Sean May had 29 points and 12 rebounds to help North Carolina earn its record 16th Final Four berth. AP

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- For Sean May, it was just too much.

He scored 29 points here on Sunday. Grabbed 12 rebounds. Won the Syracuse Region MVP. Put the top-seeded Tar Heels on his broad shoulders and carried them past sixth-seeded Wisconsin, 88-82. And when it was over, and his teammates were cutting down the nets at the Carrier Dome, their tickets booked for the first Final Four of their careers, May had to walk away.

The junior forward broke from the pack around the ladder, away from the giddy Williamses -- Roy, Jawad and Marvin -- away from Rashad McCants and Melvin Scott, away from the TV cameras, away from everyone, and plopped his 6-foot-9, 255-pound frame on the empty scorer's table near halfcourt.

First his head slumped over, then the rest of his upper body, and, overwhelmed with emotion, he closed his eyes. He sat there, frozen, while the party continued 40 feet away.

Despite the best efforts of the Badgers' front line, this was the only time Sean May had been shut down all afternoon.

After a few seconds, he re-opened his eyes and rose from the table, stunned to see that everything -- the celebration, the victory, the tournament itself -- was not a dream. He shook his head, and to no one in particular, said, "It's unbelievable."

Later, in the post-game press conference, with the net draped around his neck, May said, "It just didn't seem real."

It's real, Sean. You dominated frontcourt-dependent Wisconsin and its homegrown star, Mike Wilkinson, scoring the game's first two baskets, and eight of UNC's first 10 points, including a fast-break slam on a feed from Raymond Felton with 17:11 on the clock. You finished the first half with 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Only when the Heels stopped feeding the ball inside -- during your six-minute scoring drought from 3:37 left in the first half to 17:30 in the 2nd -- did Wisconsin mount its 16-0 run to take the lead. Bo Ryan's Badgers had an answer for slowing down UNC's transition game -- holding the Heels to just 12 fastbreak points -- but they had no answer for you.

McCants inspired May before the game by telling him, "There's no way [Wilkinson] can guard you, he's too little." Wilkinson was giving up just 15 pounds, but against a body like May's, it seemed like a hundred.

"When you're blessed with a wide body and some girth, you want to beat people up," May said. "And tonight that's what I tried to do -- get in there and bang against them."

The Badgers played out of their minds in an Elite Eight game no one thought they could win, leading the contest 49-44 in the second half, and trailing by just one point, 74-73, with under three minutes to go, but May and fellow juniors McCants and Felton -- who combined for 36 of UNC's 44 second-half points -- were the difference.

McCants was his normal, cool self afterward, and Felton looked the part of the battle-weary floor general who guided his troops to the Final Four. But May admitted that, despite his superhuman effort he was ... well, a little freaked out in the prelude.