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Felton has to be sharp, limiting the turnovers and playing with high energy as Mich. State will press him. Big dose of May and Marvin inside. UNC fans may want to look hard at Marvin, for this could be his grand stage! Two great games and off to the NBA. Hope not, but it certainly could happen.
UNC by 5.

Although I don't really follow the Tar Heels too closely, what I've seen of them makes me think Sean May is the key to their success. The minutes in the tournament when the team has forgotten to get it into May have been the scariest moments for Chapel Hill.

I think that the Heels are "tough" but they don't always display the killer instinct that they had earlier in the season. This is a team that, if it starts fast, leaves a lot of teams in the dirt and doesn't look back. I don't think they've displayed that early attack attitude in a while. They are going to need to find it again if they want to win this thing.

I also think the season has evidenced that there are a lot of people the Heels can't live without. Felton is the most obvious. The Heels struggle when he's on the bench. May gives them the inside threat they need, though I think Marvin Williams can spell him adequately. McCants has to be there for the team to be at its peak. Take any of these guys out of the mix and UNC is much more ordinary.

You guys make some good points. I think Felton is one guy who really knows the value of May inside and feeds the beast. The question of how much better does Rashad McCants make the Heels is an interesting one. He's the guy teams know can kill them with his scoring, so I'd say, generally speaking, his presence is pretty big, whether he's putting up points or not.

Jeff, if there's a Dinky Donuts establishment in St. Louis, I'd go there. That's a prime place for star-gazing. Let me know if Coach K dunks his donuts in his coffee.

As for the matchup, I thought Jay Bilas made some good points this morning on ESPN. He basically blew up the idea that Carolina is poor defensively by realing off a host of stats in which the Tar Heels are superior to the Spartans. I think a lot of us get fooled by the fact that UNC, as an up-tempo team, will almost always give up more points than a grind it out half court team. Also, this Tar Heels team is so good that we tend to latch on to any potential fault and magnify it.

That said, I still think Michigan State can win. They need to get a clear win from Paul Davis against Sean May in the low post to do it. I don't think that's going to happen though, which is why I still think Jeff will be in St. Louis on Monday, covering one more UNC game.

Just listened to the Fran McCaffery press conference in Siena, he cited a lack of media support.

Every since they pulled a full-time writer off of the UNCG beat, it has been a problem. I hope the N&O can find the time to cover the home town team consistantly in the future (without all of those 'Special to the News & Record' bylines).

It's been 10 years and UNCG is STILL one of only two Division I teams in Greensboro. I just wish you guys could get that.

Steven, I assume you mean the N&R, not the N&O. I don't want to speak for our editor, but we covered the hell out of the Spartans 3-4 years ago, even sending a staff writer to Kansas and Arkansas, and to San Diego to cover them in the NCAA tournament.

We have a pretty good rapport with Fran, so I'm a little disappointed to hear him say that if it was meant to be a dig at us. He also knows, as we found out the hard way, too few people at UNCG -- or graduated from there -- care about the school's sports teams. I assure you, it's not our fault. It got to the point we couldn't justify sending writers on the road ($$$) to cover a team that was hanging around .500 and drawing 1,000 per game when we weren't doing that for A&T, which, even when 1-27, was drawing 2,500 or so to home games.

So, ask your fellow Spartan fans: Where the bleep are they? Do they realize they're Division I?

Jeff,

I don't blame the writers at all. You guys do what you're told, and that's all you can do.

I do know that I (and about 10 others) follow the Spartans from Raleigh. We drive back and forth for every home game (including weeknights).

The problem is, and has been since I came to school there in 1993, that the local media (and not just you guys)....doesn't give the spartans equal billing when it comes to coverage.

When my grandfather-in-law passed away I was in town for the funeral. WRAL led with ACC stuff, then national basketball, then went to NASCAR, then to Grasshoppers, and then after a commercial break...Oh yeah UNCG snapped Davidson's 17 game win streak tonight.

The McCaffery signing in Londonville, NY (pardon the spelling) was carried live on one TV station, and two radio stations). They have three full-time beat writers from the major papers in Albany, and they average 10,000 a game when they're winning (all of the support comes from the community). Not bad for a little university with 2400 students.

