If you still feel otherwise, read on.

Helping North Carolina beat Michigan State, 89-72, to win the national title was a dream come true for their trio of superstars; Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansbrough.

After they were surprisingly dumped by Kansas 84-66 in last year’s Final Four, all three almost walked away from the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball program for the glamor of going pro in the NBA.

Ultimately, all three decided to stick it out and try to win a title one more time. It paid off.

”I just wanted to be part of something special,” Tyler Hansbrough, who netted 18 points in the title game, said. ”I’m glad I’m going out like this. I’m glad we’re ending it the right way. I’m just glad we’re going out on the right note.”

The Tar Heels used that loss to Kansas last year as motivation. They started games slowly last year, falling behind quickly and never could recover. Throughout this tournament, rapid-fire starts have been their trademark. North Carolina certainly wasted little time in taking the suspense out of the NCAA final.

It was a fitting end for a team that’s carried the weight of the U.S. college basketball world on their shoulders all year long. From the moment of the first tip this season, all eyes were focused on the Tar Heels. Some pondered whether mighty North Carolina would…

It was a storybook ending for North Carolina.

After becoming the only team outside the Big East to earn one of four no.1 seeds for the tournament, after limping towards the 2009 NCAA Final Four with a hurting point guard and after simply dominating the tournament hosts, the North Carolina Tar Heels are the 2009 NCAA college basketball champions.

How about that huh? In Tyler Hansbrough’s senior year, the North Carolina Tar Heels became the 2009 national champions, sending off the face of their franchise like a hero.

Of course, Tyler Hansbrough could not be denied. And with the help of Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson, who was playing hurt, the Tar Heels simply destroyed Michigan State, 89-72, in a blowout win that was already over as early as the first half.

”I felt like it was fitting for us to do what this group just accomplished,” UNC coach Roy Williams said.

Hansbrough, playing his last game with the Tar Heels, scored 18 points. Wayne Ellington had 19 while Ty Lawson managed to score a game-high 21 points despite playing hurt.

But the story here is Tyler Hansbrough, a guy who came back for his senior year in North Carolina for…

The final four teams in college basketball will collide this weekend.

The cliché ”time flies when you’re having fun” is an old and dusty one, but it really holds true when it comes to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament.

It seems like it was only yesterday when it was just Selection Sunday and with a blink of an eye, the opening round, the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight are all in the rearview mirror and now, the 2009 NCAA Final Four is here.

Last year, there weren’t really any surprises as each of top four seeds; the Memphis Tigers, the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Kansas Jayhawks and the UCLA Bruins all made the Final Four.

While there are two no.1 seeds this year with the North Carolina Tar Heels (again) and the Connecticut Huskies making it, the Michigan State Spartans and the Villanova Wildcats decided to crash the party as well, shocking some college hoops fans in the process.

Of the four, SPORTSBETTING.COM has UNC as the odds-on favorite to win the NCAA championship at -125 followed by the Connecticut Huskies at +250. Michigan State is listed at +500 and Villanova at +600.

Listed as a -7.5 point favorite, North Carolina will try to prevent the Villanova Wildcats from reliving its magical 1985 run (shocked Georgetown), while UConn, favored by 4.5-points, will…

Are you ready?

Michigan State, Connecticut, Villanova and North Carolina are all in the 2009 NCAA Final Four as the Big Dance begins Saturday at Detroit’s Ford Field. This sets up several compelling connections to tournament lore.

Let’s start with the Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans not only get to play 90 miles from its East Lansing campus but returns to the Final Four for the 30th anniversary of its 1979 NCAA title. The famous showdown between Indiana State’s Larry Bird and Michigan State’s Magic Johnson that season helped shaped college basketball.

Detroit is an extension of home. The comforts are a reward for the Big Ten regular season champions, who are 9-0 all-time as a no.2 seed, the same seed Michigan State earned for the 1979 title run. Using stifling defense and Goran Suton’s offense, the Spartans manhandled top overall seed Louisville last Sunday.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo reached his fifth Final Four, all since 1999, joining the ranks of coaches such as Bob Knight, Lute Olson, Guy Lewis and Rick Pitino. MSU’s 2000 championship is the Big Ten’s most recent national title.

Two teams from the mighty Big East qualified, one shy of the record set by their conference in the 1985 Final Four, as the Connecticut Huskies and the Villanova Wildcats make up half of the Final Four.

No.3 seed Villanova feels a connection to the program’s…

UNC has simply been unbeatable.

Except for the first half of the LSU game in the second round, no team has really challenged North Carolina in the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament.

The Tar Heels even pulled away for a 14-point win over LSU in the second round of their road to the 2009 NCAA Final Four. The biggest worry, however, has been Ty Lawson’s toe injury, but after missing the opener against Radford, he has looked like the point guard who became the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) Player of the Year, leading UNC on the brink of winning the national championship.

The North Carolina Tar Heels almost matched their season average of 90 points per game in the tournament, but it was their defense that stood out, especially in the regional final as they held Oklahoma to 60 points, 19 below its average.

UNC head coach Roy Williams is making his third Final Four appearance, and second straight, with North Carolina, having won it all in 2005. He took Kansas to the Final Four four times from 1991-2003, and was an assistant to Dean Smith for several of his trips with North Carolina, including the 1982 national championship.

