University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Battle Stanford in 2nd Round
March 18, 2000 | Men's Basketball
March 18, 2000
North Carolina Tar Heels NCAA Tournament Second Round
Game 33: Stanford
Sun., March 19, 1:20 p.m. CT
irmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, Birmingham, Ala.
Quick Facts No. 8 seed North Carolina (19-13, 9-7 ACC)
No. 1 seed Stanford (27-3, 15-3 Pac-10)
Carolina and Stanford
North Carolina has won all eight previous meetings against Stanford, but this will be the first time the teams have met in the NCAA Tournament.
Six of the previous eight meetings have been in tournaments. Carolina defeated the Cardinal, 57-49, in the most recent matchup on Nov. 27, 1998, in the championship game of the Chase Preseason NIT in Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Carolina is 1-1 against the Pac-10 this season. The Tar Heels opened the season with an 82-65 win over USC in the opening round of the Maui Invitational and lost at home to UCLA, 71-68, in January.
Carolina-Stanford Series History
Date Result Site
11/27/98 UNC 57, Stanford 49 New York, N.Y. (Preseason NIT final)
12/2/95 UNC 87, Stanford 64 Charlotte, N.C. (Diet Pepsi Tournament of Champions final)
12/30/90 UNC 71, Stanford 60 Orlando, Fla. (Red Lobster Classic final)
11/28/88 UNC 87, Stanford 76 Chapel Hill
12/20/85 UNC 89, Stanford 55 Chapel Hill
12/3/83 UNC 88, Stanford 75 Stanford, Calif. (Stanford Invitational)
12/30/77 UNC 92, Stanford 61 Honolulu, Hawaii (Rainbow Classic final)
12/28/67 UNC 87, Stanford 78 Portland, Ore. (Far West Classic first round)
Last Year's Carolina-Stanford Game
The Tar Heels held No. 2 Stanford to 28.6 percent field goal shooting to win the Chase Preseason NIT for the first time in UNC history. Tournament MVP Ed Cota posted his only career double-double for points and rebounds as he scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the 57-49 Tar Heel victory. Ademola Okulaja added 14 points for the Tar Heels, who shot 46.3 percent from the floor. Jarron Collins was the only Cardinal in double figures as he scored 10. Mark Madsen scored eight points and grabbed 10 boards.
NCAA Tournament Notes
North Carolina is making its 34th NCAA Tournament appearance. This is the 26th consecutive year Carolina is playing in the NCAA Tournament, the longest current streak and longest streak in NCAA history.
Carolina is 77-33 in NCAA Tournament games and has the second-most NCAA Tournament wins in history. Kentucky had won 85 heading into its second-round game with Syracuse on Saturday.
Carolina has advanced to the Sweet 16 in 16 of the last 19 years. The only years in which Carolina did not reach the regional semifinals were 1994, 1996 and 1999. The 1994 and 1996 losses came in the second round (against Boston College in 1994 and Texas Tech in 1996), the 1999 loss was a first round defeat (against Weber State).
Including the 84-70 win over Missouri, the Tar Heels have won at least one game in the NCAA Tournament in 19 of the last 20 NCAA Tournaments.
North Carolina is a No. 8 seed for the first time since 1990. That season, UNC defeated SW Missouri State in the first round and best No. 1-ranked Oklahoma in the second round before losing to Arkansas in the Sweet 16.
Tar Heel head coach Bill Guthridge is now 5-2 in NCAA Tournament games. Guthridge led UNC to the 1998 Final Four, defeating Connecticut in the East Regional championship game.
Junior center Brendan Haywood had scored seven points in six previous NCAA Tournament games prior to scoring a career-high 28 points against Missouri.
Senior point guard Ed Cota has dished out 10 assists in each of his last two NCAA Tournament games (against Weber State and Missouri). Cota has 91 assists in 12 NCAA Tournament games (7.6 per game).
Carolina is now 3-1 as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels went 2-1 as a No. 8 seed in the 1990 Midwest Regional.
