North Carolina pulled even with Indiana for third place on the all-time list with five NCAA championships after beating Michigan State 89-72 to give head coach Roy Williams his second NCAA crown. Wayne Ellington was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
65-Team Field
The NCAA continued its 65-team system with a play-in game between the 64th and 65th teams for the ninth consecutive year. The tournament ran from March 17 to April 6 with the Final Four being played at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
North Carolina No. 1 Seed In South
Roy Williams' Tar Heels were the overwhelming favorites to capture the title after bringing back most of the 2008 team which lost to Kansas in the national semifinals. North Carolina were given a No. 1 seed in the South region, and Williams' men cruised to the Final Four. In the first round, UNC beat Radford 101-58 before knocking off LSU 84-70 in the second round. Gonzaga was the next victim in the Sweet Sixteen, 98-77 and then the Tar Heels beat Blake Griffin and Oklahoma 72-60 to reach the Final Four for the 18th time.
Few Upsets
The 2009 tournament did not feature a great number of upsets. The underdogs showed their stuff in the Midwest, where 13 seed Cleveland State, 12 seed Arizona, 11 seed Dayton and 10 seed USC all won against higher seeded teams. Arizona beat Cleveland State in the second round but was knocked off by top ranked Louisville in the Sweet Sixteen. In the East and South, the No. 12 seeds Wisconsin and Western Kentucky both sprang surprises before getting beaten in the second round by No. 4 seeds.
Top Seeds Head Through
For the first time since seeding began in 1979, all No. 1-3 seeds advanced to the Sweet 16 with No. 12 Louisville (Midwest) and No. 5 Purdue (West) the only seeds lower than 4 to reach that point. And for the third consecutive season, all four top seeds reached the Elite Eight.
UNC, Connecticut, Michigan State, Villanova In Final Four
Joining North Carolina in the Final Four was the West No. 1 seed Connecticut, which was in its third Final Four; Midwest 2 seed Michigan State, which returned to the national semifinals for the seventh time and first since 2005; and East 3 seed Villanova, back in the Final Four for the fourth time and first since winning the title in 1985.
Spartans Upset UConn, Meet Carolina In Final
With the home state crowd behind it, Michigan State reached its third title game by surprising Connecticut 82-73 in the national semifinals. The game was back and forth through the first 30 minutes until the Spartans used a huge rebounding advantage to grab a double-digit lead. Connecticut fought back late but Michigan State prevailed in the end. North Carolina moved to its ninth NCAA championship game with an 83-69 drubbing of overwhelmed Villanova. Wayne Ellington had 20 points and Tyler Hansbrough added 18 points and 11 rebounds and Ty Lawson dished out eight assists in the easy victory.
UNC-MSU Rematch Of December Thrashing
The final between North Carolina and Michigan State was a rematch of a regular season game - also at Detroit's Ford Field - in which the Tar Heels won 98-63.
Carolina Take Advantage Of Spartan Turnovers
In the final, Michigan State could not control the ball and turned the ball over 14 times in the first half as North Carolina set records for the most points and biggest half-time lead in a championship game with the score 55-34 at the break. Michigan State got to within 13 points but this was Carolina's night with the 89-72 blowout. Hansbrough scored 18 points, Ellington had 19 and Lawson led all scorers with 21 as well as a record eight steals.
Williams Wins Second Title
Carolina won every game by double digits, a feat not accomplished since Duke in 2001. And by adding the 2009 crown to his title in 2005, Roy Williams joins Jim Calhoun, Billy Donovan and Mike Krzyzewski as the fourth active coach to win multiple titles.