As for my fellow Spartan fans (the ones who didn't come to UNCG because they couldn't get in to an ACC school); we have moved to other cities where there are jobs that pay money.

We keep up with the Spartans as best we can (through your website and UNCGHoops.com) and we accept the fact that we aren't going to get equal coverage to teams 90 miles away from Greensboro.

I do have to admit though, McCaffery shot his own self in the foot. He had two very good seasons, and followed them up with seasons consiting of seven and 10 wins.

My hope is that a new coach will reenergize UNCG. I had 20+ people in a caravan coming to the games from Raleigh for every home game after the NIT year.

Then we started to stink, and they all stopped wanting to invest the effort (two hours on the road, food, tickets, etc. etc.) to watch us lose to High Point and Elon.

Good things are coming for UNCG. I just hope the local media (and not just the N&R) can come along for the ride.

I can understand you guys not providing writers for regular season road games but going with the Times-Free Press writers for the conference tourney? That was a little shocking.

We are all praying for a return of Mike Dement to UNCG. His teams played very hard, and they always showed up against the ACC squads they played. But Buzz Peterson would do just as nicely.

An example of the level of coverage Siena's new coach gets (this is from one of the three papers on Saturday). I'll be interested to see how many N&R articles that UNCG gets with the hire of their new coach:

1. The expectations are inexcapable (http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=347239&category=SPORTS&newsdate=4/2/2005)

2. McClinton ponders next move
Guard will talk with new coach before choosing...
(http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=347238&category=SPORTS&newsdate=4/2/2005)

3. McCaffery has assistant at home
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?category=SPORTS&storyID=347242&BCCode=&newsdate=4/2/2005

4. Fans put stamp of approval on coach
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?category=SPORTS&storyID=347241&BCCode=&newsdate=4/2/2005

5. Saints have a new Top Dog
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?category=SPORTS&storyID=347240&BCCode=&newsdate=4/2/2005

All very fine points, and I'm glad someone's voicing them, quite frankly. But, after being in Syracuse last week, I learned that the Albany market is way different than most markets. Since the Albany Patroons went away, there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- else to cover in NY's state capital but Siena hoops (except state politics, of course). It is basically the only game in town. And you've got all those local newspapers and TV stations covering the heck out of the Saints. Paul Hewitt once noted that he got more coverage in Albany than in Atlanta after taking the Georgia Tech job.

That said, I'd like to see UNCG develop into our own mid-major great-story factory. I really wish more people shared your enthusiasm, Steven.

Jeff,

Thanks. I remember back in the mid 90s we had to beg to even get a writer to come out to the games. I used to work in Sports Information out at UNCG. Sometimes we'd get the great From Staff Reports byline for home games.

It has gotten better and peaked about three years ago from the N&R point of view.

I am still writing your online editor every once in a while. We can't follow the team from far away if you guys don't put stories that you have written on the website.

I can read about McCant's stomach ailment complete with intestinal diagramns in the News and Observer here in Raleigh.

I can't, however, follow UNCG if I can't find the stories. I look forward to your coverage of our new coach.

Steven:

We're trying on the UNCG front (and all of the sports fronts, frankly). For a long time, we had to ration what we posted online, the thinking being that we shouldn't give away what people have traditionally paid for.

That's not so much the case any longer -- we're trying to get all of our staff-written stuff online, and our new Web software means we'll have more control over what goes up. (In other words, I hope I can do it myself rather than having to bug our online editor to post things that the editorial assistants forgot to do before they went home for the night.)

As for coverage of Mike Dement, we had the story in today's paper, and Bill Hass covered today's press conference. That story (unless the layout change after I left tonight) will be at the top of Saturday's Sports section. With a little luck, it might even be online.

After that ... well, it's not basketball season, so I wouldn't count on much more UNCG hoops coverage until the fall. We'll see if we can do better when the basketball season rolls around.

- John Newsom, assistant sports editor

Oh yeah UNCG snapped Davidson's 17 game win streak tonight and it was fun watching any way. :)