His play in the NCAA Tournament has reversed my opinion: Ty Lawson is the best player in the ACC The Big East may have dominated college basketball headlines all season, but another prestigious conference may be king of the hill at season’s end…again.
The Atlantic Coast Conference, for a nation-leading fifth time this decade, will have a member school playing in the national championship game Monday night when North Carolina battles Michigan State for college basketball’s ultimate prize.
After losing five of their seven tournament participants in the first two rounds, the ACC needed its crown jewel to deliver in a tournament field that was being overrun by the powerful Big East, who placed an NCAA record five schools in the “Sweet 16.”
Ask and you shall receive. The Tar Heels have massacred their tournament opponents by an average of 26 points — the “closest” game coming in a 72-60 regional final win over Oklahoma that UNC controlled from the opening tip.
Carolina saved their best performance for the Final Four, where they disposed of Big East power Villanova with relative ease — much to the delight of Tar Heel fans and ACC supporters alike.
The game was played inside Detroit’s Ford Field, but North Carolina ran more like a Ferrari in their 83-69 drubbing of the Wildcats.
In the driver’s seat was none other than point guard Ty Lawson, the ACC’s Player of the Year. Lawson put the pedal to the floor and kept it there all game long on his way to 22 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals, clearly outshining Nova’s heralded backcourt of Scottie Reynolds, Reggie Redding and Corey Fisher.
Lawson and the Tar Heels put the game on cruise control early when Wayne Ellington’s 3-pointer — one of seven the junior hit on the night — put UNC ahead 8-6 three minutes in and proved to give the Heels the lead for good.
The final stat sheet justified North Carolina’s performance. The Tar Heels kept the pace of the game up-tempo, scoring 80-plus points for a remarkable 30th time this season and shooting a sizzling 11-of-22 from 3-point range. UNC doubled up Villanova in assists (16-8) and blocks (6-3) while attempting 21 more free throws than the Wildcats (37-16). As if that weren’t enough, Villanova, who entered Saturday’s game shooting 45 percent from the field in the tournament, shot just 33 percent (26-of-79) against UNC’s sticky man-to-man defense.
That, my friends, is the sign of a team on a mission to add to an already rich tradition of excellence.
That tradition extends beyond North Carolina and into the ACC. A win over Michigan State would give the Tar Heels an impressive fifth national championship and effectively label the ACC as the best conference in college basketball for the decade.
It has already been mentioned that no conference has pitted more teams in the championship game this decade than the ACC, but let us examine the ACC’s outstanding run over these last 10 years more closely.
Since 2000, only three times (2003, 2006, 2007) was there a Final Four that did not feature an ACC school — the lowest number of any conference in the country. The ACC is also the only conference to have four different programs — North Carolina, Duke, Maryland and Georgia Tech — play for a national title this decade.
On top of that, the championships won by Duke in 2001, Maryland in 2002 and UNC in 2005 meant the ACC was the only conference in the last 10 years to have three different programs win national championships. No other conference has even won three titles this decade, let alone have three different programs win a championship in that time span.
The Big East lived up to its hype for the most part with its amount of quality teams and overall performance in this tournament. But when the dust clears, the ACC will reign supreme yet again if North Carolina can get past one last obstacle Monday night.
Ask and you shall receive. The Tar Heels have massacred their tournament opponents by an average of 26 points — the “closest” game coming in a 72-60 regional final win over Oklahoma that UNC controlled from the opening tip.
Carolina saved their best performance for the Final Four, where they disposed of Big East power Villanova with relative ease — much to the delight of Tar Heel fans and ACC supporters alike.
The game was played inside Detroit’s Ford Field, but North Carolina ran more like a Ferrari in their 83-69 drubbing of the Wildcats.
In the driver’s seat was none other than point guard Ty Lawson, the ACC’s Player of the Year. Lawson put the pedal to the floor and kept it there all game long on his way to 22 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals, clearly outshining Nova’s heralded backcourt of Scottie Reynolds, Reggie Redding and Corey Fisher.
Lawson and the Tar Heels put the game on cruise control early when Wayne Ellington’s 3-pointer — one of seven the junior hit on the night — put UNC ahead 8-6 three minutes in and proved to give the Heels the lead for good.
The final stat sheet justified North Carolina’s performance. The Tar Heels kept the pace of the game up-tempo, scoring 80-plus points for a remarkable 30th time this season and shooting a sizzling 11-of-22 from 3-point range. UNC doubled up Villanova in assists (16-8) and blocks (6-3) while attempting 21 more free throws than the Wildcats (37-16). As if that weren’t enough, Villanova, who entered Saturday’s game shooting 45 percent from the field in the tournament, shot just 33 percent (26-of-79) against UNC’s sticky man-to-man defense.
That, my friends, is the sign of a team on a mission to add to an already rich tradition of excellence.
That tradition extends beyond North Carolina and into the ACC. A win over Michigan State would give the Tar Heels an impressive fifth national championship and effectively label the ACC as the best conference in college basketball for the decade.
It has already been mentioned that no conference has pitted more teams in the championship game this decade than the ACC, but let us examine the ACC’s outstanding run over these last 10 years more closely.
Since 2000, only three times (2003, 2006, 2007) was there a Final Four that did not feature an ACC school — the lowest number of any conference in the country. The ACC is also the only conference to have four different programs — North Carolina, Duke, Maryland and Georgia Tech — play for a national title this decade.
On top of that, the championships won by Duke in 2001, Maryland in 2002 and UNC in 2005 meant the ACC was the only conference in the last 10 years to have three different programs win national championships. No other conference has even won three titles this decade, let alone have three different programs win a championship in that time span.
The Big East lived up to its hype for the most part with its amount of quality teams and overall performance in this tournament. But when the dust clears, the ACC will reign supreme yet again if North Carolina can get past one last obstacle Monday night.
That obstacle should prove to be a big one, as the Tom Izzo-coached Spartans are in their fourth Final Four and second championship game of the decade.
The Big Ten, with Michigan State’s title game appearance, is tied with the ACC for most appearances in the championship game by one conference this decade. A win by the Spartans would give the Big Ten two championships in the last 10 years and potentially put them in the discussion as the best conference in college hoops for the decade.
A conference’s legacy lies in the hands of UNC. A win would be the storybook ending to a fantastic 10-year stretch for the ACC, while a loss will surely spark debate as to who the best conference this decade truly was.
Regardless of Monday’s outcome, however, there is no arguing that North Carolina — at the very least — saved the day for the ACC in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
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