--Coach Randy Wittman started rookie Corey Brewer Sunday on a hunch, and Brewer responded with an efficient 16-point, seven-rebound, three-assist, 26-minute performance that didn't include a minute played in the fourth quarter when Wittman turned exclusively to Kirk Snyder.
Wittman said he also swapped Brewer for Snyder in the starting lineup because he wanted Snyder to defend Jazz reserve Matt Harpring. Snyder played his rookie season with the Jazz and Harpring, now a nine-year veteran forward from Georgia Tech. Somebody asked Snyder after the game about his history playing against Harpring.
"I have a history of getting bloody lips from him," Snyder said, smiling to display a fresh one received on Sunday. "Every time we play, he thinks he has to hit me in the mouth. I don't even worry about it anymore, because I know I'm going to get one. I had to get stitches after one practice with him."
--The North Carolina Tar Heels have reached their first Final Four since they won the NCAA title in 2005. Wolves guard Rashad McCants played on that championship team, but he says he hasn't watched his former team's current tournament run with any great anticipation.
"I'm in the NBA now, so I don't really focus on the college basketball world anymore," he said. "I'm just trying to get my team to win some games. That alone really keeps my attention. A lot of guys on our team -- Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, Randy (Foye) -- follow the college basketball game, but all those guys never won a championship, so they don't understand what it means to leave it behind.
"Once you leave the college world on a championship level, now you've got to understand it's the next level, it's the NBA."
McCants said he didn't know enough about college teams to fill out an NCAA tournament bracket.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "He's a physical specimen, kind of like myself." -- Wolves forward Kirk Snyder on Utah veteran Matt Harpring, a former teammate who gave him another fat lip on Sunday.
