Notes: UConn wins game, loses El-Amin

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Fourteen seconds remained in the game. North Carolina freshman Joseph Forte, who's game is as flashy as anyone's, dribbled the ball to the left baseline in an attempt to postfeed the ball to center Brendan Haywood. The shot clock was turned off, no shot was needed. But Forte wanted Haywood to put a cherry on the Tar Heels' victory.

Instead, Haywood waived him off. His work for the night was already done. There was nothing that Haywood could possibly get in the waning few seconds that would have topped the other 31 minutes he was on the floor. He and the Heels had proven their point.

Many questioned whether the Tar Heels deserved to be here after an 18-13 season. The prevailing thought was that UNC deserved the NIT instead of the NCAA. Critics also questioned Haywood's commitment to the game. Physically, the 7-footer has the talent to dominate. But his lax attitude sometimes stunted his growth as a player.

Against Missouri, the sleeping giant finally awakened from his slumber for a career-high 28 points and 15 rebounds in an 84-70 victory. And in doing so, he helped North Carolina put to rest any question of whether this team belonged in the tournament.

"We were able to get the ball to Brendan," Carolina coach Bill Guthridge said. "Obviously, we've been trying to get it to him all year and we've been working on it different ways and really concentrating on that. One of our areas that we felt we held the advantage was in the paint."

If the Tar Heels had any more success in the paint, they could've given Dutch Boy a run for its money on the open market. With Haywood leading the way, Carolina drew a 10-foot radius around the basket and virtually dared Missouri to match its presence inside. The Tar Heels outscored the Tigers 56-32 in the lane and outrebounded them by 25.

"We tried to use our advantage to its best," said Carolina point guard Ed Cota, who's 10 assists gave him 1,003 for his career to make him one of only three players (Bobby Hurley is No.1 at 1,076 assists; Chris Corchiani is second with 1,038) in NCAA history to cross the 1,000 assist plateau. "Our big guys did a good job of getting position inside. Haywood did a great job."

David kept firing its long distance sling shot at Goliath, but the Tigers were only made eight of their 31 three-point attempts.

With only 6-foot-11 freshman Pat Schumacher, to counter UNC's bulk and height, Missouri was at a decided disadvantage. To his credit, Tigers coach Quin Snyder tried everything imaginable to offset Haywood. But the 6-7 and 6-8 bodies Snyder threw at Haywood were like Chihuahuas nipping on the Heels.

When the Tigers fronted Haywood, the Tar Heels would easily find him with pin-point lob passes. When they went to a 2-3 zone and sagged in the middle on Haywood, he found the open spots and simply shot over the Tigers.

"Tonight showed the weakness of our ball club," Snyder said. "We battled gallantly all year, but in the end their size and depth created problems.

"We ran into a really good team that exploited their strengths against us. We had stretches where no one was effective against Haywood. We tried a lot of different combinations but they weren't very effective. They do a great job of keeping their big players near the basket."

North Carolina's Ed Cota and Missouri's Clarence Gilbert grapple for the ball.(AP)

Said Haywood: "A lot of my success had to do with my teammates. They got me the ball at the right time and executed the plays really well to get me open. Then it was just me making good, quick moves or kicking it out.

"I definitely tried to impose my will in there. I did feel them maybe getting a little bit tired. They tried to rotate a couple fresh bodies. But my teammates made great lob passes over the top, had great movement in our offense so they couldn't just key on me."

For now, the Tar Heels have put the questions on the back burner. They proved they belong. And Haywood proved that could live up to his potential to be a dominant force.

But as top seed Stanford looms on the horizon in Sunday's second-round matchup, the critics will likely surface again with more questions. Can UNC beat The Cardinal? How will Haywood stack up against the deepest, most talented frontcourt in the nation?

"That's a position that I'm comfortable with," Haywood said. "The people that are counting us out, they're not expecting us to win. And that's when you're the most dangerous. We have nothing to lose. We had everything to gain. A lot of people didn't even expect us to win today.

"We're coming in Sunday, everybody's going to say we're not going to win that one and hopefully, we'll prove some people wrong then, too."