Wildcats Could Hit Speed Limit vs. Heels

DETROIT, April 2 -- Villanova guard Reggie Redding recently watched tape of North Carolina's one-point victory over the Wildcats in the 2005 NCAA tournament and saw a Villanova team that struggled to keep pace with the Tar Heels because of a lack of depth. But Redding believes this season's team, which can excel in transition, is better equipped to go fast break for fast break against North Carolina.

"We're not going to slow the ball down," Redding said.

Redding's teammates don't necessarily agree with him, and perhaps for good reason. These Tar Heels are even more potent offensively than the 2005 team that won the national title, and trying to run with them can be perilous.

Ask Gonzaga, which felt it had the playmakers to beat North Carolina at its own game in the South Region semifinals. The Tar Heels scored more points (98) against Gonzaga than any team had all season. They racked up 23 assists against just nine turnovers and made 11 of 19 three-point attempts.

After North Carolina's 98-77 victory, Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said if every round-of-16 team played "at the top of our game, North Carolina wins the national championship. I just feel like, when they are playing at their highest end, they are better than the rest of us."

Every time a team attempts to push tempo against North Carolina, Tar Heels forward Deon Thompson said his eyes light up because that is the way his team is conditioned to play. If there was one team that did a particularly good job at slowing North Carolina, Thompson said it was Boston College, which beat the Tar Heels, 85-78, on Jan. 4. But the Tar Heels have not been held to less than 69 points all season, and they have reached 100 nine times.

Throughout North Carolina's storied basketball history, only the 1986-87 team has averaged more than this team's 90 points per game. And no North Carolina team has won by a greater scoring margin.

Some Villanova players answered questions about tempo carefully, saying that they are capable of playing at a variety of speeds and that they will have to pick their spots to run.

"They are great in transition," Villanova's Dante Cunningham said of North Carolina. "You have to limit turnovers and bad shots. You can't allow them to get into the open court."

Maryland amassed 88 points in its overtime victory over North Carolina on Feb. 21, but the Tar Heels frittered away a nine-point lead with less than two minutes remaining in regulation and did not get the ball to Tyler Hansbrough in the latter stages of the game.

Taking Hansbrough, the team's leading scorer at 20.9 points per game, out of the offense is no longer necessarily a recipe for victory against North Carolina because the Tar Heels have several likely future NBA players capable of scoring in bunches.

In the South Region final, North Carolina beat Oklahoma by 12 points even though Hansbrough and Wayne Ellington were not significant offensive factors. Ellington scored nine points on 3-for-9 shooting, and Hansbrough made only 2 of 4 field goal attempts and finished with eight points. It marked just the second time in three seasons that Ellington and Hansbrough failed to score in double figures in the same game.