Tar Heels

COLLEGE PARK -- It began with attackman Steve Speers TC beating a Johns Hopkins long-stick midfielder. By the time the third quarter ended with the Blue Jays' Brian Piccola banging a shot off the pipe, the North Carolina run had taken the Tar Heels into the NCAA final.The Tar Heels dominated the faceoffs, ground balls and possession in a nearly perfect period of lacrosse yesterday that carried them to a 16-10 semifinal victory over Hopkins before a record crowd of 21,529 at Byrd Stadium.The third-quarter masterpiece came after a subpar first half, a surprise considering the Tar Heels had a year to think about the slow start that doomed them against Princeton in the 1992 semifinals.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- When it was over, Harold Deane did everything but tell the minicams he was going to Disneyland, but things weren't so giddy for Virginia and its sophomore point guard after 25 minutes of their encounter with North Carolina yesterday.The Cavaliers were intimidated by Rasheed Wallace, and two minutes into the second half, they had made an embarrassing 27.5 percent of their shots. Deane wasn't the culprit, but after he drove the lane to get Virginia within five and went to tell the Tar Heels' Jeff McInnis about it, he was yanked aside and lectured by coach Jeff Jones in front of 8,357 fans at University Hall and a regional television audience.

SEATTLE -- Forget North Carolina's superb starting five, which has taken Dean Smith to his 10th Final Four.Disregard Arkansas and Nolan Richardson's shepherding of the Razorbacks within two wins of a second straight NCAA title.In this Final Four matchup, the most talked-about team is the officiating crew.The defending champion Razorbacks and the Tar Heels, who eliminated Arkansas en route to the 1993 title, will meet in the second semifinal at the Kingdome tonight, and there has been no lack of words about the officiating, since both used strong defensive work to get through the regional finals.

The window of opportunity is closing fast. Beat up on North Carolina? Not in this time warp.All the speculation that the Tar Heels would take their lumps this season is proving to be nothing more than wishful thinking. They're 6-1 going into tomorrow night's game against Dartmouth, and it has not been against a patsy schedule filled with, well, Dartmouths.They have wins over Vanderbilt and Stanford and Georgia. Their only loss was a two-pointer to Villanova.Carolina lost Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace to the NBA, and just like that found itself picked fourth in the preseason Atlantic Coast Conference media poll.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- To take its historic 1,500th victory, No. 6 North Carolina (21-4, 9-3) relied on a time-tested defense and some timely shots from Hubert Davis.Davis scored 13 points, including North Carolina's first nine of the second half, as the Tar Heels beat Clemson (10-14, 1-10), 73-57, in the Atlantic Coast Conference yesterday to become the first team in National Collegiate Athletic Association history to post 1,500 wins. Kentucky had 1,499 all-time victories with yesterday's win over Florida.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The National Collegiate Athletic Association doesn't award a championship trophy for the "Syracuse Subregional Championship," so named by North Carolina coach Dean Smith.But the Tar Heels' surprisingly one-sided, 84-69 basketball victory over Villanova yesterday in the NCAA East Regional at the Carrier Dome brought with it another shot of confidence to an already driven team, and an invitation to next weekend's shindig in East Rutherford, N.J.By playing their way into a record 11th straight Sweet 16 appearance, the Tar Heels passed several mini-tests.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The lights went out at the Charlotte Coliseum early in the second half of yesterday's opening Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinal between top-ranked, top-seeded North Carolina and fifth-seeded Virginia.When they came back on nearly an half and hour later, it was the Cavaliers who went out. Out of sync. Out of contention. And, finally, out of the tournament, the result of a 74-56 victory for the Tar Heels.Leading by only four points, 43-39, with 16:36 remaining when the building went dark, North Carolina (28-3)

COLLEGE PARK -- North Carolina coach Dean Smith has tried a number of things to get his Tar Heels out of their slump. He praised their defense against Virginia and their offense against Florida State.Yesterday, with his team down 22 points to Maryland at halftime, Smith tried a new approach. He scorched them with a rare locker-room tirade, and then stormed back out onto the floor at Cole Field House. By himself."I stomped out like a little kid, which I'm not," said Smith, college basketball's winningest active coach with 735.North Carolina stormed back, too. The 10th-ranked Tar Heels scored the first six points of the second half.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- This was a clinic.See North Carolina run. See the Tar Heels' ferocious ride. See North Carolina control faceoffs. See the Tar Heels shoot running jumpers, dominate ground balls and take Johns Hopkins out of its offense.No. 1 North Carolina continued its run toward greatness yesterday as the Tar Heels defeated No. 3 Johns Hopkins, 14-9, at Fetzer Field before a crowd of 4,300.The Blue Jays (4-2) stayed within five or six goals most of the game, helped by a 17-minute span when they scored three goals on North Carolina backup goalie Gary Lehrman, who replaced starter Billy Daye.

I did two brackets this year, a departure from my usual purist one-bracket rule. I filled out a "Ty Lawson" sheet and a "non-Ty Lawson" sheet. On the latter - in which the North Carolina point guard and Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year was unable to take the court because of his injured toe - the Tar Heels went out in the Sweet 16, to Gonzaga. The sheet in which Lawson played all the important games (excluding, of course, the first-round warm-up against Radford) had North Carolina on the last line.