ESPN Men's Basketball

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A quick look at UNC-Creighton:

Overview: North Carolina’s John Henson returned. Teammate Kendall Marshall kept going.

With the 6-foot-11 forward back in the starting lineup after missing three games with a sprained left wrist, and the not-so-one-dimensional point guard turning in his sixth straight double-digit scoring game, the top-seeded Tar Heels toppled No. 8 seed Creighton 87-73 to advance to their 31^st NCAA tournament regional semifinal.

The Tar Heels led by as many as 19 in the second half, but when the Bluejays pulled to within 11 with about five minutes left, UNC's Harrison Barnes buried back-to-back 3-pointers to seal his team's trip to St. Louis.

Creighton's Doug McDermott, Barnes' former high school teammate, finished with 20 points, but the Tar Heels just had too many weapons.

Marshall (18 points, 11 assists) and Henson (13 points, 10 rebounds) finished with double-doubles. Barnes finished with 17 points. Reggie Bullock added 13 points.

Turning point: The score was tied 11-11 in the first half when Henson got the ball and Creighton’s Grant Gibbs slapped down on it, hitting Henson’s wrapped wrist in the process. Henson exchanged words with the guard, earning a technical.

His teammates responded to his anger. After the Bluejays made one of the two technical free throws, UNC pushed on a 28-12 run to take its largest lead of the half (39-24). Marshall scored nine in a row for the Tar Heels at one point during the breakaway, and the baby-blue clad spectators were as loud as any of those at the Smith Center this season.

Key player: Henson, who did all the aforementioned things wearing tape and a molded splint on his left wrist.

Key stat: The Tar Heels recorded only seven blocks in their three games without Henson. Sunday, they had nine.

Miscellaneous: One of the biggest cheers of the game came with about a minute left in the first half at Greensboro Coliseum, when UNC fans applauded Lehigh (which upset rival Duke on Friday) as it entered the building.

What’s next: Top-seeded UNC will play No. 13 seed Ohio on Friday in St. Louis in the Midwest Region semifinals.

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina forward John Henson, who has missed three straight games because of a sprained left wrist, will play Sunday against eighth-seeded Creighton in the NCAA tournament, a team spokesman said.

It won't be determined whether the ACC Defensive Player of the Year will start until the junior goes through warm-ups.

Click here for the rest of the story.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Previewing the round of 32 games at Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday:

No. 1 seed North Carolina (30-5) vs. No. 8 seed Creighton (29-5), 5:15 p.m. ET

Greg McDermott knows he made mistakes as Iowa State’s coach.

After leading Northern Iowa to three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances from 2004 to 2006, McDermott seemed like the perfect fit to become the Cyclones’ coach. A native of Cascade, Iowa, McDermott was successful in his first three coaching stops at Division II Wayne State in Nebraska, North Dakota State and then Northern Iowa.

After spending a dozen seasons coaching at college basketball’s lower levels, McDermott seemed ready for the sport’s big time.

Instead, McDermott endured four consecutive losing seasons at Iowa State, compiling a 59-68 record and never finishing better than 6-10 in the Big 12. McDermott resigned as the Cyclones’ coach after the 2009-10 season, when Creighton mercifully threw him a lifeboat to save his sinking career.

“I made some mistakes,” McDermott said. “I made some mistakes in recruiting. I made some mistakes with my dealings with some of our players that resulted in some guys transferring. And I think if you understand yourself and you take a look in the mirror, you better grow from that and learn from that.”

McDermott has resurrected his career with the Bluejays, who will play No. 1 seed North Carolina in a Midwest Regional third-round game at Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday.

“I think that the Missouri Valley is just a really good fit for him,” said Creighton forward Doug McDermott, the coach’s son. “[It’s] a mid-major conference, a really good league, and I just think the Big 12 might have been a little bit of a wake-up call. I think he’s more comfortable in the Missouri Valley Conference recruiting wise and he just feels in his comfort zone, so he’s really happy to be here.”

Ironically, McDermott’s move to Creighton prevented him from making perhaps the biggest recruiting mistake of his career -- not recruiting his son. Doug McDermott signed to play for Northern Iowa during his senior season at Ames (Iowa) High School in 2010. Greg McDermott didn’t think his son was good enough to play at Iowa State, and frankly, didn’t think his program was good enough for him, either.

“The culture that I had created with the program at Iowa State wasn’t where I wanted it to be,” Greg McDermott said. “I was constantly plugging holes because of guys transferring. And when you do that, it becomes a vicious cycle of things probably not going very well. And Doug was around it every day and I’m not sure that he was that excited to be part of it.”

Under McDermott’s watch, the Cyclones began to fall apart after leading scorer Mike Taylor, a junior college transfer, was dismissed from the team for off-court problems in 2007. The next year, forward Wesley Johnson transferred to Syracuse after two seasons at Iowa State. Johnson injured his foot in 2007-08 and didn’t learn it was actually broken until after the season. He was named Big East Player of the Year in his only season with the Orange and was the fourth pick in the 2010 NBA draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

With so much uncertainty at Iowa State, Doug McDermott thought playing for his father’s former school was a better option.

