Elsewhere, upsets ruled, and brackets collapsed. Double-digit seeds are scattered throughout the tournament.
And then there’s Charlotte.
The East Regional fell into place almost perfectly. The only “upset” came in the first round when ninth-seeded Arkansas defeated eighth-seeded Indiana. No, the East is intact with two of the more intriguing matchups of the Sweet 16, not to mention the likely national player of the year, the No. 2 seed that believes it should be a No. 1, a coach recently inducted into basketball’s hall of fame and another who occasionally dips himself in orange paint. And neither of those coaches is named Rick Pitino, who also is part of this mighty regional.
The tournament’s overall top seed North Carolina meets fourth-seeded Washington State, and second-seeded Tennessee takes on third-seeded Louisville.
Also tonight, the West Region semifinals in Phoenix match UCLA against Western Kentucky and Xavier against West Virginia. The Midwest and South open in Detroit and Houston, respectively, on Friday.
But, no doubt, Charlotte is the main attraction.
It is littered with star power, from the conferences represented (Atlantic Coast, Big East, Southeastern, Pacific-10) to the coaches (North Carolina’s Roy Williams, Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl and Louisville’s Pitino) to the players (North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough, Tennessee’s Chris Lofton).
And the matchups are fantastic.
The Tar Heels are playing fewer than three hours from campus against a Washington State team that held Winthrop to 40 points and Notre Dame to 41 in its first two tournament games. The Irish entered the game averaging 81 points per game.
In North Carolina, the Cougars face a team that scored 113 and 108 in its two games and is led by Hansbrough, a top national player-of-the-year candidate. Something has to give.
“We’ve had an ‘us against the world’ mentality, so that’s the way we’re going to be,” Washington State guard Taylor Rochestie said.
Washington State will try to control the tempo and force the Tar Heels into perimeter shooting. Coach Tony Bennett brought the style from his father, Dick, who used it at three Wisconsin schools, including a stint with the Badgers. One team, in 2000, reached the Final Four.
“It’s a style or system that allows you to compete against the best,” Tony Bennett said.
It’s also a system that brought out the sarcasm in Williams, inducted in the Naismith Hall of Fame last year.
When he was at Kansas, Williams criticized the slow, physical play that resulted in a 19-17 halftime score in the national semifinal. He was reminded of those comments Wednesday.
“I’m a fan of the basketball going up and down the court,” Williams said. “The number of people who enjoy seeing (19-17) is not as many people that like to see 61-60. So I made a truthful statement.”
Williams said he is concerned about Washington State’s ability to control the game’s flow.
“You can’t put yourself in a position where you play defense for 25 seconds and you come back and play offense for five seconds,” Williams said. “You have to be patient on both ends of the floor.”
If styles clash in North Carolina-Washington State, only the coaches’ wardrobes do in Tennessee-Louisville. The fine-tailored suits of the Cardinals’ Pitino stand in sharp contrast to the orange blazers of the Vols’ Pearl.
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