Making Amends: Heels say that loss to Kansas in semis last year still hurts

Very little upsets easy-going Danny Green, but one memory has gnawed at him often in the last year.

And he's not alone among his North Carolina teammates.

Last April 5, Kansas flattened UNC in the national semifinals of the NCAA Tournament, racing to a 40-12 lead on the way to an 84-66 decision.

UNC made its way back to the Final Four on Sunday with a 72-60 victory over Oklahoma in the South Regional final at FedExForum.

Green, a forward, said he would like to believe that returning to the Final Four to make amends for last season's finish was the sole motivating force for UNC's five seniors and the other returning veterans.

"There's a little bit (of redemption sought); I would think so," Green said. "It's a new year and a new day. It's a new team. We know what our focuses are. We know how we played last year."

UNC (32-4) will play Villanova (30-7) at about 8:45 Saturday night in the second of two national semifinals at Ford Field in Detroit. It will be the first meeting between the two since 2005, when UNC scrapped to the finish for a 67-66 win in a regional semifinal.

Coach Roy Williams said that point guard Ty Lawson returned to UNC for his junior season mostly because he couldn't get assurance that he would be a first-round NBA Draft pick in 2008. Lawson said that there's at least one other reason he came back.

"I wanted to at least get back to the Final Four and win the national championship," Lawson said. "We're playing real well. I've worked on things that a lot of people said I couldn't do, and I'm showing that I can do them now."

Williams is taking a team to the Final Four for the seventh time (four at Kansas, three at UNC), and even though he coached the Tar Heels to the national championship in 2005, he said that in some ways, this season is one of the most satisfying of his career.

UNC lost its first two ACC games, and eight players have battled serious injuries.

"This has been a tough year for me mentally and emotionally, with the adversity," Williams said. "There's no question about it. It's been a hard year.

"In early-season practice, we'd have one drill that we were doing eight minutes, and after seven minutes I'd think I better stop it right there because I haven't hurt Tyler (Hansbrough) yet.

"In the last three weeks, we've had a drill that would go eight minutes, and after six minutes I'd think I'll just stop this right now because I've already got Tywon two plays. If I push him a third play, he may hurt his toe.

"Those kind of things wear on you, but it's a very satisfying year right now."

Lawson is confident that last year's Final Four loss to Kansas will provide insight for Saturday. One lesson learned is that the Tar Heels need a strong start and can't wait until the second half to start playing. UNC rallied against Kansas but couldn't take the lead.

"We don't want to come out sluggish or lackadaisical and let them jump on us because we know how hard it is to dig yourself out of a hole and waste a lot of energy," Green said.

At least two plays against Oklahoma infuriated Williams. Veterans made both, and Williams doesn't want them repeated in Detroit.

On the first, senior reserve Bobby Frasor threw a difficult pass to Green on a second-half break, with Oklahoma's defense back. The ball was low, and Green couldn't catch it before it bounced out of bounds.

"Bobby makes a one-handed pass off a dribble through traffic and throws the stupid thing away," Williams said. "The only person in the building who was madder than me was his dad (a former high-school basketball coach for 27 years)."

Hansbrough made the next play three minutes later. Frustrated with his fouls and his inability to take shots against Oklahoma's defense, he jumped about four feet from the basket and tried for a one-handed dunk but was well off target.

Williams called Hansbrough's decision a "dumb" play for anyone, much less a four-year starter and last season's consensus national player of the year.

"Now, in the first half I didn't like what he did," Williams said. "He got two cheap fouls, and he had brain lock when he tried to dump that one ball from one top of the mountain to the other top of the mountain 14 miles away.

"Other than that, he was sensational defensively."

■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.