“To be honest, I didn’t really want to play for him there, either,” McDermott said. “I felt like I was a Missouri Valley Conference fit. I felt like it was a good fit for me at Northern Iowa and at the time we just decided to go separate ways.”

But when Greg McDermott signed a 10-year contract with Creighton, the Panthers agreed to release Doug to play for his father. Greg McDermott said he consulted several colleagues who coached their sons -- like former Indiana coach Bob Knight, Minnesota coach Tubby Smith, former Washington State coach Dick Bennett and Michigan coach John Beilein -- about having Doug on his team.

“Almost to a man they felt if your son was going to be one of your best players, it would work fine,” Greg McDermott said. “Or if your son was a walk-on that never played, it would work fine. But if he is in the middle, if he’s your fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth guy, it creates a lot of additional pressure for your son and for you as his coach.”

That hasn’t been a problem at Creighton, where Doug McDermott has easily been the Bluejays’ best player over the past two seasons. This season, he was the country’s third-leading scorer with 23.2 points per game and was the first sophomore in history to be named MVC Player of the Year. McDermott scored 16 points with 10 rebounds in the No. 8-seeded Bluejays’ 58-57 victory over No. 9 seed Alabama in Friday’s second round.

“I don’t think anybody saw this coming,” Greg McDermott said of his son’s rapid development.

But North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who recruited Harrison Barnes, McDermott’s highly coveted teammate at Ames High School, said he told Greg McDermott his son was good enough to play at a program like Iowa State or anywhere else.

“Greg and I were standing outside the locker room when Ames won the state championship their senior year,” Williams said. “I said, ‘You’re crazy.’ I said, ‘If he’s my son, he’s going to play for me. He’s good enough to play for you.’ And that’s when Greg was at Iowa State, and he had already signed that fall with Northern Iowa. And Greg said, ‘Well, you know, I wish he were a little taller and a little stronger, and I don’t really want to put that kind of pressure on him,’ which I can appreciate that. But I said, ‘I still think you’re crazy because he would have been able to be a very successful player at Iowa State or North Carolina or anywhere.’”

On Sunday, McDermott will try to prove he and the rest of the Bluejays are good enough to topple the mighty Tar Heels.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall said Saturday afternoon that watching the NCAA tournament games so far has been “a little scary … because after the first day there weren’t that many upsets, and it’s like, ‘Wow, I don’t want to be that one.’”

Friday’s matchups, which saw two No. 2 seeds fall, underscored that point.

“To see a couple of the higher seeds go down, you realize it’s still a game of basketball and there’s still five players on the court, and seeding doesn’t matter when you’re out there,’’ Marshall said. “So you hope it doesn’t happen to you. You want to prepare and put your best foot forward no matter who you’re playing against.”

Including No. 8 seed Creighton, which the top-seeded Tar Heels face Sunday in the NCAA Round of 32.

“The biggest thing I saw was just energy and intensity,’’ forward Harrison Barnes said. “All those quote-unquote 15 seeds that were so much less talented came out with just so much more energy than those two seeds, and that ended up winning them the game. So just our focus is to always come out to at least match or exceed the other team's energy.”

KNOW YOUR VIOLATIONS: Lane violation calls have impacted two games in the tournament: Syracuse vs. UNC-Asheville on Thursday and Xavier vs. Notre Dame on Friday.

UNC coach Roy Williams said he didn’t feel the need to discuss the rule with his team again, because he already has.

“I had both of them [the violations in the games] described to me; if they were described properly they made the right call,’’ Williams said. “…There is a difference where you line up. If you line up on the lane, you cannot leave until the ball leaves the shooter's hand. If you're lined up anywhere else, you can't leave until the ball hits the rim.

“… If it's in the rulebook, it should be called. If it's not in the rulebook, it should not be called."

FINGER WATCH?: UNC forward Tyler Zeller sprained a finger on his left hand in the ACC tournament and had it taped against Vermont on Friday after he re-aggravated the injury.

He’ll be fine, which is probably why, so far, there doesn’t seem to be a Twitter account watching his recovery, a la @hensonswrist (which John Henson, who has missed three games with a sprained left wrist, said he actually follows). Or like @lawsonstoe, which hasn’t been updated since 2009, when then-point guard Ty Lawson’s toe injury made headlines every day.

But who knows?

“I don’t think I complain enough for it to get the media attention,’’ Zeller, who doesn’t even have a Twitter account, said, laughing. “So I don’t think I’ll get one.”

SUPERSTITIONS: Williams is known to be superstitious. Barnes and Marshall, who were answering questions at the official tournament podium on Saturday, were asked to name three of their favorites.

