2B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2008
sports trivia of the dav
Q: When was the last time the Final Four was held in San Antonio and what teams made it there?
A: 2004. Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State, Connecticut and Duke played at the Alamodome.The Huskies beat the Yellow Jackets 82-73 in the National Championship behind a combined 45 points from Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor.
—espn.com
sports fact of the day
Ten Final Fours have been in Kansas City, which is the most of any city. New York City has the second most with seven but hasn't had the event since 1950.
fanbay.net
on tv tonight
MLB:
—Toronto at New York Yankees
Neon, ESPN
—Milwaukee at Chicago Cubs,
1:00 p.m., WGN and ESPN2
—San Francisco at Los Angeles
Dodgers, 3:00 p.m., ESPN
—Los Angeles Angels at Minne
sota, 6:00 p.m., ESPN2
—Houston at San Diego, 9:00
p.m., ESPN2
Women's College Basketball:
—Elite Eight, 6:00 p.m., ESPN
—Elite Eight, 8:30 p.m., ESPN
Tennis:
—Sony Ericsson Open, Noon, FSN
quote of the day
"I will never play the University of Kansas in a regular season game. It will have to be some type of tournament - whether it's NCAA or a holiday tournament. But nobody in the world could have more love or tried to give more to that place than I did for 15 years."
—North Carolina coach Roy Williams
calendar
TUESDAY
Baseball vs. Wichita State, 7
p.m., Lawrence
WEDNESDAY
Get your dot out of my way
WEDNESDAY
Softball vs. Creighton, 2
p.m., Omaha
Softball vs. Creighton, 4
p.m., Omaha
Baseball vs. St. Mary, 6
p.m., Lawrence
Track, Texas Relays, All day,
Austin, Texas
football note
Kansas will wrap up its spring practice season by playing its spring football game at 1 p.m. Saturday April 12 at Memorial Stadium. Admission to the scrimmage will be free. At halftime, Kansas coach Mark Mangino will accept the Sporting News coach of the year trophy, and players will sign autographs after the game. The public scrimmage will be the last of the Jayhawks' 15 spring practices. Kansas will hold an open practice at 3:30 p.m. Friday on the fields west of Hoglund Ballpark.
—Asher Fusco
Three lucky Jayhawk faithful sprint the bases during the "dot run" Saturday afternoon during the Kansas vs Texas A&M baseball game. The blue dot won the race and a Kansas baseball prize pack. Kansas lost the game 9-6 in ten innings.
Weston White/XANSAN
ELITE EIGHT
Hansbrough leads North Carolina past Louisville 83-73
BY AARON BEARD ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tyler Hansbrough always found a way for North Carolina, whether it was carrying the Tar Heels when they lost their point guard or making a shot despite every defender knowing the ball would end up in his hands.
Hansbrough had 28 points and 13 rebounds Saturday night to help the Tar Heels hold off Louisville 83-73 in the East Regional final
Now, with his relentless drive and unyielding will, Hansbrough has the Tar Heels back in the Final Four.
and reach the national semifinals for the first time since winning the championship in 2005.
The Tar Heels (36-2) advanced to play the Kansas-Davidson winner next Saturday at San Antonio, setting up a potential matchup between Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams and the Jayhawks program he left behind when he returned to his alma mater in 2003.
On this night, however, the focus was squarely on the Atlantic Coast Conference's player of the year.
and was named regional MVP. That included a pair of clutch jumpers over 6-11 center David Padgett as the Tar Heels desperately tried to hold their tenuous second-half lead in the final minutes.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Battling in a physical contest inside, Hansbrough finished 12-for-17 from the floor in 38 minutes.
"He is the most driven, focused player I've ever seen in my life." Williams said. "He wants to be the best player he can be and win."
For Hansbrough and his teammates, it was a reversal from last year's second-half collapse against Georgetown in the NCAA tournament's round of eight.
The Tar Heels have won all four of their games in this tournament by double digits. All four victories came in their home state, too, allowing them to celebrate in front of plenty of blue-clad fans Saturday.
North Carolina head coach Roy Williams talks with Tyler Hansbrough following the NCAA East Regional final basketball game against Louisville, Saturday, in Charlotte, N.C. North Carolina won 83-73 to advance to the Final Four.
most against the Hoyas in a loss that had stayed with them all season. But this time, the Tar Heels played with steady poise when the third-seeded Cardinals (27-9) erased the margin
and traded baskets with them in the anxious final minutes.
First, with the Tar Heels clinging to a 68-64 lead, Lawson came around the baseline and knocked down a 3 from the corner in front of his bench that pushed the margin to seven. Then, after a basket from Earl Clark inside, Hansbrough knocked down a straightaway jumper over Padgett to make it 73-66 with 2:27 to play.
Hansbrough essentially closed the door on Louisville on the next possession. The 6-9 junior got the ball on the left wing with the shot clock winding down, then pumpfaked to get Clark up in the air and step in for another jumper over Padgett. The ball swished cleanly through while Hansbrough was knocked to the ground, pushing the lead to 75-66 with 1:33 left.
"I've been playing with him my whole college career," said junior Danny Green, who had 11 points despite needing four stitches to close a cut above his left eye late in the first half. "A lot of shots that he takes and makes, it still shocks me to this day. I'm like, 'How did he get that off and how did he make it?' He's been doing it his whole career."
Ty Lawson added 11 points — including a key 3-pointer with about 5 minutes left — for North Carolina, which blew a 12-point halftime lead, then broke away from a tie at 59 to earn their 17th trip to the Final Four.
The Tar Heels went 8-for-8 at the foul line to seal it in the final minute. That steady hand was a from change last year's loss to the Hoyas, in which they missed 22 of 23 shots and let an 11-point lead slip away in the 96-84 overtime loss.
Jerry Smith scored 17 points to lead Louisville, which shot 53 percent and gave the Tar Heels all they could handle after halftime.
"We played exactly the style of play we needed to win," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "It's very difficult sometimes for people to admit when the other team is better. But we're a very good basketball team this year, very good, and they were better tonight."
Lawson — back at full speed after
spraining his left ankle in February
Last year, nobody could hit a shot when the Tar Heels needed one
had nine assists while operating as a one-man press break against the Cardinals' full-court defense all night.
The Tar Heels shot 53 percent to become the first team to shoot better than 50 percent against the Cardinals. The win allowed Williams to move past Pitino and Bob Knight and into a tie with Kentucky's Adolph Rupp and Louisville's Denny Crum with six Final Four appearances, which is fourth most all-time.
The game came hours after the Louisville and North Carolina women's teams played in the NCAA round of 16 in New Orleans. In that game, the top-seeded Tar Heels rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat the fourth-seeded Cardinals 78-74.
The baskets left Louisville's players in similar disbelief.
"You see the guy as a junior and he's getting his jersey retired and you're like, 'Why?'?" said Terrence Williams, who had 14 points for Louisville. "Then you play against him and you say, 'That's why.' He'll go through the floor just to get a rebound. He's a great player."
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