SAN ANTONIO — If the choice had to be made between talent and experience, Roy Williams knows what he'd pick.

"I think everyone would take experienced talent over anything else," he said.

He is one of the few coaches who has that commodity — rarer by the day in college basketball — at his disposal this season.

Which is why Williams is coaching North Carolina in the Final Four.

"At this level, with the four teams that are in, what you have is you have basically experienced talent on every team," he said.

But the Tar Heels and Kansas, their opponent in Saturday's second semifinal, have that combination in a particularly special way.

Tyler Hansbrough vs. Brandon Rush, though they may never find themselves paired up one-on-one in this game, is the kind of junior-vs.-junior matchup that has become all too rare in the college game.

Hansbrough had the stats to leave after last season — 18 points, eight rebounds per game — but he likes college and comes from a family that didn't need money. No rush to head to the NBA, he stayed and some say he might stay again when this season's over.

Meanwhile, Rush was supposed to be out the door after last year, but a knee injury that forced him into ligament surgery limited his choices, brought him back to KU, and now, he's two wins away from a reward that money can't buy — the national title.

The experience factor on these teams doesn't stop at Hansbrough and Rush.

You have to go nine players down the Kansas scoring list before you find your first freshman. All but one of the starters, Darrell Arthur, are upperclassmen. Russell Robinson, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun: Real college basketball fans know these names not necessarily because they're tearing it up every day, but because they're true college players. They've been around a while.

Carolina is basically the same story. The Heels have only one active freshman on the roster, Will Graves, and he barely plays. The rest of the lineup includes sophomores Ty Lawson, Deon Thompson and Wayne Ellington and junior Marcus Ginyard.