One: “Usually if he loses a game, he throws away the tie, potentially the suit,’’ Barnes said.

Two: “We always eat before we watch film,’’ he added.

Marshall chimed in with the third: “One of my favorites is before he comes in the locker room before games, there's always a blue marker and a black marker. Blue is on right; black's on the left. Sometimes we'll switch it just to mess with him, but he always goes and finds the right marker.”

LICENSE TO BUM RIDES: There was lots of talk Saturday about how Creighton's Doug McDermott used to give plenty of rides to Barnes when they were teammates in high school. The sophomore got his driver's license over the summer, and takes turns driving his Tar Heels teammates around.

"I still bum rides, though,'' he said, smiling.

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- It wasn’t too long ago that Harrison Barnes was riding shotgun around Iowa in Doug McDermott’s white Nissan Murano -- doing errands when they weren’t helping Ames High to consecutive state championships, taking breaks during March Madness to watch games together.

But neither could have foreseen, after graduating in 2010, that they would be matched up in the NCAA tournament Sunday for the chance to advance to the Sweet 16.

“It’s weird; it’s still weird; I think it will be weird at gametime,’’ said McDermott, whose eighth-seeded Creighton Bluejays will try to upset Barnes’ top-seeded North Carolina squad at approximately 5:15 p.m. EST at Greensboro Coliseum. “But I think once we step on the floor, it’ll be just another game.”

The pairing has been anticipated since the NCAA field was announced, and both friends have taken distinctly different routes to this showdown.

Barnes, now a 6-foot-8 wing, was a four-year starter at Ames who broke the state’s career scoring record.

McDermott, now a 6-7 forward, was a later bloomer, spending two years on the junior varsity, then coming off the bench his junior season before joining Barnes in the opening lineup as a senior.

It was watching Barnes’ work ethic -- his willingness to practice on off-days, to hit the gym before anyone else, to focus on his goals -- McDermott said, that drove him to improve.

“Harrison's responsible for a lot of Doug's development,” Greg McDermott, Doug’s father and Creighton’s coach, said. “... When other high school-aged students were going to movies and going to football games and going to the prom, Harrison was working out.

“And I really believe that Doug saw in Harrison a guy that he wanted to emulate and saw the improvement and said, ‘You know what? I think that I now know what it takes.’ He could listen to his dad and his high school coach, but when you see it in Harrison, the improvement he made each year of high school because of his work ethic, it was certainly impactful for Doug.”

Another thing that inspired him, Doug McDermott said, was having the best college coaches in the country -- including UNC’s Roy Williams and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski -- watching Barnes (and therefore, the rest of the team) at Ames’ games.

Greg McDermott said that Williams saw his son play almost as much as he did his junior and senior seasons, "and that made a lot of us better because it brought so much more attention ... and it made us all want to be better players, a better team," Doug McDermott said.

Barnes, considered the top recruit in the country by many, ended up choosing Williams and the Tar Heels, where he earned ACC Rookie of the Year Honors last season. He is a member of the All-ACC first-team this year, and will almost certainly be an NBA lottery pick if he goes pro this summer.

McDermott originally signed with Northern Iowa before being released to play for his father at Creighton. This season, he became the first first-team All-American in the school’s history-- an honor Barnes has not yet earned, but for which he has congratulated his friend.

“His growth has been tremendous,’’ said Barnes, who leads UNC with 17.3 ppg. “Just having the ability to go to Creighton, go to a system where he’s able to grow and develop. And now everyone’s starting to see that, see his efficiency magnified, and see him get the shots he needs and in the right location he needs them in, and it’s been great. And as a former teammate, it’s been fun to watch.”

Although it might not be so fun if McDermott, who is averaging 23 point per game, continues that pattern Sunday.

It’s unclear how often (or if) the teammates-turned-foes will match up head-to-head. Although McDermott is productive both in the lane and behind the arc (he shoots 60.8 percent overall, and 49.5 percent on 3s), he starts with three shorter guards. That means he’ll likely draw 6-9 freshman forward James Michael McAdoo (or 6-11 John Henson, if he returns from a sprained left wrist), at least at the beginning of the game.

No matter the one-on-one match-ups, McDermott said he looks forward to having the teams match up. And to putting all those memories of high school car rides, practices and NCAA-watching aside -- as least for a few hours.

“We're both competitive dudes, so I think it should be a really fun game,’’ McDermott said.

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The good news: North Carolina forward John Henson said Saturday his sprained left wrist "is feeling better."

The not-so-good news: No one knows yet if it's feeling better enough for the junior to play against eighth-seeded Creighton on Sunday in the NCAA Round of 32.

Tar Heels coach Roy Williams, whose team holds the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region, said Saturday afternoon he had no update on Henson, who suffered the injury on March 9 in the ACC tournament quarterfinals. UNC was scheduled to practice after the news conference, but a team spokesman said there would be no update afterward.

