The University of Tennessee has suited up a team for 2,075 mens basketball games. Few, if any, measure in significance to No. 2,076. From North Carolinas lofty perspective, tonights NCAA tournament South Region semifinals date with the Vols probably doesnt rank in the top 100. Just another brick in the wall. I was looking at the paper today, UT coach Jerry Green said Thursday, and it listed the best moments of all the other teams. I looked at Tennessee and it said tomorrow is the best day in Tennessee history. What a great opportunity these three days of basketball could be for this team. The first of those three potentially history-making days is tonight. UT basketball fans, young and old, will be staying up late. The 10:15 p.m. (EST) best-case scenario tip-off at the Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus could send Tennessees men into uncharted waters. A victory puts the No. 4 seed Vols (26-6) in Sundays regional finals, against the winner of tonights first game between No. 7 seed Tulsa and No. 6 Miami. North Carolina (20-13) might be only a No. 8 seed, a skin-of-the-teeth invitee to the 64-team bracket, but Tar Heels are never to be taken lightly in March. They had their ups and downs and didnt have the regular season they wanted, said Harris, but this is when it really counts. When it counted last Sunday, Carolina knocked off No. 1 seed Stanford to get a crack at the Vols, who, in turn, eliminated defending national champion Connecticut. Until now, Tennessee had never strung together two victories in the same NCAA tournament. I liked our team all year, said UNC coach Bill Guthridge. I thought we were very close. No one seems to be able to put a finger on the exact reason for North Carolinas postseason emergence. Not even Guthridge. It seems to have something to do with realizing the possibilities presented by 7-foot junior center Brendan Haywood. Haywood makes a nations-best 71.3 percent of his shots but often doesnt attempt more than a handful. Tennessees keys to victory center around North Carolinas center. Limit his touches, get him in foul trouble, make the Tar Heels look to the perimeter for scoring, all good ideas from the Vols viewpoint. Another suggestion to UTs liking is a fast tempo. North Carolina, with twin towers in the paint and a thin bench, prefers to play at a plodding pace. Tennessee has the bodies and the ballistics to get up and down the court. We definitely want to push the game into an up-tempo style, said Vincent Yarbrough, who is UTs co-scoring leader with Harris at 14.9 points a game That should favor us a lot. The Vols, at a rare height disadvantage tonight, also need to correct a deficit on the boards. They were out-rebounded by 10 and 11, respectively, in their first two tournament games. Then theres the Z word. The Tar Heels will surely show zone defense and see if the Vols can make shots over it, hardly a sure bet. Well try both early and see how it goes, said Guthridge. Against Missouri, the zone went better. Against Stanford, the man-to-man went better. Poor shooting could easily be Tennessees Achilles heel, in this case its ticket home. On the other hand, the Vols say they are growing in confidence with each postseason success. The scary thing, said forward Isiah Victor, is that we have so much talent that we havent even shown yet. What better occasion to rise to?If you look at this game from a fans perspective, said Yarbrough, and the things they want the program to be, it is the biggest game Tennessee has ever played. But were just looking at it as another game that we have to win. All we needed were a couple of wins in the postseason to show everybody and ourselves that we could win the postseason. Now, I dont think theres any stopping us.