Regular-season game first for powerhouse basketball programs

With a combined five NCAA national championships, 20 Final Fours, 21 former players currently playing in the NBA, Arizona and North Carolina, two of college basketball's most storied programs, will square off for the first time in a regular-season game tomorrow.

"If it's Carolina, it's always been one of the powers, especially with (Michael) Jordan and James Worthy coming from there and guys like that," junior point guard Mustafa Shakur said. "It's always been one of the big time schools."

The Tar Heels and the Wildcats have met five times before, with Arizona holding a 3-2 edge. The last two meetings came in the 1996-97 season, the former during the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic and the latter coming in the semifinal match-up at the Final Four in Indianapolis, both Arizona victories. There are still plenty of marquee participants associated with that game, and none have forgotten even the smallest details.

"I can still tell you what happened in 1997 against Arizona," said North Carolina head coach Roy Williams. "How one player should have shot and didn't."

Arizona assistant coach Miles Simon scored 24 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished five assists in Arizona's 66-58 comeback win.

"I just remember us being down big early, down 11 in the first five minutes, and we just made a big run, and Vince Carter played well," Simon said. "(Antawn) Jamison didn't have a great game, neither did (Serge) Zwikker, Shammond Williams shot the ball horrible, and it was Dean Smith's last college game coaching."

That's something that everybody (wants to have) ... a chance to play in the Dean Dome. - Mustafa Shakur, junior guard

Smith, whose name was synonymous with North Carolina basketball for decades, spent 36 seasons as the head coach of the Tar Heels, producing more wins during his tenure than any other Division I college basketball coach. The Dean E. Smith Center, or "Dean Dome," as it is affectionately known, now bears the Hall of Fame coach's name.

"Dean Smith and all the great players that he had, there's just so much history and it'll be fun to play there," junior center Kirk Walters said.

"Arizona and North Carolina are if not the two best programs then at least in the top five in NCAA history," junior forward Ivan Radenovic added. "It's going to be a game of history with coach Olson and Roy Williams."

Along with the success each program has had at the college level, the professional careers of the schools' alumni have not been too shabby either. The list of North Carolina pros starts with Michael Jordan and stretches to perennial all-stars such as Worthy, Bob McAdoo, and Vince Carter as well as NBA champions including Kenny Smith, Sam Perkins, Rick Fox and Rasheed Wallace.

"Last year they won the national championship, this year they lost six players, but they're still playing pretty good," Radenovic said. "It's a good experience for me playing that big of a game."

History aside, Williams said this game does not come at a good time for either team, as both have struggled this season, the Wildcats coming in unranked and the Tar Heels about to drop out of their No. 25 ranking in the ESPN/USA Today poll after losing to Boston College on Wednesday.

"Getting out of conference playing that kind of opponent is extremely difficult, but you still want to do those kind of things," Williams said.

For Mohamed Tangara, who played high school basketball at Mount Zion Christian Academy in North Carolina, the game means everyone wants tickets. Tangara was begging his teammates for tickets in the locker room after the ASU game, but freshman guard J.P. Prince, whose parents are flying in for the game, just scoffed at Tangara's request. Tangara said he needs up to 50 tickets but currently has just three. Shakur said he will have six or seven friends and family members at the game as well.

"To play them at their home, that's something that everybody in terms of the college player either playing for Carolina or playing there (wants to have) - a chance to play in the Dean Dome," Shakur said.