The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Regular-season champ Miami can prove a point in title game,
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The ACC tournament has produced a final between a regular-season champion that slid into the tournament and a North Carolina team that was floundering (relatively speaking) and isn’t even ranked.
No. 1-seed Miami and No. 3-seed North Carolina won’t lack for motivation today. In different ways, they showed impressive form in knocking out N.C. State and Maryland, respectively, in the semifinals Saturday at the Greensboro Coliseum.
“It’d be awesome to see the season come full circle like that going into the NCAA tournament,” said North Carolina guard Marcus Paige, whose team failed to win or tie for the regular-season title for only the third time in the past nine seasons. Miami, which swept North Carolina in the regular season, but lost three of its last five before the tournament, is in the ACC finals for the first time.
“It would mean everything,” Miami forward Kenny Kadji said of a championship. “It’s always great to make history and be remembered as a champion anywhere you go.”
The Hurricanes would be the first team that joined the ACC in the 2004-05 expansion to win the league’s coveted trophy. The Hurricanes also could win back-to-back titles for the league’s two Florida schools, following Florida State’s championship last year in Atlanta. It would be no small feat for a team that hasn’t been to the NCAA tourna- ment since 2008 and was picked to finish fifth in the conference.
“I think we’ll forever be underdogs, whatever we do,” Kadji said.
A Miami victory also would provide only the second instance in the tournament’s 60-year history that schools outside North Carolina have won it in consecutive years. The only occurrence to date: Maryland and Georgia Tech in 1984 and 1985. The most valuable player from the ’85 tournament, Tech great Mark Price, watched the proceedings Saturday with his son, Josh, having been honored that day as an ACC legend.
Such a repeat would be a fitting result, given the addition next year of Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse and the continued talk that the league should move the tournament out of its traditional Greensboro home.
Miami earned its berth by holding off an N.C. State team that had played one of its best games of the season Friday afternoon in its quarterfinal win over Virginia. The final score was 81-71.
Hurricanes guard Durand Scott was a marvel, lighting up the Wolfpack for a career-high 32 points on 12-for-18 shooting, including 5-for-8 from 3point range.
Scott and running mate Shane Larkin scored 55 of Miami’s 81 points, coming through in particular when the Wolfpack mounted a charge that reduced a 15-point deficit with 17:58 remaining to 48-41 with 12:42 to go. Larkin and Scott scored 12 of the Hurricanes’ next 13 points, Larkin probing for shots on the dribble and Scott dropping in 3pointers. The two-man offensive restored the margin to 13 points, and the Wolfpack didn’t get the lead down to single digits again until it was too late.
“I thought Durand Scott was unbelievable (Saturday),” N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said. “He played well, he and Shane Larkin together, and Miami played like a No. 1 seed.”
Further, Scott, the league’s defensive player of the year, was tasked with staying in front of N.C. State gunner Scott Wood, who had punished Virginia for its relative inattention with 23 points.
“Probably the greatest emphasis (Saturday) was to be sure we didn’t let Scott Wood go off for another seven 3’s,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “We held him to six.”
Before the game, Larranaga proposed to his players that they needed an opponent such as N.C. State to challenge their defensive mettle.
It is a testament to N.C. State’s firepower that the Wolfpack shot 50 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from 3-point range, and yet the defensive-minded Hurricanes considered it a success.
Larranaga “wanted us to play our best defense, and I think we did,” said Kadji before reassessing. “We came close to it.”
A day after stunning tournament-favorite Duke in the quarterfinals, Maryland succumbed to North Carolina 79-76. The Tar Heels, who took the floor less than 16 hours after defeating the Seminoles 83-62, pushed their lead to 13 points midway through the second half. They withstood a Terrapins’ push that gave them two possessions inside the final three minutes to tie the score on a 3-pointer.
On the first, forward Reggie Bullock forced a turnover that led to free throws for forward James Michael McAdoo. The second arrived on Maryland’s final possession. Off an inbounds pass with 10.9 seconds remaining, guard Logan Aronhalt’s deep attempt was errant, and the Tar Heels ran out the clock.
“They played harder at times, smarter at times, had a better coach on the court at times, but we made some nice plays, made some free throws and did some things in the end that let us win,” UNC coach Roy Williams said.