2010 NIT Basketball Tournament: Dayton vs North Carolina

It's been weird to comprehend the journeys North Carolina and Dayton have taken in 2010. For all their struggles, the Tar Heels and Flyers have managed to play well enough to last into April.

If Virginia Commonwealth closes down Saint Louis in Game 2 of the CBI championship series on the night of March 31, only six teams will be able to say that they've entered April with another game to play. North Carolina and Dayton would be two of those squads. It's hard to wrap one's mind around such a statement, but it would stand up under scrutiny.

Yes, it's a mind-bender, but it can't be denied that a pair of massively underachieving outfits have earned the right to play for a championship on Thursday in New York. Is this an elaborate April Fool's Day joke? It might seem like one, but it's merely the truth. College basketball produces strange results in the month of March, creating April encounters few could have predicted when the NCAA and NIT brackets were first announced.

It was more than understandable to discount the ability of these teams to win four NIT games and set up this final act on Broadway. Coach Roy Williams's Tar Heels were seeded fourth, meaning that they had to win two true road games en route to New York. When one realizes that Carolina managed a .500 record after bowing out in the first round of the ACC Tournament, it's profoundly difficult to imagine how the Heels high-tailed it to Madison Square Garden over the past few weeks.

It's been amazing to see point guard Larry Drew II hit huge game-defining shots in the NIT second round (against Jarvis Varnado and Mississippi State) and then in Tuesday night's semifinal win over Rhode Island. UNC has not been terrifically airtight in this tournament, and the Tar Heels hit just 2 of 17 3-pointers in their 68-67 triumph over "Rhody" on Tuesday, but whenever crunch time has come calling, Drew and his teammates have done just enough to answer the bell and advance. Good defensive performances and a slightly elevated competitive fire have given Carolina just enough of a push to make it through to April.

Carolina trailed Rhode Island by five points late in Tuesday's semifinal, but when the Rams missed a pile of foul shots in the closing moments, the Tar Heels were resourceful enough to take advantage. In the sometimes attractive but often inconsistent realm of NIT basketball, Carolina has been the tournament's best closer. Nothing will fully wipe away the pain of falling from the top 10 in the national polls (a place the Tar Heels occupied in November), but at least this ACC powerhouse has put itself in position to regroup for next season.

Dayton 's march through March has, in a larger context, shared a number of similarities with the progression of North Carolina. The Flyers - seeded third in their own NIT subregional - also had to swipe a pair of roadies in order to forge ahead to the final. A team that was picked to win the Atlantic 10 championship but finished seventh in the league standings could relate to UNC's astonishingly low 10th-place finish in the ACC. On the matter of squandering talent, Dayton and Carolina represented very similar portraits of basketball bafflement. Two collections of gifted athletes - but not necessarily intelligent players - failed to mesh as their respective seasons continued.

Yet, there were a number of ways in which Dayton's road to the NIT final differed sharply from the road taken by North Carolina. The Flyers soared past their opposition on the way to The World's Most Famous Arena. A 15-point win at Cincinnati and a deceptively easy six-point win at Illinois powered coach Brian Gregory's team to America's cultural mecca. Precisely when a lot of hoops junkies expected the Flyers to fold like a cheap tent, they developed a spine and showed how much they cared about this NIT invite.

Once in New York, the Flyers didn't let down their guard. Whereas North Carolina needed a lot of assistance from Rhode Island to win its NIT semifinal, Dayton didn't require quite as much luck against Mississippi in Tuesday's first game. Sure, Ole Miss wing Trevor Gaskins did miss a game-tying layup inside the 20-second mark of regulation, but Dayton was the better team throughout the evening. While Carolina needed Rhode Island to miss a bunch of free throws in the final 90 seconds of regulation, it was Dayton who locked down a semifinal triumph by standing strong at the charity stripe in the final 12 seconds against Ole Miss. While UNC was gifted with an unexpected overtime period, Dayton didn't have to overextend itself on Tuesday.

Now, the Tar heels and Flyers - both heralded in November, both dead in early March, both resurrected in April - will see who can survive one more time and snare the NIT trophy. Both teams scored 68 points to win closely-contested semifinals, and since they both like to run (actually, all four NIT semifinalists preferred an up-tempo style), the Heels and Flyers actually had to be somewhat disappointed in their lack of offensive efficiency. Rebounding will likely decide the NCAA championship in Indianapolis, but here at the NIT, it's a combination of shot selection and shooting accuracy which will carry the night on April 1. Carolina and Dayton have been erratic from day one, and despite a four-game winning streak in the event known as the Little Dance, neither one of these teams can get too cocky or complacent at the offensive end of the floor. Prudence and patience - amidst the many fast breaks that are likely to emerge in this game - should go a long way toward deciding the championship of the National Invitation Tournament.

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball

NIT Championship Preview - Dayton vs North Carolina