SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Dean Smith is taking his imposing records, a long winning streak and a pretty good basketball team to the Final Four.
Top-seeded North Carolina beat sixth-seeded Louisville 97-74 Sunday to win the East Regional and give the Tar Heels their 16th straight victory and 13th Final Four berth.
Eleven of those have been under Smith, who became college basketball's winningest coach last weekend and now has 879 career victories.
North Carolina (28-6) has been to the Final Four in each of the odd-numbered years in the '90s, with 1993 being Smith's second national championship.
The Tar Heels will play the winner of the Southeast Regional championship game between Arizona and Providence next Saturday in Indianapolis.
Smith is also the winningest coach in the history of the NCAA tournament and win No. 65 seemed assured by halftime as the Tar Heels took a 54-33 lead. North Carolina shot 63 percent from the field in the first half, and held the Cardinals (26-9) without a field goal over the final five minutes, outscoring them 19-6.
But Louisville, which trailed at halftime in all four of its NCAA tournament games, had other ideas. The Cardinals started the second half with a 19-5 run and used a 3-point barrage to get within 69-66 with 8:19 to play. However, they went into another long scoring drought, and a 12-0 run over the next 4:45 increased North Carolina's lead to 81-66.
''That win came over a courageous, gutty team that was down by 21 points and came back,'' Smith said. ''You also have to hand it to our players for the way they responded and played great over the last seven minutes. You have to admire that for a team that's been like that all year.''
North Carolina lost its first three Atlantic Coast Conference games this season for the first time ever. The Tar Heels were being written off by many, but they haven't lost since Jan. 29.
''This was a great feeling to cut down those nets after the way we started the ACC season,'' North Carolina forward Antawn Jamison said. ''We came together as a team and put all our differences aside. It shows how hard we worked and that hard work pays off.''
Louisville senior guard DeJuan Wheat, who sprained his left ankle in the regional semifinal victory over Texas and was considered doubtful for Sunday's game, started but was limited in what he could do.
The Cardinals' leading scorer and best ballhandler had one 3-pointer in five attempts in the first half and two of the team's 11 turnovers. He finished with six points on 2-for-11 shooting, and had eight assists in a gutty 32 minutes.
''I just wanted to play,'' Wheat said. ''If we were going to lose I wanted to be out on the court.''
Smith said Wheat received no special treatment from the Tar Heels.
''We played Wheat as if he were healthy,'' Smith said. ''We really covered him.''
Cardinals coach Denny Crum, like Smith a Hall of Famer and with 613 victories of his own, was trying to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 1986, the year he won the second of his two national championships. Crum's 42 NCAA tournament wins are behind only Smith and UCLA's John Wooden who had 47. It was Crum's first loss in seven regional final games.
''Even without DeJuan at full strength we didn't play bad,'' Crum said. ''They just played very well.''
Shammond Williams, who was selected the regional's most outstanding player, led North Carolina with 22 points, while Vince Carter had 18 and Jamison 15. Serge Zwikker and Ed Cota each had 13 points for the Tar Heels, and Ademola Okulaja had 11.
Alex Sanders led Louisville with 20 points. Nate Johnson and B.J. Flynn each had 12, Flynn's all coming on 3-pointers.
Flynn's 3-pointer with 5:21 left in the first half brought Louisville within 35-27, and it was also the Cardinals' last field goal of the first half. While the Tar Heels were scoring on layups off turnovers and nice inside passes, Louisville missed eight shots and committed three turnovers as North Carolina took the 21-point halftime lead.
Flynn had three 3-pointers in a three-minute span, the last of which had the Cardinals within 69-66. But Carter then scored five straight points for the Tar Heels and Jamison sandwiched two baskets down low around a 3-pointer by Williams to complete the 12-0 run that turned the game back into a rout. The 3-pointers that had been falling for Louisville all seemed to be just short as the Cardinals were obviously tired.
''We always seem to have one run during each game we've played this year so we knew it was coming,'' Flynn said of the start of the second half. ''I knew if we kept fighting and hustling they would break down and we would get things going again. Things were going good and then we ran out of gas and they took control again.''
When Flynn's 3-pointer cut the lead to three, Smith said something to his team that might have gotten them angry.
''I told them 'They could catch up and win and we've had a great season,''' he said. ''Sometimes you have to confront them so they will do something about it.''
The defense was what did it for North Carolina. The zone that had been so effective early was replaced by some solid man-to-man, where the Tar Heels could use their size advantage.
''That's the toughest defense I've ever tried to play against,'' Flynn said. ''They're big and quick and then they can shoot and still go inside.''
Now they're going to the Final Four.
