HOUSTON
The North Carolina buses pulled up to the team hotel at a little before 10:30 here on Wednesday night to the sound of the Tar Heels' fight song playing inside the lobby and to the sight of UNC banners and logos plastered all over the walls, the doors, the elevators.
The Tar Heels had arrived for the Final Four, and there was a welcome waiting: the fight song, people in the lobby waving pom-poms and shaking cowbells. Earlier in the day they'd prepared the scene here at the Hilton near the Houston Galleria.
On one of the pictures outside stood a 10-foot tall version of Nate Britt.