GREENSBORO, N.C. — If it was October and not March, Saturday’s matchup of No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 8 LSU would be perfectly normal. If anything, Tiger fans would be puzzled by the Tar Heels’ unusually high ranking.But it’s March, it’s the NCAA tournament and never has baby blue been more terrifying than when donned by North Carolina, one of college basketball’s most dominant programs.”Everybody in the country is prepared for North Carolina, because they may have had one game that hasn’t been on TV,” said LSU coach Trent Johnson.The Tar Heels aren’t even this tournament’s top seed, but they are certainly its most high profile group. Just Thursday, North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough set the all-time   scoring mark for any Atlantic Coast Conference player in a 101-58 win against Radford.”I look back and think of all the players that I’ve watched when I was young,” Hansbrough said. “For me to top all of the scorers in that league, it’s special. It’s an honor. But at the same time, I came here to win the game today and didn’t want to focus on individual goals.”Just to clarify, that makes Hansbrough a more prolific college scorer than Michael Jordan, Chris Paul, Tim Duncan and countless other legends from a conference that’s been known for basketball since its inception.As much as LSU and its fans might know about North Carolina, don’t expect the same familiarity from the Tar Heels — at least, not yet.Following his first-round win against Radford, North Carolina coach Roy Williams said he’d seen perhaps 20 minutes of LSU basketball, meaning the first half of the Tigers’ 75-71 win against Butler.”I watched a few minutes of the first half over at the hotel before we came over, and I thought it would go right down to the wire,” Williams said. “Thornton is just a big-time player, and I thought he was just sensational at times today, but I didn’t see any of the second half.”Despite leading a star-powered team to a No. 1 seed in the sport’s biggest stage, Williams revealed his vote for National Coach of the Year as none other than Trent Johnson.”I consider him one of the class acts in college basketball,” Williams said. “I’m not sure anybody did a better job than Trent did this year. If I thought he’d buy me dinner, I’d tell him the truth, and it’s that I voted for him for National Coach of the Year. But I don’t think I could swing that anyway.”Johnson was named as one of four finalists for the National Coach of the Year award on Thursday.Barring a mass exodus from Louisiana, the Tigers now have about a day to prepare for the entire state of North Carolina. Somewhere around 150 LSU fans stood present and accounted for during the win against Butler, but they were surrounded by nearly 23,000 Tar Heel fans, who had arrived early just to scout the competition.Even against the prospect of a sea of that Carolina blue, Johnson didn’t seem that concerned.”We’re going to do the things we’ve been doing all season long,” he said. “If it’s North Carolina, I think we have an advantage because our basketball coach is light years brighter than Roy Williams … nah … We’re just thankful to be playing.”——Contact David Helman at [email protected]