North Carolina up against a state looking for feel-good finish

DETROIT - The bracket says North Carolina vs. Michigan State.

At times, though, the Tar Heels may feel like they're going up against something more than just another basketball team.

The Spartans (31-6) know a win in the NCAA title game on a court 90 miles from their campus won't fix the state's economic free fall, won't put anybody back to work.

But tonight there will be 72,000 people in Ford Field, site of the Final Four. Most will be rooting for Michigan State. And winning, as they say, can be contagious.

"When you go through hard times, you pray for something to get you out," Spartans guard Travis Walton said. "I'm sure they didn't pray for Michigan State to get to the Final Four or the national championship game, but they probably have been praying to have things to take their mind off of it."

Michigan ranks 51st out of 50 states (and District of Columbia) in the latest unemployment figures. Detroit is the hub of an auto industry on life support, a civic symbol of an economic system that has come off the tracks.

That's the backdrop for a game in which Michigan State finds itself a 71/2-point underdog against a Carolina team that has "national champs" practically inked across its uniforms.

Remember, this is the team that some thought could go undefeated when Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green all decided to return after a bad loss to Kansas at last year's Final Four.

Undefeated was never on coach Roy Williams' list of goals. Winning a championship, though? Always.

"If you thought it was easy, you don't know what you're talking about," Williams said. "It's college basketball. There hasn't been an undefeated team since '76, and there have been some really, really good teams. I think this year there were eight or 10 teams or 12, I haven't studied it, that could be playing Monday night."

But it will be North Carolina (33-4), the preseason No. 1 and top seed in the South regional, against Michigan State, a less-hyped and more overlooked No. 2 seed out of the Midwest.

Though Michigan State coach Tom Izzo won't sell his team short - "you don't get this far on grit," he said - he also knows the deal. This is a rematch of a game North Carolina won 98-63 on Dec. 3 in the same building.

"If we play good and they play good, we're losing. That's the way I look at it," Izzo said. "I mean, I don't look at that in the negative. "

Williams figures if North Carolina plays poorly in the rematch, it won't be because of the crowd. This is a team that loves playing in hostile environments and succeeds at it, too.

The Tar Heels have gone 67-14 away from home in the four years since Hansbrough and the seniors arrived in 2005, the season after Carolina's last championship.

The game comes 30 years after Magic Johnson led MSU to its first championship in that historic meeting against Indiana State and Larry Bird. Like North Carolina, Michigan State also is going for its second title of the 2000s.

Mateen Cleaves led the 2000 title team. Though Izzo has been back to the Final Four three times since - for a total of five in 11 years - the Spartans haven't won another championship.

Getting this group a title is the real mission that concerns the coach.

"I mean, the state, this city, is very important to me," he said. "But the cause right now is for the Michigan State players to win a championship, and hopefully the repercussions from that will help a lot of people. It's a feel-good for a lot of people."

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