"He did continue getting rehab last night but when you're sitting there eating, there's not a lot of things that you do when you're eating your meal that resembles what you're asked to do with a basketball," Williams said.

Click here for the rest of the story.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina, the top seed in the Midwest Region, will face No. 8 seed Creighton at 5:15 p.m. on Sunday in the NCAA Round of 32. That game, at Greensboro Coliseum, will be followed by Xavier-Lehigh, the No. 10 and No. 15 seeds in the South Region.

Around the ACC, NC State will tip off against Georgetown at 12:15 p.m. on Sunday in Columbus, Ohio.

Florida State faces Cincinnati in Nashville at approximately 9:40 p.m., also on Sunday.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- It sounds as if it was a close call for North Carolina coach Roy Williams, deciding not to play forward John Henson during Friday's 77-58 NCAA tournament win over Vermont because of a sprained wrist.

And it sounds like it could be a close call again on Sunday, when the top-seeded Tar Heels play Creighton in the NCAA Round of 32.

“It has gotten a little bit better each and every day, but it hasn't gotten better at the same rate as it was earlier in the week,’’ Williams said of Henson’s wrist, which the junior sprained last Friday in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.

“I would think that if you had asked me yesterday, I would have said it's a little less than 50-50 that he was going to play today. And now, if it continues, I would say it's a little better than 50-50 that he would play Sunday. But if he still feels the same way, I won't play him.”

The Tar Heels, who sometimes don’t go through a morning shootarounds before they play an afternoon game, opted to have one at a nearby college because Williams wanted to see what Henson could do.

The player couldn't do quite enough.

“He can catch the ball now, he can palm the ball now,’’ Williams said. “Got him into the post and said, ‘All right, let me see you make ball fake drop step where you have to take a two hand power dribble and then lay it up,’ and he was able to do it and catch it. But it didn't look like he was very comfortable with it.

“So he went to the other side and did the same thing. And I went to him and I said, ‘John, it just doesn't look like you're comfortable.’ And he says, ‘Coach, not really, but I'm right there.’ And I just made the decision at that time that I wasn't going to play him.

"And I said that it's not an easy decision, I'm not holding you out saying that we're going to win, I'm just holding you out because I think it's best for you. If you're always trying to save somebody for the next game, your rear end may be going home.”

Williams said the team would go through the same sort of procedure with Henson during a short practice Saturday.

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Early this season, North Carolina coach Roy Williams admitted that his was a team that needed to find a ways to create energy.

Friday, during the top-seeded Tar Heels’ 77-58 victory over No. 16 seed Vermont in the NCAA tournament, freshman James Michael McAdoo served as a much-needed electricity bolt.

With the Tar Heels seemingly content to cling to a 10-to-13-point lead – and little animation radiating from a less-than-capacity Greensboro Coliseum crowd -- the forward converted back-to-back 3-point plays midway through second half. That jump-started a 12-2 UNC run that gave the Tar Heels a 23-point lead – and everyone an intensity boost.

“I feel like it was a good turning point in the game,” said McAdoo, who finished with a career-high 17 points. “We had been getting little chippies that hadn’t been going in, and the coaches just told us to keep going to the boards, keep working. And getting those two and-ones just showed us what we could do.”

McAdoo started his third consecutive game in place of ACC Defensive Player of Year John Henson – who was a scratch after UNC’s Friday morning shootaround. Williams put the junior through a series of drills and decided Henson still didn’t look comfortable enough using his sprained left wrist.

“It has gotten a little bit better each day and every day, but it hasn’t gotten better at the same rate as it was earlier in the week,’’ Williams said of the wrist, which Henson hurt in the ACC tournament quarterfinals last Friday. " ... If it continues, I would say it’s a little better than 50-50 that he would play Sunday [against eighth-seeded Creighton]. But if he still feels the same way, I won’t play him.”

With Henson cheering him on from the bench in a coat and tie, McAdoo said he didn’t have any nerves playing in his first NCAA tournament game.

But he had a frustrating start, missing his first four shots (all in the lane) before getting a roughly-six minute break on the bench. When he checked back in, he made two free throws, and then made a steal before spiking home a crowd-gasping dunk off a Reggie Bullock miss. That gave his team a 15-9 lead, but it didn’t ignite the blowout, then, that one might have thought.

Still leading only by two points late in the first half, UNC finally pulled away using a Tyler Zeller-spurred 12-4 run to gain some-much-needed breathing room (and finally a double-digit lead, 31-21).

But it wasn’t until the second half, which McAdoo started with a jumper, that the Tar Heels broke finally the game open, then sealed it for good.

Guard Sandro Carissimo led Vermont (which shot only 39.7 percent) with 11 points.

Zeller finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds; Harrison Barnes added 14 points and point guard Kendall Marshall had 11 points and 10 assists.

But McAdoo – who also had 6 rebounds and 4 steals – created the much-needed energy surge.

