How to beat North Carolina
By Mike Montgomery
Special to ESPN.com
Editor's note: Throughout the Final Four, Stanford coach Mike Montgomery will be acting as a special guest analyst for ESPN.com.
North Carolina played very well earlier in the season, especially at the Maui Classic. They looked really good there, living up to the preseason rankings. When the Tar Heels are on, it's because they control the tempo on offense and defense.
|  | | Brendan Haywood is a huge force inside for North Carolina. |
That starts with their big men -- and Brendan Haywood (7-foot, 270 pounds) and Kris Lang (6-11, 250) are very large. It's hard to get consistent scoring inside because of them. With that safety net, UNC's other defenders will run at you on the perimeter and force you to put it on the floor.
The other way Carolina controls the pace is with Ed Cota, who always seems to have the ball in his hands. Even though the shot clock might be winding down, he never looks like he's in a hurry. That goes for the rest of the team as well. If you can force someone else to handle the ball, that's the first step in stopping North Carolina.
The wildcard is freshman Joseph Forte. He's an inside-outside threat who can put it on the floor. You might not be aware of it while it's happening, but all of a sudden he can put up big numbers. Everybody else you know where they want the ball to get their shots. With Forte, he can score from anywhere. He can put it on the deck or shoot it deep, and everything in between.
Because the offense can be predictable at times, to beat them you need to be in charge of who shoots, where they shoot from and when they shoot. They rarely panic on offense -- at times it looks like you might be shutting them down, but they still end up with what they want.
Florida's full-court defensive mentality will be a good start against Cota. There's no way he'll be able to bring the ball up the floor every time. He'll have to give it up to somebody else -- Forte or Jason Capel -- and then Florida will try to keep him from getting the ball back early in the offense.
Carolina won't try to beat you up the floor against the press. Instead, the Tar Heels will show patience against the press. You want to force them to the basket and make shoot earlier than they'd like.
On defense, they'll try to force you to do what they want you do to. Carolina doesn't have great depth, so you can get them tired by making them work on both ends of the floor.
It's not like there are any surprises with what they run. When we lost to North Carolina (60-53 in the second round), the biggest surprise was Julius Peppers. He didn't have much of a reputation because he's a football player (and a good one at that) who came over midseason to the basketball team. When he sets a screen, it's like a double screen (Peppers is 6-7, 270 pounds). He also came in to hit a couple of big buckets against us.
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