Keeping foes on their Heels

Everyone at the Alamodome this weekend knows North Carolina gleefully will unleash a frenetic offense on unfamiliar opposition at the Final Four.

The question remains whether anyone can slow down the Tar Heels.

It isn’t a question of athleticism. Kansas, North Carolina’s semifinal opponent, ranks 12th nationally with 80.6 points a game. Memphis, one of the teams in the first semifinal, is 14th in the country at 80.3 points.

But the Tar Heels average a blistering 89.2 points, second in Division I behind VMI. More opponents have surrendered 100 points to North Carolina (eight) than have held them to less than 80 (seven).

They are the most offensively potent Final Four team since Roy Williams-led Kansas averaged 90.9 points in 2001-02. And this Carolina group — also coached by Williams — is near-impossible to cope with on short notice.

“I think people hear about how fast we are, but until you’re out there on that floor and you feel it, you really don’t know what it’s like,” guard Wayne Ellington said.

That is the task facing Kansas (35-3) on Saturday. The Jayhawks, typically an up-tempo team throughout the season, were not permitted to light up the scoreboard over the weekend at the Midwest regional. They easily handled Villanova on Friday but were held in check in a 59-57 squeaker over Davidson on Sunday.

Nonetheless, coach Bill Self said yesterday the Jayhawks would remain true to themselves in the Final Four.

And that might be exactly what North Carolina (36-2) would like to see.

“Usually, [opponents] like to run, and we feel like that’s a mistake if you’re going to run with us because we’re deep enough and we feel like we’re fast enough and strong enough to outrun you,” forward Danny Green said.

It is a trait that will command Self’s full attention. There is little question the Tar Heels’ halfcourt offense flows through national player of the year candidate Tyler Hansbrough in the low post, and it is unlikely anyone will uncover a way to slow down the dogged junior.

Yet as frustrating as it might be to watch Hansbrough produce a double-double no matter what is thrown at him, the true danger of the Tar Heels lies in their ability to create uncontested situations on the break.

“Rather than focusing on one guy, we have to focus on how to slow down their team,” Self said. “They’re so good in transition that they can go get easy points. They don’t have to go against your defense, and we have to make them go against our defense. Our focus will be how do we not let them be who they want to be, and to do that you have to contain all five spots.”

It would be unwise simply to believe the Tar Heels can be nullified in a grind-it-out game. Washington State successfully dictated the tempo of Thursday’s regional semifinal but still endured a 68-47 rout.

It also will take a certain willingness to engage in a back-and-forth with North Carolina. The Tar Heels have lost nine games in the last two years, and each time they allowed at least 80 points. The last time Carolina lost a game that didn’t reach the 80s was a 65-60 loss to George Mason in the 2006 NCAA tournament.

That was a rare moment when a team unaccustomed to the Tar Heels’ up-and-down style actually managed to slow them down. The only opponents to upend North Carolina this season — Duke and Maryland — are used to what the Tar Heels unleash.

Senior guard Quentin Thomas insisted at this stage of the season the remaining teams are so good they would not be surprised or overwhelmed by anything they face. And given the three other No. 1 seeds on their way to San Antonio later this week, he’s probably right.

But there just might be something to the idea unfamiliarity will help North Carolina.

“The one thing I might say is that everybody knows North Carolina is a team that likes to run and goes up and down,” Thomas said. “For a team that doesn’t play us regularly, probably when they get out there and see us running up the court, [they think], ’This is serious. This isn’t just all about word of mouth.’ ”