University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC, Florida Coaches Share Little
April 1, 2000 | Men's Basketball
April 1, 2000
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By Jim O'connell
AP Basketball Writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- Florida coach Billy Donovan is 34 and played in the Final Four 13 years ago as a senior at Providence.
North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge is 64 and he'll tell you why he didn't play in the Final Four 42 years ago as a sophomore at Kansas State.
"That was Tex Winter's fault for not putting me in. We might have won that game," Guthridge said. "But I wasn't very good, and obviously, he made the right decision."
The two will face each other tonight in the second game of the national semifinals with the winner advancing to Monday night's championship game against Michigan State or Wisconsin.
Donovan, the sixth man to coach and play in a Final Four, and Guthridge, a minute of playing time away from being the seventh, don't have a whole lot in common.
Florida (28-7) uses full-court pressure and a 10-man rotation to wear down opponents, as it did in beating fourth-seeded Illinois, top-ranked Duke and third-seeded Oklahoma State in reaching the Final Four for the second time.
North Carolina (22-13) turned around an inconsistent season with its first four-game winning streak, reaching the Final Four for the 15th time in school history, tying UCLA for the record.
The eighth-seeded Tar Heels have a seven-man rotation, and to handle Florida's pressure they will rely heavily on senior point guard Ed Cota, in his third Final Four.
"It's definitely two different styles of play, two different systems," Florida's Kenyan Weaks said. "I think whoever executes that system better is going to win the game. Hopefully, that will be us."
While the younger Tar Heels can turn to Cota for advice on playing in the Final Four, the Gators will turn to Donovan.
"I think the one thing I realize after going through as a player is that I can relate a little bit to the emotions they're going through," Donovan said. "This is the first time any of our kids have had the privilege to be part of something so special, the pinnacle of college basketball."
Guthridge was an assistant at Kansas State for his second Final Four and was next to Dean Smith at North Carolina for 10 more. This is his second as head coach of the Tar Heels.
"To be here in the Final Four, it's a real thrill," Guthridge said. "It doesn't get old, that's for sure."
ut North Carolina hasn't seen anything like Florida's press. And with a seven-man rotation, the Tar Heels can't be too thrilled about facing it.
"The starters, we're used to playing 38 minutes and better," said Cota, who has played 159 of a possible 160 minutes in the tournament. "Florida has a lot guys they're going to throw at us. We need to go out there and try to control tempo."
The fifth-seeded Gators have been a new team since defeating Butler in overtime in the first round on Mike Miller's buzzer-beater. Since then, top-ranked Duke has come the closest (87-78) to beating them.
Miller said the Butler game taught the team that "it's going to take all 10 of us to win."
"It also taught us that anyone can win, it doesn't matter what it says on the front of your jersey," said Miller, the MVP of the East Regional.
Few names have as impressive an NCAA tournament history as North Carolina, in its third Final Four in four years. But the latest trip was the least likely of all.
"All year long we had an up-and-down season," said Cota, only the third player in NCAA history to have more than 1,000 assists. "We can't blame anybody for writing us off or our fans for criticizing us and stuff like that because we deserved it. But we handled it well. The coaches had the patience with us, and we just believed. That's why we're here now."
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