Carolina's second-round game against Stanford marks the eighth time in NCAA action that the Tar Heels have faced a No. 1 seed. UNC is 5-2 against No. 1 seeds. The five wins have come against Virginia in the 1981 Final Four, Georgetown in the 1982 NCAA championship game, Oklahoma in the 1990 Midwest second round, Michigan in the 1993 NCAA championship game and Kentucky in the 1995 Southeast Regional final in Birmingham. The two losses came to Arizona in the 1988 West Regional final and to Ohio State in the 1992 Southeast Regional semifinal.
Haywood Leads Tar Heels Over Missouri and Into NCAA Second Round
Junior center Brendan Haywood set new career highs for points (28), field goals (11), field goal attempts (15) and offensive rebounds (nine) as Carolina defeated Missouri, 84-70, to advance to Sunday's second-round game in the NCAA Tournament South Regional in Birmingham. Haywood's 28 points were the most by a Tar Heel in NCAA Tournament action since Shammond Williams scored 32 in an overtime win over UNC Charlotte in the 1998 East Regional second round.
Haywood had 15 rebounds against Missouri, the most by a Tar Heel in an NCAA Tournament game since Antawn Jamison had 16 against Colorado in the 1997 East Regional second round.
Haywood's 28 points were the most by a Tar Heel this season. The previous high was 27 by freshman guard Joseph Forte in a loss at Virginia.
Senior point guard Ed Cota tallied 10 assists to raise his career total to game with 10 assists and two turnovers and now has 1,003 and become just the third player in ACC and NCAA history with 1,000 career assists (Bobby Hurley of Duke had 1,076 and Chris Corchiani of NC State had 1,038). Cota has seven or more assists in 24 of 31 games this season. He has more assists than turnovers in 27 of 31 games.
Sophomore forward Jason Capel finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, his fifth double-double of the season. He scored in double figures for the eighth straight game and 16th time in the last 17 games.
Carolina out-rebounded the Tigers, 55-30, and out-rebounded Missouri on the offensive glass, 26-11. The +25 rebound margin was the largest of the season for the Tar Heels (the previous high was +18 at Buffalo).
Missouri hit just 2 of 17 three-point field goals in the second half and 8 of 31 in the game.
Carolina scored 44 points in the first half, matching its highest first-half scoring output of the season. The Tar Heels also scored 44 points in a 102-78 win over UNLV in December.
With the win, UNC has won at least one game in the NCAA Tournament in 19 of the last 20 seasons (the only exception was 1998-99).
Cota Passes 1000 Career Assists
Senior point guard Ed Cota became just the third player in ACC and NCAA history to tally 1,000 career assists when he dished out 10 assists versus Missouri on Friday night. Cota now has 1,003 career assists, trailing only Bobby Hurley of Duke (1,076) and Chris Corchiani of NC State (1,038) in college basketball history.
Cota now has tallied double figures in assists in 11 games this season and 31 games in his career. He has had 10 or more assists in three of the last four games, including 11 against Georgia Tech, 13 against Duke and 10 against Missouri.
Cota is the only player in ACC history to score 1,000 points, dish out 1,000 assists and grab 400 rebounds. He needs just seven rebounds to reach 500 for his career. Cota has scored 1,229 points in addition to his 1,003 assists and 493 rebounds.
Cota should become the first player in ACC history to lead the league in assists for four consecutive seasons. Three other players (UNC's Phil Ford, Wake Forest's Tyrone Bogues and Georgia Tech's Drew Barry) also led the league three times. Cota will join Virginia's Ralph Sampson and Wake Forest's Tim Duncan as the only players to lead the ACC in a statistical category for four seasons (both Sampson and Duncan led the league four times in blocked shots).
Ed Cota leads the Atlantic Coast Conference with 8.3 assists per game. That is a single-season Carolina record (breaking his own mark of 7.4 assists per game set on two occasions) and the sixth-best figure in ACC history. Cota averages almost two assists more per game than any player in the ACC.
