One week after the Utes shocked the defending national champions in a 25-point laugher, they held on for a 65-59 victory over top-ranked North Carolina on Saturday, advancing to the Final Four championship game for the second time in school history. Utah won the title in 1944.
Tonight, the Utes (30-3) will face Kentucky, which beat Stanford 86-85 in overtime in the other national semifinal.
Against Arizona last Saturday in the West Regional final, Utah coach Rick Majerus went with a triangle-and-2 defense and held the Wildcats to 28 percent shooting.
Against North Carolina (34-4), the nation's leading shooting team at 52 percent, the Utes went straight man-to-man and lived up to their title as the No. 2 field goal defensive team in the country. The Tar Heels shot just 39 percent (27-for-69), including 3-for-23 from 3-point range.
The loss ended the great rookie season of 60-year-old Bill Guthridge, who replaced Dean Smith after sitting beside him for 30 years.
He led the Tar Heels back to the Final Four, just the seventh time a first-year coach got his team to the semifinals. He also set the record for victories by a first-year coach, but it wasn't enough to get the Tar Heels to their eighth national championship game.
03-30-98
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