Tar Heels live up to advance billing

GREENSBORO, N.C.

During each timeout in the second half of Thursday’s first-round game of the NCAA tournament, coach Brad Greenberg kept reminding his 16th-seeded Radford University team that no matter the score, they were part of something special.

Must have taken some Dr. Phil-esque expertise to convince his Highlanders they were having a good time as the Big South champions were hammered by a 101-58 count by top-seeded North Carolina.

Radford hung with the fast-breaking Tar Heels for about 21 minutes, but a 13-0 Carolina run early in the second half overwhelmed the underdogs and things got out of control.

No letting up

When it was over, UNC coach Roy Williams told Greenberg that the Tar Heels had brought their ‘A’ game to town, or else the game wouldn’t have been such a landslide.

Greenberg, whose brother, Seth, is the head coach at Virginia Tech, probably didn’t take a lot of consolation in Williams’ words. At least he knew that Carolina played its best.

Well, almost.

While the Tar Heels, now 29-4, played efficiently with a 59-48 edge on the boards, translated 18 RU turnovers into 25 points, and dominated the paint (54 of UNC’s points came from the lane), things could have been just a tad better from Williams’ view.

All-American Tyler Hansbrough became the ACC’s career scoring record in the first half (his 2,289 points are the 16th-best in NCAA history), in a 22-point effort.

Just to keep Hansbrough humble, Williams couldn’t resist getting in a jab.

“I told him he scored more points than anybody in the history of the ACC and went 4 for 50 tonight,” the Tar Heels coach said.

Field goal follies

Well, it wasn’t quite that bad. Hansbrough didn’t miss in 12 attempts from the free throw line, the most ever by a Tar Heel in an NCAA Tournament game. But he did connect on a mere 5 of 16 from the field.

Perhaps the queries derived from Hansbrough’s breaking the league scoring record, but for whatever reason Greenberg was smothered with questions about the Carolina star after the game.

“I don’t think [Hansbrough] played so great today,” Greenberg said. “Everyone’s getting crazy about him. He’s great ... don’t get me wrong, but he shot 5 for 16. So, it’s not like he had a Bill Walton NCAA experience out there. Of course, he didn’t need to do much more. Wayne Ellington was pretty good today.”

Indeed.

Ellington was 11 of 16 and paced all scorers with 25 points in 30 minutes. Freshman Ed Davis and senior Danny Green each added 15.

While it wasn’t easy for Radford, most of their players were so delighted to be playing the Tar Heels on the NCAA stage that they absorbed the beating with a smile on their face.

Amir Johnson was spotted clapping at the end of the game and was spotted with a smile on his face throughout the game, as was teammate Kenny Thomas.

“We’re the Big South champs and in my eyes we’re champs no matter what,” Johnson said. “We played a great team. They’re picked to win the NCAA tournament. We get rings and I’m happy for the whole season we played.”

Thomas, one of four Highlanders in double figures, admitted he shed a few tears afterward, due more to the end of his career rather than the loss to UNC.

“Man, it was awesome. You know, to end it playing one of the good teams in the tournament and on the biggest stage in college basketball, it was awesome,” Thomas said. “When I was out there, I just tried to seize the moment. Just enjoy and relish it.”

For Carolina, it was another stroll in the park, discarding the 16th seed with the proper efficiency, moving on and refocusing for Saturday’s game against LSU.

After all, the Tar Heels were President Barack Obama’s pick in his NCAA bracket to win it all.

Williams said that he guessed the president didn’t know who to pick, but remembered his visit to Chapel Hill last year during the campaign, when Obama, an avid hoops fan, worked out with the Tar Heels.

“When he played pickup with our guys, nobody blocked his shot and everybody passed him the ball, and everybody set screens for him,” Williams remembered. “And he drove to the basket one time, and Tyler didn’t take his head off. So that was good. Everybody wanted to let him score, so it’s payback for us being so nice to him.”

Whether that was the case or not, there are big expectations on Carolina, which played at the greyhound pace it prefers even without point guard Ty Lawson, still out with a sprained big toe.

Maybe LSU should go shopping for some of those Obama masks and wear them for Saturday’s matchup with the Tar Heels. That’s the only way Carolina is going to take it easy on anyone the rest of the way.