“I thought James Michael was sensational in the second half,’’ Williams said. “The first half he was 1-for-6 and had good shots. But the second half he made a bunch of those, and five offensive rebounds. … We’re happy that we’re one of the 32 that are still playing.”

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Instant analysis from North Carolina's win against Vermont:

Overview: Unlike the ACC tournament final last weekend, the top-seeded Tar Heels didn’t even bother to have starting forward John Henson (who missed his third straight game because of a sprained left wrist) in uniform in case of an “emergency” situation.

And despite some sloppy play early, they didn’t need their 6-foot-11 ACC Defensive Player of the Year to advance.

UNC shot poorly early and committed 24 turnovers. But it got a career-high 17 points from freshman James Michael McAdoo, who started his third straight game in place of Henson, and created a much-needed energy-boost for his team in the second half.

Sandro Carissimo led No. 16 seed Vermont with 11 points.

Turning point(s): Leading 19-17, the Tar Heels finally created some much-needed separation with a 12-4 run that included seven points from senior 7-footer Tyler Zeller. That gave UNC its first double-digit lead (31-21) with about 2 ½ minutes left in the first half.

Then, with UNC still only ahead by 13, McAdoo converted a pair of three-point plays, and freshman P.J. Hairston added a 3-pointer for a 9-2 run that pushed the Tar Heels ahead 57-37 with about 8 ½ minutes left.

Key player: Zeller finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds. He also blocked two Vermont players on the same possession with 14:40 left, further stuffing the stat sheet.

Key stat: Vermont shot worse than 40 percent for the game, and made only 3 of 18 3-point attempts.

Miscellaneous: It was surprising how many empty seats there were for this game, considering Greensboro Coliseum is only about an hour’s drive from Chapel Hill, N.C. … UNC point guard Kendall Marshall’s four first-half assists pushed him past Southern’s Avery Johnson for fourth on the NCAA’s all-time list for assists in a season. Marshall, who already set the school and ACC records this season, entered the game with 330, and finished with 10. ... UNC forward Harrison Barnes had made only 4 of his 23 3-point attempts over his pevious six games. He was 1-for-3 on Friday.

What’s next: UNC will play eighth-seeded Creighton -- which topped Alabama 58-57 in the early game -- on Sunday at Greensboro Coliseum. The winner will advance to the Midwest Region semifinals in St. Louis.

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina forward John Henson will miss Friday afternoon's NCAA tournament game against Vermont, a team spokesman said. It will mark the third straight game the ACC Defensive Player of the Year has sat out because of a sprained left wrist.

Freshman forward James Michael McAdoo will start in his place.

Click here for the rest of the story ...

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Breaking down the Friday afternoon games in Greensboro:

No. 9 seed Alabama (21-11) vs. No. 8 Creighton (28-5), 1:40 p.m. ET

Creighton loves to score in a hurry; the Bluejays averaged 80 points per game and scored 90 or more nine times this season.

Alabama prefers to play at a relative snail’s pace, limiting its opponents to only 58.1 points per game, fewest in the SEC and ninth-fewest in NCAA Division I.

Their contrasting styles will meet in a Midwest Region second-round game at Greensboro Coliseum.

“It’s tough for us to simulate,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “But we’re not going to change anything that we do. We’re going to shoot a bunch of 3s, we’re going to try to jam it inside, we’re going to try to fly it up and down the floor, just like we have played all year. You can’t change anything at this stage of the game.”

Why would the Bluejays change anything now? Creighton has won seven games in a row, including an 83-79 victory in overtime over Illinois State in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship game March 4. The Bluejays rank No. 7 nationally in scoring and they’ve made 42.5 percent of their 3-pointers and 50.9 percent of their shots overall.

Sophomore guard Doug McDermott, the coach’s son, ranks No. 3 nationally in scoring with 23.2 points per game and was No. 2 in the MVC with 8.2 rebounds. He knows he’ll face a stiff challenge from the Crimson Tide, who will be longer and more athletic than most opponents he faced this season.

“I’ve seen a lot of different defenses this year with double teams and guys just being more physical with me,” McDermott said. “But I think that if they’re going to put a lot of attention on me, it’s just going to open up a lot of things for [my teammates].”

The Crimson Tide recovered from a 3-6 stretch in midseason to earn its first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2006. Alabama overcame the suspensions of four players and myriad injuries to win five of its final seven games. Tide forward Tony Mitchell, the team’s second-leading scorer with 13.1 points per game, was suspended on Feb. 20 for the rest of the season. Because of the roster upheaval, the Tide used 13 starting lineups and eight in its past 11 games.

“I think that every program at some point during the year, whether it’s injuries or illnesses or something, you go through adversity,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “I think every coach you talk to says your team’s going to face adversity and [it’s about] how you handle that adversity. Sometimes that adversity can come through losing; sometimes it comes through winning. But that’s just a part of the game. Our team’s no different. I think our guys have grown and matured over the course of the season, individually and collectively.”