Tar Heel Trends and Notes
A win over Stanford on Sunday would extend one of the most remarkable NCAA record streaks in basketball. Should the Tar Heels prevail over the Cardinal, the Tar Heels would have won 20 games for the 30th consecutive season.
Carolina has made just 20 of its last 91 three-point attempts over the last seven games (22.0 percent). UNC's opponents have made 50 three-pointers in those seven games. Prior to those seven games, Carolina made 28 of 66 three-point attempts over a four-game span (42.4 percent).
Brendan Haywood has hit 76 of his last 103 field goal attempts (73.8 percent). He has hit at least 70 percent of his field goals in 11 of the last 15 games.
Haywood, a third-team All-ACC selection this year, leads the NCAA in field goal percentage at .722. That is an ACC single-season record and equals the second-highest percentage in NCAA history. Steve Johnson of Oregon State set the NCAA record at .746 in 1980-81. Haywood is tied for second with Florida's Dwayne Davis, who made 72.2 percent in 1988-89.
Haywood is bidding to become the first player in ACC history to shoot 70 percent from the floor in a single-season. The previous ACC record for field goal percentage is 67.0 by Clemson's Dale Davis in 1988-89.
Jason Capel has scored in double figures in eight straight games and 16 of the last 17. He posted his fifth double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds against Missouri.
Carolina has turned the ball over more than its opponents in 23 of 32 games and is 12-11 in those games.
Freshman guard Joseph Forte scored 13 points against Missouri. Forte has 518 points this year and moved past Phil Ford to become the third-highest freshman scorer in Carolina history. Sam Perkins scored a rookie record 550 points in 1980-81. J.R. Reid had 528 points in 1986-87. Ford had 508 in 1974-75, when he set the scoring average standard for freshman at 16.4 points per contest. Forte has scored 16.2 points per contest, the second-highest freshman average for a Tar Heel.
Forte scored 13 points against Missouri, the 28th time in 32 games that Forte has scored in double figures. Forte will almost certainly lead the Tar Heels in scoring this year, a feat no other freshman has accomplished in Carolina history. Forte became the fifth Tar Heel to earn ACC Rookie-of-the-Year honors, joining fellow UNC recipients Sam Perkins (1981), Michael Jordan (1982), J.R. Reid (1987) and Ed Cota (1997).
Forte had two assists and one turnover against Missouri. That marked the third game in a row in which Forte had more assists than turnovers. In the last three games, Forte has 11 assists and four turnovers. For the season, the freshman has 88 assists and 77 turnovers. He is second on the team in assists behind ACC leader Ed Cota.
Sophomore forward/center Kris Lang had 11 points, seven rebounds and two assists against Missouri. It was his highest rebounding total in 11 games since he had eight against Duke in Chapel Hill. It also broke a streak of 11 games in which he did not register a single assist. In fact, it was just the second two-assist game of the season for Lang (also had two against UCLA). It was the fourth career contest in which Lang had two assists.
Carolina is 11-3 in games in which Kris Lang scores in double figures, including the win over Missouri in which Lang scored 11 points.
The Tar Heels got to the free throw line 15 more times and made nine more free throws than Missouri. Carolina is 18-2 in games in which it attempts more free throws, and 0-11 in games in which the opponents take more free throws.
Carolina is 13-2 in games in which it leads at halftime and 5-11 in games in which the opponents have the edge at the break. The Tar Heels led Missouri, 44-41, at intermission. That was just the first time in the last five games that UNC held the lead at the half (first time since leading at Florida State).
The Tar Heels have held the opposition under 50 percent shooting from the floor in each of the last 13 games dating back to home loss to Florida State on January 22nd. The opponents have made 50 percent from the floor just four times this season and the Tar Heels are 0-4 in those games (losses to Cincinnati, Indiana, Louisville and Florida State). Missouri made only 40.9 percent from the floor, including 8 of 31 from three-point range.
