FINAL FOUR SET: MARCH MADDNESS

MEMPHIS — Oklahoma had the best player. North Carolina had the best team. The anticipated matchup between the nation’s two dominant power forwards, the Oklahoma sophomore Blake Griffin and the North Carolina senior Tyler Hansbrough, quickly turned into one between Griffin and the Tar Heels’ breadth of talent. From the beginning, it was no contest. North Carolina, seeded No. 1 in the South Regional, overwhelmed second-seeded Oklahoma, 72-60, on Sunday to advance to the Final Four in Detroit. “That’s the way I recruit, that’s the way we try to run our program, that’s what we try to have in every team I’ve ever coached, is more than one guy as the star,” North Carolina Coach Roy Williams said. “You’ve got to have other guys, you’ve got to have good balance inside, scoring outside.” The Tar Heels got it on Sunday, and the Sooners did not. North Carolina will play Villanova on Saturday in one national semifinal. Connecticut and Michigan State will play in the other. It will be North Carolina’s second consecutive Final Four appearance, and 18th over all, the most of any program. The Tar Heels (32-4) last won the championship in 2005. With the FedEx Forum bathed in the dueling hues of Carolina blue and Oklahoma crimson, the Tar Heels received only 8 points and 6 rebounds from Hansbrough, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s career leading scorer and last season’s national player of the year. Hansbrough took only four shots. His teammates, instead, traded star turns, slashing and shooting the Tar Heels to a quick lead that they never lost. Guard Ty Lawson, unencumbered by a sore big toe on his right foot, led North Carolina with 19 points. Danny Green added 18 points, including 14 in the first half. They were among the five Tar Heels starters from last year’s Final Four team that returned, some eschewing the lure of the N.B.A., to take another try at the national championship. “It’s a challenge guarding those guys,” Oklahoma Coach Jeff Capel said. “They’ve got pros at just about every position.”Capel’s own future N.B.A. player, Griffin, tried to plow the Sooners into the Final Four.With teammates unable to consistently score points — Oklahoma missed its first 13 3-point shots and finished 2 of 19 — Griffin bulled through, around and over double teams for 23 points and 16 rebounds. But he could not keep pace with the superior roster of the Tar Heels. “We were doubling him as soon as he got the ball and made his supporting cast try to make plays,” Green said of Griffin, who is expected to be named this season’s player of the year and declare for the N.B.A. draft. CONTINUE READING..