ONLINE ENTER THE BLAST FROM Take a look PICKS OF THE WEEK CARDINAL THE PAST inside for Check out what The DTH panelists take We break down the rest of on this weekend’s Sweet UNC women’s happened last 16 games. ABC11’s Mark basketball’s time Marquette the DTH. Sports Armstrong drops in to Sweet 16 game and UNC played offer his predictions. against first- in the NCAA PAGE 4 seeded Stanford. tournament. Friday PAGE 4 PAGE 3 Friday, March 25, 2011 www.dailytarheel.com The Daily Tar Heel STACKING UP THE TAR HEELS Dexter Strickland said Tuesday his knee is feeling DTH PHOTOS/ERIN HULL Harrison Barnes has tallied 46 points and 18 much better, and that’s good news for the Tar Heels. UNC is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009. Only Tyler Zeller and Justin Watts have been before. rebounds in his first two NCAA tournament games. BY JONATHAN JONES SPORTS EDITOR March Madness matrix: UNC teams in the Sweet 16 ith their win against TOURNAMENT Washington last week- Won National Title ??? W PROGRESS Lost in Sweet 16 Lost in Elite 8 Lost in Final 4 end, the Tar Heels advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 24th YEAR 1992 2007 1998 2005 2011 time in program history. SEASON RECORD We take a look at some 23-10 | No. 4 seed 31-7 | No. 1 seed 34-4 | No. 1 seed 33-4 | No. 1 seed 28-7 | No. 2 seed recent UNC teams that have AND SEEDING made it this far to see where Raymond POINT GUARD Derrick Phelps Ty Lawson Ed Cota Kendall Marshall this year’s squad measures Felton up. Necessary for almost any BIG MAN George Lynch Tyler Hansbrough Makhtar N’Diaye Sean May Tyler Zeller NCAA tournament run is a healthy mix of a playmaking PREVIOUS SWEET 3 years 1 year 2 years 0 years 1 year point guard, a solid big man, 16 EXPERIENCE Allowed 75.6 ppg, +4.4 reb, Allowed 68.6 ppg, +8.5 Allowed 65.6 ppg, +7.5 reb, Allowed 70.3 ppg, +7.5 reb, Allowed 68.7 ppg, +6.5 previous tournament experi- DEFENSE ence and tough defense. forced 17.15 TO/game reb, forced 16.1 TO/game forced 13.2 TO/game forced 17.8 TO/game reb, forced 14.2 TO/game Do the Tar Heels have the Rashad McCants, STAR PLAYER Hubert Davis Tyler Hansbrough Antawn Jamison Harrison Barnes ingredients to make a run at Raymond Felton, Sean May the national championship? SWEET 16 Ohio State Southern California Villanova Marquette OPPONENT Michigan State Contact the Sports Editor at [email protected]. SOURCE: WWW.TARHEELBLUE.COM DTH/RYAN KURTZMAN, NATASHA SMITH, LYDIA HARRELL 2 friday, march 25, 2011 SportsFriday The Daily Tar Heel Tar heels face hardworking marquette coach worked THE LOWDOWN ON FRIDAy’s GAME his way up ranks No. 11 Marquette vs. BY LOUIE HORVATH No. 2 North Carolina SENIOR WRITER (22-14) (28-7) Marquette’s program prides Prudential Center, 7:15 p.m. itself on being a testament to the power of perseverance. HEAD-TO-HEAD The Golden Eagles, who will The matchup between UNC shooting guard face off against North Carolina in Dexter Strickland and Marquette’s lead- the Sweet 16, fancy themselves as ing scorer Darius Johnson-Odom could be a collection of players who never Backcourt crucial. Strickland was able to hold pro- give up on or off the court. lific Washington guard Isaiah Thomas II to There may be something to that 33-percent shooting, but DJO has been too much to handle lately. Edge: Marquette viewpoint — the team’s coach and each of its top four scorers have The Marquette frontcourt is led by small spent time at junior college. forward Jimmy Butler, who ranked in the “Their plight to Marquette top 20 of the Big East in scoring, rebound- you can’t change,” Marquette Frontcourt ing and steals. But UNC has Harrison coach Buzz Williams said. “It’s as Barnes to match him and a pair of All-ACC obscure a plight as mine was to big men. Expect Mssrs. Zeller and Henson to get their grown men on. Edge: UNC Marquette.” Quite a winding road led The UNC bench scored five of the team’s Williams to Marquette. 