By The Associated Press

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – No one ever questioned North Carolina’s talent.

Last season, Rashad McCants (scoring), Sean May (rebounding) and Raymond Felton (assists) became the first trio of teammates to lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in those categories, and they all returned for their junior years.

The only doubt about the Tar Heels was how well they would play together. With so many stars, would there be enough basketballs to go around?

Coach Roy Williams helped alleviate that problem last fall, giving the team a simple motto for the upcoming season and convincing them to believe in it: “IT IS AMAZING WHAT CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED IF NO ONE CARES WHO GETS THE CREDIT.”

Suddenly, McCants was turning down shots to pass to May, who in turn was going after rebounds with more intensity than ever. And Felton did what he always does, pushing the ball up the court and forcing the tempo of the game.

The result was stunning, an outright ACC regular-season title for the first time since 1993 and No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Now, North Carolina (30-4) is one victory away from the Final Four, playing sixth-seeded Wisconsin (25-8) on Sunday in the final of the Syracuse Regional.

“I think that was probably the most instrumental thing about our season,” McCants said Saturday. “We had a lot of guys sacrificing a lot of their parts of game just to be successful.”

McCants credits Williams for his own turnaround and that of the team.

“Coach wanted us to go out and just believe in him, that he was going to take us to the promised land,” McCants said. “He’s been successful in the past getting here many times, and we had never really won anything. So if we just got on his back and just rode him, we would get here.”

Williams, as most coaches do, deflects any praise that comes his way, choosing instead to point to the maturity and talent of his players. There’s no doubt those also are factors why the Tar Heels got to the round of eight for the first time in five years, but Williams was the one who nudged them in that direction.

His counterpart in Sunday’s game, Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan, also has received a lot of credit, even if some of it sounds like blame. Over and over during his stay in Syracuse, Ryan has been grilled about his swing offense, which at times has been called plodding, outdated and downright boring by those asking the questions.

Through it all, the veteran coach has shown the same type of patience he preaches to his players when they’re looking for a shot.

“Our guys are like anybody else,” Ryan said. “They like to play. I mean, we’ve never told our players to milk the shot clock, to do this, to do that. We’ve never done it. Get a good shot, that’s all. What coach doesn’t tell their team to get a good shot?”

One thing he clearly has in common with Williams is the devotion and respect of his players.

“He’s a great coach,” Wisconsin forward Mike Wilkinson said. “He knows the game extremely well. It’s almost amazing in a way, the way he knows what’s going to happen during a game. He’s really competitive, too. You can almost look at him and tell that he would get out on the court, if he could.”

Michigan State, Kentucky are deep and deeper

AUSTIN, Texas – Tom Izzo can look down the Michigan State bench and smile. Even when his five starters are on the court, he still has four guys he’s comfortable using.

Pretty impressive, even for one of the final eight teams in the NCAA tournament.

Yet it’s still not as good as Kentucky’s depth.

The Wildcats have used 13 players in each of their last two games. Coach Tubby Smith emptied his bench by halftime in the second round against Cincinnati and got in all but two in the first half against Utah on Friday night.

Even Izzo was left shaking his head at that.

“We thought WE played a lot of guys,” he said Saturday.

Call them deep and deeper. And when Kentucky (28-5) and Michigan State (25-6) play today in the finals of the Austin Regional, expect their endless rosters to produce a coaching chess match between Izzo and Smith, each mixing up their lineup to counter the other’s personnel, force mismatches and change the tempo.

The reward for the team that does it best: a trip to the Final Four.

“Neither team has that one true superstar or everybody’s All-American,” said Kentucky’s do-it-all senior Chuck Hayes, the closest either team has to a national headliner. “You can say we are pretty much similar.”

Let’s compare.

The Wildcats have four players who average 20-plus minutes, five more in the teens. The Spartans rely on six players for at least 22 minutes, with three more between 10 and 16.

Hayes is Kentucky’s most-used player at 29.1 minutes a game. Alan Anderson tops Michigan State with 26.4.

While some knock the wide distribution of playing time as a sign the teams lack stars, it’s quite the opposite. They have so many deserving players that this is the only way to get them all on the court.

Most coaches wish they had such problems. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s easy keeping everyone happy.

Smith and Izzo worked hard to recruit all their blue chippers, then had to sell them again on sacrificing their numbers for the greater good of the team. You try doing that with guys 18 to 21, all with NBA aspirations, most having always been on teams that revolved around them.

“It works well because Coach Izzo does not allow any egos,” said Maurice Ager, just a tick behind Anderson as Michigan State’s top scorer. “All of the egos go out the window and that solves half the problem right there.”

The sacrifices players have made is best illustrated by the season-ending honors for both teams. Or, rather, the lack of them.

The Spartans had no all-Big Ten selections in media voting. Anderson made the second team and Ager and Paul Davis were third-teamers.

The Wildcats fared only slightly better in the Southeastern Conference. Hayes made first team, Patrick Sparks landed on the second team and Kelenna Azubuike made the third team. Hayes was the only player on either team to get any AP All-America votes, but only enough to make honorable mention.

Still, this is a team game. And both teams are three wins from becoming national champs.

Smith and Izzo have gotten this far before by sticking with the star system. On Saturday, each used the same word to describe doing it this way: Fun.

“It is sometimes easier on the coach to have seven or eight players in the rotation,” Izzo said. But, he continued, using more “is probably more fun in the practices and locker rooms and hotels. You look at every one of them and know every one could contribute at any time.”

Another benefit of having so many players who can do so many things is being prepared for every situation. Just look at what happened Friday night.

The Wildcats sent three 7-footers and a swarm of helpers at Utah’s All-American center Andrew Bogut, pestering him into the worst shooting game of his career. The Spartans were just as relentless in pressuring Duke’s J.J. Redick, the ACC player of the year, limiting him to 13 points, nine below his average, and keeping him scoreless over the final eight minutes.

Players can go hard on defense because they know they won’t be on the court long, sort of a less-is-more factor.

“Every minute you’re out there, you have to spill it,” Anderson said. “You don’t save yourself. Whatever it takes – diving on the ground, getting after loose balls – because you know you have a fresh guy coming in for you that can give the team a boost.”