University of North Carolina Athletics
Improbable Three Join Michigan State In Indy
March 31, 2000 | Men's Basketball
March 31, 2000
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By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Writer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Saluted by a high school band and pompom-waving fans, the North Carolina players hopped off the bus confidently, as if they expected to be at the Final Four all along.
Of course, the Tar Heels probably didn't feel that way when they lost four straight games in mid-January.
"We had a rough season," point guard and team sage Ed Cota admitted Thursday, savoring his third - and most unlikely - trip to college basketball's showcase event. "That definitely makes it a little more special."
Forget the Final Four. This should be called the Improbable Three ... and Michigan State.
North Carolina wasn't even sure if would get invited to the tournament with a record blemished by defeat 13 times. Likewise for Wisconsin, another 13-loss team with a point-a-minute offense.
And don't forget Florida, which made it to Indianapolis after winning its first-round game over Butler by the splittest of seconds.
"I think these guys have really overachieved," Gators coach Billy Donovan said. "It's been fun for me to see these guys gel and mesh as a basketball team."
This Final Four doesn't have a glamorous team like Phi Slama Jama. Instead, it has Defensive Dick Bennett, the Wisconsin coach who turned back the clock to an era when a team didn't have to apologize for slowing things down.
"I have always thought that working for good shots and trying to play team defense and taking care of the ball was sort of the way you have to play," said Bennett, whose team have yet to crack 66 points in its four tournament victories. "If it means we're ugly, then so be it."
Ugly? That's the way North Carolina played most of the season, taking itself to the brink of missing the NCAA tournament altogether with an 18-13 record, including a first-game knockout in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. As it was, the Tar Heels ended up with a No. 8 seed, equaling their lowest ever.
"We were all sitting there on selection day watching TV to see where we would go," Jason Capel said. "When we saw our name go up there on the screen, we all knew it was a second chance for us."
Until this season, no team had reached the Final Four with more than 12 losses. Now, there are two.
Wisconsin (22-13) emerged from the West Regional as the No. 8 seed, knocking out favored Arizona in the second round and choking off LSU and Purdue with its boa constrictor defense. In any other year, that would be enough to make the adgers a sentimental favorite.
"We're always the underdogs wherever we play," forward Maurice Linton said. "Everybody thinks they can beat us, even those all-star team you play before the season. We just keep proving them wrong."
Then again, even the Badgers are a little amazed to be in Indy.
"I filled out about eight brackets," point guard Mike Kelley confided, "and I only had us going this far in three of them."
Florida (28-7) wouldn't have gotten this far if not for sophomore Mike Miller, who drove the lane against Butler and threw up a shot just before the buzzer for a 69-68 overtime victory.
"There's always one game you can point back to that maybe could have gone either way and you could be sitting at home right now," Donovan said. "I think that game and that experience made us better."
Seeded fifth in the East, Florida shocked top-seeded Duke in the regional semifinals with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores who didn't realize they weren't supposed to get this far.
"When you're young, you're going to make mistakes," Donovan said. "The big thing for us is we have a high-energy team. Guys play hard. They put it on the line. All you want from a coaching standpoint is guys to play with tremendous amounts of confidence and play fearless and not be afraid to make mistakes."
Looking a bit out of place amid all the underdogs is Michigan State (30-7), the Big Ten champion three years in a row and a Final Four participant last season. Since that loss to Duke in the national semifinals, the Spartans have been gunning for a second chance.
"From the day the first magazines came out, these kids have kind of had a target on their backs," coach Tom Izzo said. "It's really a credit to them the way they've handled it."