86 points against U-Dub. If the Tar Heels His odyssey has carried him are going to be successful in this one, to nine different schools since he Bench they’re either going to need better produc- started working in basketball in tion or hope their starters stay out of foul trouble. If only they had a back-up point 1990. guard somewhere... Edge: MU He first spent four years work- ing in the hinterlands of college Time and again, UNC has found a way to basketball, finally working in win close games all season. Marquette, on Division I for the first time in 1994 the other hand, is 3-7 in games decided by Intangibles five points or fewer. The Golden Eagles will with UT-Arlington. hold on tight, but it says here their title run Five schools later, he found gets stuck in the mud somewhere in the himself in Milwaukee coaching swamps of Jersey. Edge: UNC DTH FILE/ERIN HULL the Golden Eagles (22-14). John Henson will give the Golden Eagles fits in the interior with his height and length. At 6-foot-10, the ACC “Buzz went his route, and it was The Bottom Line — North Carolina 79, Marquette 77 defensive player of the year has already blocked 10 shots in the first two games in the NCAA tournament. a weird route, but there are other COMPILED BY AARON TaUBE guys that did it the same,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. Roy Williams thinks part of attack that sees three players aver- “Buzz paid his dues, he’s done a the reason for Marquette’s success aging in double figures. Tar Heels and Golden Eagles meet in Jersey great, great job there, and I have a could be its reliance on junior col- “Over the last two years I’ve seen Below is a men’s basketball team comparison in anticipation of tonight’s Sweet 16 game in Newark, N.J. great relationship with him.” lege players. quite a bit (of Marquette),” Roy The Golden Eagles, seeded No. “You love the hunger that those Williams said. “(Johnson-Odom) UNC MARQUETTE 11 in the East region, take after guys have,” Roy Williams said. “With is one of those guys that everyone 28-7 Season record 22-14 their coach and the team is famous the wild culture that we have now, would love to get. Those late bloom- for playing hard every game. some of these guys are prima donna ers that have a chip on their shoul- Chapel Hill, N.C. Location Milwaukee, Wis. “We’re in a great region, obvious- and don’t have that hunger.” der because of all the guys that sup- ly we’re not supposed to be there, as In a region with some of the posedly were better than he was.” ACC Conference Big East everybody knows, but we’re going most prestigious basketball pro- UNC figures to give Marquette to fight to the best of our abilities grams in the nation, the mentally — which has one player taller than Roy Williams Coach Buzz Williams and be tough until the very end,” tough Golden Eagles do not plan 6-foot-9 on its roster — trouble Carolina blue Navy blue, gold senior Jimmy Butler said. to back down. with the length of big guys John School colors Much like their well-traveled “When you’re a player, that’s Henson and Tyler Zeller. Buzz and white and powder blue coach, the players enjoy and are what you dream about, going up Williams is well aware of it. 3 comfortable playing to their near- against the elite teams,” sophomore “They’ve got really, really good Rameses the Ram Mascot Golden Eagle perpetual role as the underdog. forward Jae Crowder said. “I feel long-lasting NBA players on their Michael Jordan Michael Jordan “We like being under the radar,” like in this (region) these are the team,” Buzz Williams said. “They’re Brand guard Darius Johnson-Odom said. elite teams. So as a player you look really long, really athletic and Nike Jumpman Nike Jumpman “It motivates us as players and as forward to it.” extremely fast.” coaches. When we play, we show Johnson-Odom is the team’s 2000 Year jersey designed 2007 why we were under the radar, but leading scorer, averaging 16 points Contact the Sports Editor we shouldn’t be under the radar.” per game. He leads a balanced at [email protected]. SOURCE: WWW.TARHEELBLUE.COM, WWW.GOMARQUETTE.COM DTH/NATASHA SMITH The Daily Tar Heel SportsFriday friday, march 25, 2011 3 DTH original: 1977 title game In 1977, Dean Smith’s heavily favored North Carolina lost the national championship to Marquette After announcing his retire- ment midway through the sea- son, Marquette coach Al McGuire led his team, known then as the Warriors, to the NCAA tournament championship game after a thrill- ing victory against UNC-Charlotte in the semifinals. There, the Warriors met a North Carolina squad led by point guard Phil Ford and head coach Dean Smith, still in search of his first NCAA championship. Marquette stunned UNC by jumping to a 12-point halftime lead. The Tar Heels stormed back in the first eight minutes of the sec- ond period, tying the game at 41 with 12 minutes to play.