North Carolina locks up No. 1 seed in NCAA tourney

One by one, North Carolina's players climbed onto the platform to snip a piece of the net to celebrate their Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship in Charlotte, N.C.

There were plenty of smiles and laughter, yet the victory party seemed somehow subdued.

After all, the top-ranked Tar Heels figure they have bigger dreams still to chase.

"We just go to the point where we realized we reached a goal," junior Marcus Ginyard said. "But at the same time, we know there is more for us."

That attitude hovered over their 86-81 victory over Clemson in Sunday's tournament final, a victory that locked up the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA field of 65 while giving the program a record 17th ACC title.

The Tar Heels got another strong-willed performance inside from All-America Tyler Hansbrough and a stellar outing on the perimeter from Wayne Ellington to outlast the Tigers for a third time this season and close a tough tournament run in which North Carolina didn't win a game by more than 12 points.

Now North Carolina (32-2) can turn its attention to living up to the lofty expectations that have followed the Tar Heels all season, even as they allowed themselves the small indulgence of a businesslike celebration.

"We didn't dance around and climb on top of backboards and things like that," coach Roy Williams said. "It was a great feeling and a very satisfying feeling for us."

North Carolina opens the NCAA Tournament in Raleigh against the winner of the opening-round game between Coppin State and Mount St. Mary's.

Ellington finished with 24 points for North Carolina, which has won consecutive ACC tournaments for the fifth time. Hansbrough was named the tournament's most valuable player after finishing with 18 points and 11 rebounds while scrapping inside the entire game against the third-seeded Tigers (24-9), following up on his 26-point day that included the last-second jumper to beat Virginia Tech 68-66 in Saturday's semifinals.

Big 12

Kansas 84, Texas 74: Texas considers Texas A&M and Oklahoma rivals, and doesn't particularly like losing to Texas Tech. Kansas always highlights Kansas State and Missouri on its schedule.

But when it comes to memorable games, the rivalry between Texas and Kansas is quickly becoming one of the best in college basketball -- and it seems to be getting better by the game.

Mario Chalmers had a career-high 30 points and 8 of Kansas' tournament-record 15 3-pointers, helping the fifth-ranked Jayhawks defeat No. 6 Texas for their third straight Big 12 title over the Longhorns in Kansas City, Mo.

Trading dunks and 3-pointers, the Big 12's regular-season co-champions reeled off runs like it was an NBA All-Star Game, causing the sellout crowd of 19,047 to spend as much time on their feet as in their seats.

Texas and Kansas played a near-perfect first half, hitting a combined 27 3-pointers and committing just 14 turnovers between them.

"That was one of the best games I've ever been a part of," Kansas coach Bill Self said.

Kansas (31-3) was at its ball-sharing best, getting 25 assists on 26 field goals, and shot 15 of 25 from behind the arc, breaking the tournament record of 14 set by Colorado in 1995 and matched by Missouri in 2001.

Texas (28-6) made 12 3-pointers, had just 4 turnovers had four players score in double figures. It still wasn't enough to give the Longhorns their first Big 12 title in five title-game appearances.

Southland

Texas-Arl. 82, NW State 79: Anthony Vereen and his Texas-Arlington teammates knew the school had never been to the NCAA Tournament.

On Sunday, they changed that.

Vereen had 25 points and 9 rebounds to lead the Mavericks (21-11) to a victory over Northwestern State in the Southland Conference title game in Katy, Texas, earning an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

"This feels like a weight off our shoulders," Vereen said.

"You come to some places and they have all these championships and NCAA Tournament appearances," he said. "Then you come here and look in the record books and it says under championships, 'None, none, none.' So it feels pretty good to win this one."