Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403120163
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Florida State, which nearly upset the Tar Heels in a late February meeting, wasn't nearly as threatening Friday night in the ACC tournament.
Fourth-ranked Carolina shrugged off an early seven-point deficit and rewarded basketball coach Dean Smith with his 799th career victory, 83-69, at the Charlotte Coliseum.
"We had a couple of different options," said Smith, whose Tar Heels held off the Seminoles 78-75 two weeks ago in Chapel Hill, "[but] we just decided to go out and play our normal game."
That meant that 6-foot-11 freshman Rasheed Wallace opened the game 35 feet from the basket, guarding Florida State guard James Collins, but Carolina has a height advantage in virtually every game it plays.
Florida State, which never had more than one player over 6-5 on the floor, somehow grabbed 23 offensive rebounds. Nevertheless, Carolina had an overall rebounding margin of 52-40, led by Wallace, who had 16 rebounds to go with 17 points.
Freshman Jerry Stackhouse hit 11 of 13 free throws to finish with a team-high 19 points as the Tar Heels (25-4) became the 20th Smith team to win 25 games or more.
"I'm thrilled with where we are," said Smith, whose reigning NCAA champions finished second to Duke in the ACC regular season. "What are we up to, 24 [or] 25 wins? I'll take those seasons any time."
Florida State coach Pat Kennedy couldn't say the same thing for the Seminoles' 13-14 finish - only his second losing season in 14 years as a Division I head coach.
"You can't allow guys to play 30 to 34 minutes without scoring a point," said Kennedy, explaining his decision to bench 6-6 sophomore Maurice Robinson after he had started 22 of the first 23 games.
"That [smaller lineup] was just something we had to do to try and salvage the season," he said. "I felt, given the way we had played against Carolina in the past, that the smaller lineup was most effective."
The Seminoles led 19-12 with less than 10 minutes remaining in the first half and trailed only 31-26 despite shooting 25 percent in the first half. Florida State shot 28 percent for the game.
"We felt that making shots was the key to pulling this kind of upset," Kennedy said. "The Villanova-Georgetown game [in which Villanova won the 1985 NCAA championship] was what we talked about to the team, but in order to do that we needed to shoot 60 percent."
by CNB