Thursday, March 19, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
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Section B·Page 3
Spartans to face Tar Heels
Michigan State seeks tournament 'Magic' of 1979
It is all hard to escape for Michigan State.
And if that is not enough, there is the prospect of thousands of North Carolina fans along Tobacco Road who will fill Greensboro Coliseum tonight, intent on seeing the Tar Heels move closer to yet another Final Four.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The tradition, the big-name players, the tournament success.
The Associated Press
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Michigan State coach Tom Izzo hopes his team is not consumed by the Tar Heels' mystique or the pressure of an East Regional semifinal.
The Spartans have not advanced this far since 1990.
The Tar Heels (32-3), top-seeded and ranked No. 1, have been to the Sweet 16 in 16 of the last 18 years.
"When you play a team like this,
you've got to realize you're not
playing Michael Jordan, you're not
playing all the trophies, you're just
playing them," Izzo said yesterday.
"For the most part, this team does not really
Mateen Cleaves, Michigan State's scoring leader and Big 10 player of the year, said he grew up a North Carolina fan, watching the Tar Heels on television as a kid in Flint, Mich.
have a fear factor," added Izzo, whose fourth-seeded team won the Big 10 regular-season title and is 22.7.
"When you think of North Carolina, you think of the tradition, the Jordans, the Worthys, the Stackhouses — all down the line," the Spartans point guard said. "I liked seeing that blue on the TV. It should be fun to go out and play against them. It's like a dream come true."
Or a nightmare.
The Tar Heels were ranked No.1 for eight weeks this season and have been a team of overpowering experience, skill and flair at many times.
"They have a phenomenal outside player in (Shammond) Williams and an inside player in (Antawn) Jamison, and if you try to just worry about those two guys, then
Carter lives above the rim," Izzo said.
"We need to keep a body on those guys because if we don't, it's going to be a dunk-a-thon, he said."
North Carolina's mark on basketball the last 40 years is etched in the college record books. And Izzo knows what a victory against the Tar Heels would mean.
"He's explosive, a strong competitor, and he really pushes the ball up the floor," North Carolina coach Bill Guthride said. "He'll be an NBA player."
But with the Tar Heels defensively rotating Ed Cota, Williams and the much-taller Carter on him, Cleaves will be a marked man.
"We're in the building stages, and the only way you start to get over the hump is you have to do something that maybe is a little unnatural," Izzo said. "It would be as big a victory at Michigan State since Magic Johnson won the (1979) national championship."
"There is no secret that if we don't have other people step up we won't win this basketball game," Izzo said. "But the other part of it is if we don't defend and rebound we won't either."
Cleaves, who scored 20 and 27 points in his team's first two NCAA tournament games, is the key.
Media attention engulfs Rams
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Rhode Island held a practice Tuesday, but Coach Jim Harrick said it was a waste of time. Too much is going on following the Rams' upset of No. 1 seed Kansas in the NCAA tournament.
Team tries to focus for Valparaiso game
The Associated Press
"Yesterday at practice, we had so much media there," Harrick said. "That day is such a distraction. I've been through it before. We just want to get away and get to St. Louis."
The media invasion included so many television cameras at a press
conference that a fuse blew.
Harrick, who coached a championship team at UCLA in 1995 but was fired a year later. is familiar
with the glare of cameras and the probing questions of reporters. But the attention is new to the young players.
"Certainly, this team has never had anything like this," athletic director Ron Petro said as workers cleaned the student union following the pea rally.
Guard Cuttino Mobley, one of the heroes of the first two victories, said he was eager to escape the telephone calls of well-wishers and to rest in
an anonymous hotel room.
Even the team's departure was raucous with about 1,000 fans screaming at a rally before the Rams left for the airport.
The players stood quietly, looking dazed and bashful, overwhelmed by the most intense publicity of their lives. Next up is a game against Valparaiso, whose coaching staff includes Harrick's son, Jim Jr.
Rather than deflect the attention, university and state officials have soaked it up.
Some, such as Gov. Lincoln Almond, are proud alumni of the school and longtime basketball fans. University president Robert Carothers said he hoped to parlay the media attention into improved fundraising, recruiting and school spirit.
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