The Tar Heels will win the national title if they can continue to execute on both ends of the floor. UNC has won by an average margin of 22.5 points against Radford, LSU, Gonzaga and Oklahoma. But if UNC can’t execute the way they did in the first four rounds…

Ty Lawson is starting to feel better, just in time for UNC.

But will he be enough to carry UNC past Gonzaga and advance to the Elite Eight of the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament?

The speedy point guard said his troublesome toe is still achy after returning to the lineup over the weekend, but he plans to play against Gonzaga this Friday when his North Carolina Tar Heels resume their campaign in these bracket battles.

Will he be at 100 percent? For what it’s worth, Ty Lawson is optimistic about it and UNC coach Roy Williams is too, that the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) Player of the Year will be ready for the NCAA tournament’s round of 16.

Lawson had missed three straight games with a jammed right big toe before helping the top-seeded Tar Heels (30-4) rally past LSU in Saturday’s second-round game in the South Regional. He experienced some minor swelling afterwards, but thankfully, it was nothing like what followed the regular-season finale against Duke.

He participated in the team’s shootaround Monday and went through some drills during practice this week. But the team has been cautious, keeping him out of practice for almost two weeks, in addition to missing both of the…

If you’re in for the dramatic, I can’t blame you for taking UNC.

After all, aside from the fact that North Carolina is the ONLY no.1 seeded team not coming out of the Big East, the Tar Heels are coming in the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament looking to win the national title in Tyler Hansbrough’s last hurrah. Hansbrough has been the face of UNC the last four years and it is only fitting for them to go and win the big one in Hansbrough’s senior year.

But will North Carolina be a good bandwagon to ride on to win a lot of dough until the end of the tournament? Sure, they have Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson but can these guys be enough for UNC to end up with the national title?

No.1 has been a tenuous position atop the polls all year and the North Carolina Tar Heels demonstrated this again last week, when they were dumped by the Florida State Seminoles in the ACC semi-finals. They were beat 73-70, failing to cover as 8.5-point favorites.

While the Tar Heels were hot down the stretch going 16-4 straight up in their last 20 games, they were far from profitable for their backers, as they limped to a 7-13 mark against the spread.

Bettors actually made out okay in the tilt between UNC and Florida State, as the No.1 team in the nation was only…

Tournament title number three.

Yep, you read it, the North Carolina Tar Heels will play in the ACC tournament quarterfinal game against Virginia Tech on Friday afternoon as they will begin pursuit of a third consecutive league tournament crown.

The Tar Heels regained the top spot in the rankings just in time for college basketball’s ‘’second season’ and with its entire core intact from a team that reached the NCAA Final Four in 2008, they began the season as the team to beat, a title coach Roy Williams’ team held until it was stunned at home by Boston College in its ACC opener Jan. 4.

After a surprising 0-2 start in conference play, the Tar Heels finished the regular season by winning 13 of their last 14. They captured the outright ACC regular-season title with Sunday’s 79-71 win over then No.7 Duke, then claimed the top spot in the AP poll one day later for the first time since Dec. 29. Right in the nick of time before the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament begins eh?

However, the availability of ACC Conference Player of the Year Ty Lawson is in question with his right big toe swelling up after he played with an injury he sustained last Friday. The junior point guard has been outstanding this season, playing in every game, averaging 15.9 points and ranking third nationally in assist – to – turnover…

I guess you can now say that the Blue Devils have fallen head over heels for this graduating Tar Heel.

Yep, in Tyler Hansbrough’s final home game, he helped North Carolina celebrate yet another Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) title after scoring yet another win over rivals Duke this 2009 NCAA college basketball season.

And with the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament just around the corner, UNC scoring another conference title will put them in an enviable position heading for the tournament. Of course, beating Duke again is more than enough already to call this campaign a successful one.

Then again, the North Carolina Tar Heels are going for bigger things for sure. After all, this coming tournament will be the last time they’ll be having the beloved Tyler Hansbrough on their roster before he goes pro. And culminating Hansbrough’s four-year stay at UNC with the national title sure sounds good.

For now, they’ll just be happy to celebrate another win over their fiercest rivals, the Blue Devils, and with Tyler Hansbrough scoring 17 points, UNC was able to beat Duke in front of their adoring fans at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 79-71.

Helping Hansbrough was Ty Lawson, who almost got a triple-double finishing with 13 points. Lawson also made some key plays late despite playing with a toe injury.

North Carolina’s win over the Duke Blue Devils put them on top of the…

Talk about jumping the gun this year eh?

The new 2008-09 NCAA college basketball season has only begun and here we are giving you our picks on who will win the national championship already. And in case you haven’t guessed, we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that our picks ACTUALLY earn you a couple of bucks.

The favorite to win it all this year is the University of North Carolina Tar Heels with 6-1 odds. Unlike many of the other top teams, it appears UNC will not be affected by the mass defections to the NBA back in the offseason.

Forward Tyler Hansbrough (18.4 ppg), guard Wayne Ellington (11.7 ppg) and guard Ty Lawson (10.2 ppg) are all returning. And yes, you better watch out for these guys to lead UNC to the top again.

Right behind the Tar Heels are the Memphis Tigers at 8-1. Derrick Rose may have been the first pick in the NBA draft, but that does not mean Memphis will be lacking in talent.

Memphis is still absolutely loaded this season and primed to improve on their Elite Eight stint of last year. Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier are senior leaders on a team that definitely needs senior leadership. With some young talent waiting to make their mark, the Tigers can make another championship run

Other traditional powers who hope to bring down the favorites, includes UNC’s…