"We weren't the same team that had played the whole tournament,"
Hansbrough said of last year's debacle. "Just a little tight, 
and once we started playing better, we didn't have the energy to
close things out. We've had our lapses, but that's true of any 
team. Everyone has their ups and downs."

Although North Carolina is a collection of stars, Villanova is 
looked at more as a team. None of those players are being 
projected as having big NBA futures. Guard Scottie Reynolds, of 
course, is already a college star, courtesy of his floor-length 
dash and layup for the winning basket against Pittsburgh last 
weekend.

Cunningham leads the team with 16.2 points and 7.8 rebounds a 
game. Reynolds is next with 15.2 points and almost 4 assists a 
game. But Cunningham is 6-foot-8, 230 pounds (too slight) and 
Reynolds doesn't fit any typical NBA prototype. Not that they 
won't have careers playing basketball, they're just not - well -
like the Carolina guys.

"You hear the people on TV say that and you just can't listen to
it," Cunningham said. "I don't feel like we're underdogs. At 
this point, you just have to look at it like, everyone's on the 
same plane. We've worked just as hard as they have to get here."]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaab]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/93025-UNCs-Lawson-Novas-Cunningham-meet-again-Saturday</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/93025-UNCs-Lawson-Novas-Cunningham-meet-again-Saturday</guid>
				<pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:55:15 GMT</pubDate>
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