Who to watch:

Creighton’s McDermott: No player will get as much defensive attention as McDermott, who was named MVC Player of the Year and set a Creighton season record with 765 points. Only two other sophomores in MVC history scored 700 points in a season -- Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson and Indiana State’s Larry Bird. McDermott ranked second in the MVC in 3-point shooting (49.5 percent) and scored 30 points or more in six games.

Creighton’s Gregory Echenique: Creighton’s chances might come down to Echenique’s ability to hold his own against Alabama’s frontcourt of JaMychal Green and Nick Jacobs. Echenique, a junior from Guatire, Venezuela, averaged 9.8 points and 7.4 rebounds and led the MVC in blocked shots in each of the past two seasons.

Alabama’s Green: After returning to the starting lineup against Auburn on Feb. 29, Green recorded double-doubles in three of the Tide’s final four games. He had 22 points and 10 rebounds in the Tide’s 66-63 loss to Florida in the SEC tournament, the 27th double-double of his career. Green, the Tide’s only senior, missed seven games because of injuries and suspensions but still averaged 14 points and 7.4 rebounds.

What to watch: Guard play. The Crimson Tide likes to turn opponents over with a full-court press and half-court traps. The Bluejays turned the ball over 405 times -- 61 more than their opponents had in 33 games -- but senior Antoine Young led the MVC in assist/turnover ratio in each of the past two seasons. Gonzaga transfer Grant Gibbs was also among the MVC leaders with 5.1 assists per game.

No. 16 seed Vermont (24-11) vs. No. 1 North Carolina (29-5), 4:10 p.m. ET

North Carolina probably won’t need forward John Henson to defeat Vermont. After all, No. 1 seeds are 110-0 against No. 16 seeds in the NCAA tournament.

But if the Tar Heels are going to advance beyond the tournament’s opening weekend and perhaps even to the Final Four in New Orleans, they’ll need Henson to return from a left wrist injury that caused him to miss most of the past three games.

Henson, a 6-foot-10 junior from Tampa, Fla., went through about 70 percent of the team’s practice in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Thursday morning and then most of the Tar Heels’ light workout in Greensboro. The two-time reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Henson is averaging 13.8 points and 10.1 rebounds with 94 blocked shots this season.

Henson says he’s ready to play for the first time since injuring his wrist in the early minutes of an 85-69 win over Maryland in the ACC tournament on March 9, but UNC coach Roy Williams isn’t so sure.

“We practiced [Thursday] morning,” Williams said. “John did a little more than he did [Wednesday]. We let him in some live situations. He did not shoot the ball left-handed a single time. He did not block any shots left-handed. So I’m extremely concerned about that part of it, because that’s his dominant hand in a big, big way. He did block one shot, it was right-handed, and he took one jump hook right-handed and it fell about three miles short. But he felt like if the game were to be played today, he felt like he could play. I’m not convinced.”

If Henson can’t go, UNC freshman James Michael McAdoo will probably start his third consecutive game. McAdoo struggled on offense in UNC’s 85-82 loss to Florida State in the ACC final Sunday, scoring four points on 2-for-10 shooting. But he grabbed eight rebounds with one blocked shot and four steals.

“We prepare both ways, prepared for [Henson] to play as well as not play,” UNC senior Tyler Zeller said. “We don’t know yet what’s going to happen with him, so we have had him in for some plays. We have also had James Michael in with the first team playing a lot also. We’re just trying to prepare for whatever we have and make the best of it.”

Henson, who has 272 blocked shots in 106 games at Carolina, would be a big mismatch for the Catamounts, who don’t start a player taller than 6-8.

“I don’t think it’s affecting us,” Zeller said. “We would love to have John play. He’s a fantastic player, a great rebounder, shot blocker, and he can score. So all-around he’s a fantastic player. But we also have confidence in our substitutes, and John Michael especially, we have a lot of confidence in him to be able to step up and fit in the role.”

Who to watch:

North Carolina’s Kendall Marshall: The Tar Heels point guard has 330 assists this season, an UNC and ACC single-season record. Marshall’s assist total is the fifth-highest in NCAA history -- he needs only four more to move into fourth place -- and his 9.71 assists per game were the most by a sophomore in NCAA history.

North Carolina’s Tyler Zeller: The ACC Player of the Year led the conference in field goal percentage (56.9 percent) and offensive rebounds (four per game), was second in rebounds (9.7), third in scoring (18.5 points) and sixth in free throw percentage (83.3 percent).

Vermont’s Four McGlynn: McGlynn’s real name is Patrick McGlynn IV, but he goes by “Four.” McGlynn, a freshman from York, Pa., didn’t start a game all season, but he led the Catamounts with 12 points per game. He shot 39.3 percent on 3-pointers and 88.7 percent on foul shots.

