Sean May couldn’t help his mind from wandering. Last night, he lay down to bed at 12:30 a.m. in his room at the Wyndham Hotel in Carrier Circle. He was restless, a bundle of nerves thinking about his Elite 8 matchup with Wisconsin – and more specifically, what he would do if his North Carolina basketball team won.

‘That’s all I thought about last night,’ May said, ‘the emotions going over and hugging coach (Roy Williams) and hugging Raymond (Felton) and Rashad (McCants).’

Finally, he fell asleep at 2:15 a.m. Nearly 15 hours later, his premonition came true. As the final horn sounded in UNC’s 88-82 victory over Wisconsin, May, the largest and most dominating basketball player on Sunday, ran around the court, looking to bear hug anyone wearing Carolina blue.

‘I was staring at the sky (last night), tossing and turning,’ May said. ‘I don’t know why, I’ve never been nervous for games and it was just the spotlight and a chance to go to the Final Four.’

May took the spotlight and excelled, scoring 29 points and nabbing 12 rebounds. On Saturday, May will become the third member of his family to play in the Final Four. His brother, Scott Jr., played for Indiana in 2002, when the Hoosiers made the finals. His father, Scott, was on the 1976 Indiana championship team.

On Sunday, May dominated every aspect of the game – scoring, passing and rebounding. He pounded down low, scoring almost at will. He corralled rebounds with his soft hands, while boxing out Wisconsin players with his enormous body. And he fed Jawad Williams on two pretty assists with 12 minutes left in the game.

Wisconsin chose not to double-team May, instead sticking to its man-to-man defense to limit Carolina’s other primary offensive threats – Felton and McCants. The decision cost them. Six-foot-8, 240-pound Mike Wilkinson drew the unlucky task of defending May, and was abused most of the night.

‘Rashad told me before the game, ‘there is no way he’ll be able to guard you,” May said. ”He’s too little.”

‘He’s almost unstoppable,’ Wilkinson conceded after the game.

As May took care of Wilkinson on the offensive end, he also succeeded in taking Wilkinson out of the game defensively.

‘I think him having to play defense and banging in the post didn’t allow him to be fully energized for offense,’ May said. ‘We all know how good he is offensively.’

Wilkinson scored 11 points after scoring 17 against North Carolina State on Friday.

May dominated the game from the opening tip, scoring eight of UNC’s first 10 points. By halftime he had 16 points. He demonstrated everything from a power game – throwing down two thunderous dunks in the first half – to mid-range finesse – knocking down a couple of jumpers.

After the game, like any big man should, May credited his guards for feeding him the ball. Felton registered seven assists, many off of passes to May. On one possession, with nearly three minutes left in the first half, Felton simply lobbed the ball over an overplayed defense. May snatched it and dropped it in for another of his easy lay-ups.

‘There aren’t too many guys built like him,’ said Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan, ‘and he knows how to use what he has.’

Published on March 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm