The Key Matchup: Virginia’s Elton Brown against North Carolina’s Sean May.
The Cavaliers’ 6-foot-9 center has 10 double-doubles this season, but he managed little production against the North Carolina frontcourt during the Jan. 29 contest between the two teams in Charlottesville.
He shot 3-of-8 from the floor, and he grabbed just six rebounds — all at the defensive end — and finished the game with nine points.
He didn’t do much in Virginia’s next game, a 98-79 loss to Providence, and found himself benched for two consecutive games.
But if the Cavaliers are to spring the unlikely upset — or even to keep the final margin respectable — Brown will have to establish himself in the paint against the Tar Heels’ deep frontcourt.
His job isn’t made any easier, however, by the fact that North Carolina center Sean May has been playing his best basketball of the season of late.
He singlehandedly kept the Tar Heels in the game against Duke, scoring 23 points and snatching 18 rebounds, and he followed with a 16-point, 13-board effort against Connecticut, effectively silencing criticism that he does not show up in big games.
And to make matters worse for Brown and the Cavaliers, Jawad Williams seemed to find his stroke in Hartford, scoring a team-high 17 points against UConn.
Williams, after all, was outscoring the Virginia team by himself for much of the first half in the first meeting between these two teams.
Final Analysis/Prediction: Promoters have convinced both teams to don 1980s-style uniforms and are encouraging fans to dress in line with the theme.
But if Virginia hopes to dodge a similar shellacking to the one it suffered at University Hall, it’ll probably need another remnant from that decade — Ralph Sampson.
Unless the 7-foot-4 legend strolls through the Smith Center doors with eligibility remaining, however, Coach Pete Gillen’s Cavaliers likely will find themselves on the wrong end of yet another rout against a North Carolina team in position to claim a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
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The Bottom Line: North Carolina 102, Virginia 76.
—Compiled by Brian MacPherson
