Tar Heels are the new Supremes in Motown

DETROIT —  The feel-good story got stomped on by a real-good story.

Michigan State was the former, and North Carolina climbed up the ladder.

Magic Johnson came back, the Temptations sang the national anthem and -- to make people feel as if Christmas might come early in Michigan -- it snowed most of the day.

None of that mattered to North Carolina, which motored out of Ford Field with an 89-72 win over Michigan State on Monday to claim the school’s fifth national title.

“This is the best way to go out,” Tar Heels senior forward Tyler Hansbrough said. “I couldn’t picture it any other way.”

Mike Copeland, a senior scrub averaging less than three minutes a game, actually hurled the ball into the air at game’s end to set off the fireworks and the confetti.

A record crowd of 72,922 filed out into the night.

This wasn’t a repeat of the Michigan Massacre back in December, when North Carolina came to Ford Field for a Final Four dress rehearsal and spanked the Spartans by 35.

But it wasn’t close either.

“It just wasn’t our night, to be honest with you,” Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo said.

Sentiment had nothing to do with this -- talent did. North Carolina had more NBA-ready players.

Some thought a Michigan State win might lift the spirits of a state gripped in the throes of joblessness and homelessness, but the economy isn’t exactly great in North Carolina either.

The Big Three on Monday represented Tobacco Road, not the automobile industry.

They were Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansbrough, three Tar Heels who returned to school this year for the sole purpose of doing what they did Monday night.

Lawson, the junior guard, was a masterful orchestrator, finishing with 21 points, six assists and a championship-record eight steals. He made up for making only three baskets by making 15 of 18 free throws.

“Ty Lawson, he’s a great guard,” Michigan State guard Kalin Lucas said. “You know, there ain’t really too much to say. He played good, scored, and got his teammates involved.”

Michigan State will be looking for an answer for Ellington into early spring. The junior guard scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half, crippling the Spartans with three three-point baskets. He was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player.

“We made a whole lot of shots in the first half,” he said.

And Hansbrough was, well, Hansbrough, capping one of the most illustrious college careers with his usual knees-and-elbows 18 points and seven rebounds.

Hansbrough was a four-time All American who came back, along with Lawson, Ellington and Danny Green, to paste the final story in his scrapbook.

“Staying in school was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life,” he said.

Usually, this is the part of the game account where the ups and downs are recounted and the turning point is identified.

In this case, can Carolina’s getting off the bus count as a turning point?

What do you say about a game in which the better team takes a 20-point lead at 31-11 with 10:20 left in the first half?

Michigan State fans didn’t want to sit on their hands, but there weren’t many reasons to put them together.

At one point in the second half Lucas, the Spartans’ guard, made a basket and Michigan State fans went nuts. It cut the Carolina lead to . . . 16.

Goose-bump time?

How about when Michigan State trimmed the lead to 13, with just under five minutes left? And then Lawson made a driving layup and a couple of free throws and pretty soon the differential was 19.

North Carolina shot 46% for the game, making 28 of 61 of its field-goal attempts, and Michigan State shot 40%.

Delvon Roe led Michigan State with 17 points and Goran Suton had 14.

The Spartans ended the season at 31-7, not bad for a team that was plagued early in the year with illness and injury.

North Carolina finishes 34-4, not bad even for a team that was supposed to go 38-0.

“People anointed us before the year,” Coach Roy Williams said. “. . . I thought that was silly.”

The Tar Heels didn’t win every game, so they can’t be compared to the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers or any of John Wooden’s undefeated teams at UCLA.

The Tar Heels started the season as the first unanimous No. 1 pick in the preseason Associated Press poll, which started the perfection talk. That conversation ended when the Tar Heels lost their Atlantic Coast Conference opener to Boston College, followed by a conference loss to Wake Forest.

North Carolina was no longer playing for posterity, but it was still playing for plenty.

It ended a championship season by winning six NCAA tournament games by 12 points or more.

Remember when they said Williams couldn’t win the big one? Remember when, as Kansas coach, he cried when his top-ranked Jayhawks lost to fourth-seeded Arizona?

Williams’ tenure in Kansas, punctuated by his teams’ perpetually falling short, has been replaced by bliss since returning to his alma mater in 2003.

Williams has won two titles in six seasons at Chapel Hill.

To put it in perspective, the legendary Tar Heels coach Dean Smith won two titles in 36 years.

Williams doesn’t even want to hear any of this.

“Roy Williams and Dean Smith don’t fit in the same sentence,” Williams said.

Williams, though, might now fit into the same paragraph.

Monday’s victory gives the Tar Heels five NCAA titles, tying the school with Indiana. Only UCLA, with 11, and Kentucky, with seven, have more.

“Roy Williams is not that good,” he said. “But boy ol’ Roy has had some big-time players, and that’s what it takes.”

That’s all it took Monday.

--

[email protected]