Oakland coach Kampe gets matchup with North Carolina

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Posted 6:23PM on Thursday, March 17, 2005

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) Soon after Oakland finished a surprising run through the Mid-Continent Conference tournament, coach Greg Kampe began thinking about North Carolina. Keep in mind this was nearly a week before the NCAA tournament pairings were announced, and long before the Golden Grizzlies were slotted for the play-in game. At the time, despite a 12-18 record, various computer rankings had them high enough where a 14th seed was possible. That wasn't what Kampe wanted. He wanted to be the ultimate underdog. He wanted to be a No. 16 seed, with a chance to go through the opening round and face the Tar Heels. ``I wanted to be in that game, because if I was in that game, then it's going to be North Carolina,'' Kampe said Thursday. ``You're going to be on the national stage.'' Well, coach, you got your wish. Oakland easily beat Alabama A for the chance to play the top-seeded Tar Heels (27-4) Friday night in the first round of the Syracuse Regional, with the winner advancing to face either eighth-seeded Minnesota (21-10) or ninth-seeded Iowa State (18-11). In the evening session, top-seeded Duke (25-5) plays 16th-seeded Delaware State (19-13) in the Austin Regional, with eighth-seeded Stanford (18-12) and ninth-seeded Mississippi State (22-10) meeting in the finale. North Carolina and Duke should have plenty of support, since the Charlotte Coliseum is within about 150 miles of their campuses. It should be everything but a home game, courtesy of the selection committee's new policy of keeping No. 1 seeds close to home. ``To me, I've always wanted the regular season to be very important,'' Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. ``I think the idea is really good.'' Even if the majority of fans are rooting for the teams from Tobacco Road, the environment won't be as tough as ones Kampe and his team already have seen this season. They made earlier trips to Illinois and Michigan State, part of a demanding non-conference schedule created by their coach. ``People thought, 'What is he doing?''' Oakland forward Cortney Scott said. ``But we're definitely mentally tough, and that really prepared us for these games.'' The Tar Heels have their own problems to worry about while trying to focus on Oakland. They won their first outright ACC regular season title in 12 years this season before struggling in the conference tournament, losing to Georgia Tech in the semifinals. When the team returned home for practice the next day, center Sean May was expecting the worst. ``I thought we were going to run sprints until we passed out,'' he said. Instead, Williams showed his players a tape of their loss, and they got a chance to see all the mistakes they made. The workouts over the next two days certainly were intense May is sporting a bruise on his left eye, courtesy of an elbow from reserve Byron Sanders but North Carolina also wanted to get its mental edge back. Receiving that coveted No. 1 seed helped. ``This is what Carolina basketball is all about,'' May said. ``We're all big-time players, and that's why we came to Carolina, to handle this kind of pressure and expectations.'' Just getting to the tournament was a reward for Minnesota, which is in for the first time since 1999. That was a year before an NCAA investigation found that the school committed 21 major academic violations and cost coach Clem Haskins his job. Scholarships were cut, and all the records between 1993-98 were erased. Now, the Gophers are back. ``It is good to be here,'' sixth-year coach Dan Monson said. ``Now, you want to stay here and win basketball games. Iowa State is a tough matchup for us.'' (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)