What to watch: Pace of play. The Tar Heels average 82 points per game, which is No. 2 in NCAA Division I. The Catamounts gave up 80 points only one time in 35 games, an 80-75 loss to Long Island, which was No. 3 nationally in scoring with 81.9 points per game. Vermont held 23 of its last 24 opponents to 70 points or fewer in regulation.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- There are plenty of reasons for North Carolina’s P.J. Hairston to get excited about playing his first NCAA tournament game here Friday in his hometown: friendly fans, a familiar arena, plenty of family to cheer him on.

“And maybe,’’ he added, grinning, “I can get my dad to sneak me over some peach cobbler.”

Not just any peach cobbler, mind you, but the cobbler at Boss Hog's Bar-B-Que, a soul food joint on East Bessemer Avenue that his dad’s family has run for 22 years. Hairston grew up there -- standing on a Coca-Cola box while his grandma taught him to count change; grabbing dinner after practice; wiping tables in-between.

“To this day we still have people coming in, asking about P.J. They can remember when he used to sweep up, or fall asleep in a booth,’’ said William Turner, who was technically Hairston's step-father, but who the player calls "Dad." “And people seem pretty excited that they’re going to be able to see him play here, again.”

It’s actually been more than a year since Hairston, now averaging 5.9 points per game as a Tar Heels reserve, has played an official game in his hometown.

He starred for three seasons at Greensboro’s Dudley High once setting a school record with 53 points in one game -- before opting to transfer to Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., for his senior season.

It was a tough decision, mom Wendy Mailey said, because had he stayed, he may have set state scoring records, and probably been in contention for NC Player of the Year. Plus, “being a part of Dudley High is like being a part of Greensboro tradition.”

But her oldest son needed the move, she said, to both re-gain focus and expand his skills.

“When he left, I think everyone thought, ‘Oh, he’s flunking out of school,’ or ‘Oh, he’s a discipline problem,’ but it wasn’t either of the two,” Mailey said. “Being in Greensboro, when Roy Williams is at your games, you become a local celebrity -- and it becomes a little difficult not to read your own press, especially at that age.

“And we decided we had to do something different for him; he had kind of become one-dimensional. All he wanted to do was stand and shoot a 3-point shot.”

Hairston, too, had heard the chatter that he had become too chubby, too content with his skillset.

He first learned to shoot (two-handed back then) when his great-grandfather Walter put up a basketball goal when he was 3. And he grew up having dreams of playing in the McDonalds High School All-American game, of being a key contributor for the Tar Heels, of maybe playing in the NBA one day.

So although he missed his parents and his little brothers -- and the fish plate with a side of mac and cheese and green beans at Boss Hog’s -- he knew he had to take the opportunity to expand his skills (while narrowing his waistline).

“It was hard to be away from Greensboro,’’ he said, especially considering the strict discipline, the tough practices, and the sometimes-bland meals at Hargrave. “But it was good for me.”

In his first weeks of conditioning at his new prep school, he said, he lost 10 pounds. Throughout the season, he dropped 10 more. He was still hitting the smooth outside jumpers that made him one of the top wing recruits in the country at Dudley, but all of a sudden he could run faster, contest more shots, even take charges. “That [taking charges] actually became one of my favorite things,’’ he said earlier this season, “because I knew I could make a difference on both ends of the floor.”

Indeed, in his first months in Chapel Hill, 6-foot-5 Hairston (who had slimmed down to about 220 pounds) impressed UNC’s Williams not just with his shooting, but with his defense.

His transition from high school (where he did play in the McDonalds game) to college, however, wasn't exactly easy. Hairston lost one grandfather right before the official start of practice, then another grandfather a few months later. The player suffered a wrist injury, followed by a sprained ankle and sore foot.

And after looking so pinpoint from 3-point land early-on (making 5-of-8 against South Carolina, and 3-of-4 at Kentucky in December), his shooting went awry. During 15 regular-season ACC games, he made only 8 of his 50 3-point attempts.

“There was a lot going on with him, emotionally and physically,’’ his mom said. “… But I don’t think he ever lost confidence.”

Indeed, Hairston kept shooting, buoyed by the teammates and coaches who he said never lost faith that his shot would eventually fall.

And his dad said he had to hold back tears Sunday, when Hairston -- who hadn’t scored in double figures since New Year’s Day – hit the second of three 3-pointers in a three-minute span during the second half of the ACC tournament championship, helping to spur a UNC comeback. The Tar Heels ended up losing to Florida State when Hairston’s 3-point, game-tying attempt hit the back of the rim.

But after his 13-point game, he said he knew his shot was back.

In the stands, his parents knew it as well.

“He had a good game Sunday,’’ his mom said. “But he has so much more to offer than that.”

The hope is that Hairston shows it here this weekend in his hometown, where his mom had to stop answering the phone earlier this week because she had no more tickets to divvy out. And where his dad, over the last season at Boss Hog's, has served more and more Tar Heels fans.

