The Carolinas shine in NCAA college basketball finals

The biggest sports news of the day won’t happen until tonight when UNC and Kansas face off for the men’s NCAA college basketball championship title. But it’s been a wild weekend for college basketball fans in the Carolinas. First, UNC beat Duke in a Final Four bout for the ages. Then, South Carolina easily beat UConn for the women’s championship.

It was South Carolina’s second national championship — and the Gamecocks, led by star coach Dawn Staley, were No. 1 all season.

“Dawn is the hot coach, she’s the hot team, she’s got the brightest future, the only thing that may derail her — I think she may end up being a Power 5 coach for the men or an NBA coach in two or three years,” The Charlotte Observer’s Langston Wertz Jr. told WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn on this week’s Time Out for Sports. “She’s that good.”

Now, about that Duke-North Carolina game. First-year UNC coach Hubert Davis sent Duke’s vaunted Coach K into retirement at the biggest showdown in the history of archrivals.

"It was a game for the ages, actually,” Wertz said. “One team was gonna be really hurt and one team was gonna be really happy, and I think North Carolina established bragging rights over Duke for some time.”

You can listen to the full Time Out for Sports conversation above. Here’s a quick look at what else Glenn and Wertz covered this week.

• There’s more analysis of the most recent college basketball tournament games and some predictions for the men’s championship. 
• Gordon Hayward returned to the Charlotte Hornets after a 22-game absence due to an injury. Charlotte went on to lose to Philadelphia 144-114. 
• There’s a recap of why Myers Park High had to forfeit last season’s football wins because some players didn’t meet eligibility requirements. WFAE interviewed the school’s principal about that last week as well as the commissioner of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.