Chris Coduto/Arizona Daily Wildcat Be-deviling the Devils: Wildcats junior forward Ivan Radenovic outmuscles a pair of ASU defenders in Wednesday night's 80-70 victory over the Sun Devils. The Wildcats traveled to the East Coast, spending the weekend in Chapel Hill, N.C., where they will take on the defending National Champion Tar Heels tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Arizona rolls into Chapel Hill on 3-game win streak

If the 2004-05 Arizona men's basketball team had held on for the Elite Eight upset against Illinois and then taken out Louisville in the Final Four, this might be the most hyped rematch of the year for college basketball.

Even without that looming in the back of the minds of the Wildcats' minds, Arizona head coach Lute Olson said tomorrow's matchup with North Carolina (11-5) isn't just big for Arizona (13-6, 6-3 Pacific 10 Conference) but is big for the conference as a whole.

"The way I look at Saturday, the Saturday game is for the Pac-10 Conference," Olson said of the game, set to tip at 11 a.m. on CBS. "The only two non-conference games left is Stanford at Gonzaga and us at North Carolina, and we both have bitten off a big chunk, but our league needs that.

"If we don't need that then it will be more reason that Pac-10 didn't deserve three teams or whatever they're going to say."

The Wildcats ride a three-game winning streak heading to Chapel Hill, N.C., after an 80-70 win Wednesday against ASU, in which senior guard Hassan Adams finished with 21 points and six steals.

Olson said after the game that Adams hadn't been feeling well before the contest but played one of his best games of the year.

"I'm not sure Hassan has played any better in terms of the effort he puts in," Olson said. "I think that shows his teammates that he really wants this thing, and I thought his leadership in that regard was great."

Adams said that there will be no problem getting hyped for the boys in the baby blues.

"(The hype) speaks for itself," Adams said. "It's a big game, and we're going to be prepared."

Arizona hasn't faced the Tar Heels since the 1997 Final Four, when Arizona handed then-No. 1 seed North Carolina a 66-58 loss.

"That year we opened the season with them in the Hall of Fame Game and finished their season for them in '97, so we've actually played pretty well against them," Olson said.

Freshman forward Marcus Williams said that with all the history behind these two squads, this is something that every kid dreams of doing.

"It's going to be real exciting," Williams said. "Every high school basketball player dreams of going to North Carolina and playing for the Tar Heels.

"They have a lot of young guys that I'm familiar with, so I'm excited about it and I'm looking forward to it."

Williams, who scored 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting against Stanford Jan. 19, has struggled with his shot since, combining to shoot 28 percent in the last two games but said he figured out the problem.

"I've got to get my legs in my shot," Williams said.

While Arizona has been on a winning streak, the Tar Heels have struggled of late, dropping three of their last four games, most recently Wednesday's 81-74 loss to No. 20 Boston College.

Even with the latest defeats, the Tar Heels are the top-ranked team outside of The Associated Press Top 25 and rank No. 25 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll.

One bright spot for North Carolina has been the play of NCAA freshman of the year candidate, forward Tyler Hansbrough, who averages 18.1 points per game.

With NCAA tournament implications going hand-in-hand with this game, junior point guard Mustafa Shakur, who had 17 points and four assists against ASU, said that his team's focus is solely on the game.

"I'm not even thinking about (the NCAA tournament)," Shakur said. "We just want to go out there and play. We know it's a big game, and (we need to) go out there and play our hearts out."