Hairston, who last played in Greensboro during a loss in the 2010 high school state playoffs, wants to give his family, friends and old coaches a better memory this time.

(And maybe have some celebratory peach cobbler if the Tar Heels win Friday and Sunday to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16.)

"It's good,'' he said smiling, "to be playing at home."

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina on Friday faces a foe in Vermont freshman Four McGlynn who is unique in a couple of ways.

He’s the only player in Division I that leads his team in scoring (12.2 ppg) without having started a game.

And his name is, well, “Four.”

Where did it come from?

“My uncle played with one of his good friends in high school; they called him ‘Four’ because he was the fourth generation,’’ the 6-foot-2 guard said. “And my dad named me Patrick which made me Patrick McGlynn, IV. So my uncle thought it would be cool if they call me ‘Four,’ and started calling me that ever since I was a baby. And it kind of stuck from there.”

McGlynn said he’s always liked the nickname, because no one else had it. “So it was cool being different,’’ he said.

Another way he'd like to be different: becoming part of the first 16th-seeded team to upset a No. 1.

"We're going into the game as confident as we have been all year,'' McGlynn said. "We have been playing great as of late, been on a pretty good winning streak, and we know that everyone's doubting us.

"But at the end of the day, it comes down to 12 guys on our team, and the coaches in the locker room that believe in us. And we're going to believe in each other and go out there and fight and hopefully come out with a win."

WHO’S THE BEST? UNC coach Roy Williams said he doesn’t think the NCAA tournament always identifies the best team: “I’ve had two teams that I thought were the best team in the country and we didn’t win, and I still thought they were the best team in the country.”

Asked if he felt his current team was the best in the nation this season, he said, “No.”

So who is?

“I said the same thing on October 15^th, I think there’s seven or eight teams that have a legitimate chance,’’ he said. “Now I would probably go to 10 or 11. To me, I think Kentucky and Syracuse have separated themselves a little from everybody else. And they lost last week, so…."

TOE VS. WRIST: From the outside, it’s easy to draw comparisons. In 2009, when UNC was a No. 1 seed, it faced questions about if it would open the NCAA tournament in Greensboro without starting point guard Ty Lawson (who had an injured big toe).

This week, the top-seeded Tar Heels face questions, again at Greensboro Coliseum, about if they will have to sit starting forward John Henson (sprained left wrist.)

In 2009, Lawson sat out the first game. Henson, as of Thursday night, was considered a game-time decision.

But having dealt with a similar situation three years ago (when the Tar Heels went on to win the national title) isn’t necessarily helping Williams now.

“I’m awfully uncomfortable talking about it because I don’t know what I’m going to do,’’ Williams said.

Lawson’s situation was different than Henson’s, Williams explained, because the guard hurt his toe before the regular-season final against Duke, played, and then hurt it again. “So it was almost like a recurrence, but he didn’t get it hit again,’’ Williams said. “It’s just the swelling went up there.”

Williams said he also knew that that he had a solid option at back-up point guard in Bobby Frasor: “Bobby’s not Ty, but Bobby had played that position before and I had tremendous amounts of confidence in him. We had so many weapons with Danny [Green] and Wayne [Ellington] and Tyler [Hansborugh]; we just had a lot of weapons there.”

By contrast, Henson is backed up by freshman James Michael McAdoo, who has played with more aggression and focus lately, but he doesn’t have NCAA experience. Unlike ’09, the Tar Heels also have two key players on the bench: guards Leslie McDonald and Dexter Strickland, both out for the season with knee injuries.

Williams said if Lawson hadn’t come back for the second NCAA game in ’09, he doesn’t think the Tar Heels would have won it.

“Yeah … there are some similiaries [between Lawson and Henson],’’ Williams said. “But it certainly hasn’t made me more comfortable with what I’m trying to decide right now.”

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Count UNC sophomore Harrison Barnes as a little surprised -- in a definite tongue-in-cheek sort of way way -- that freshmen teammates Stilman White and James Michael McAdoo made Cosmopolitan’s online list of “The Hottest Guys of March Madness 2012.”

And that he got the shaft.

“I feel like I have a fresh face, but that’s all right,’’ UNC’s leading scorer deadpanned Thursday. “They don’t see the inner beauty.”

Then he laughed.

White, a freshman reserve, told The Burlington Times-News that he had gotten plenty of ribbing by his teammates for making the list, but he also saw the bright side: “I guess it never hurts to have girls think that about you,’’ he said.

White came in at No. 2 on the slideshow; McAdoo was No. 24 -- but joked that he deserved to be ranked higher.

"They might’ve robbed me, man,’’ McAdoo told The Times-News. “But I’m Top 25, so I’ll take it."

UNC senior Tyler Zeller, by the way, failed to make the list -- although little bro Cody (a freshman at Indiana) did.

Other ACC players included Florida State’s Luke Loucks and Deividas Dulkys, plus Duke freshman Austin Rivers.

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.