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The NCAA men’s basketball tournament — won Monday night by North Carolina — isn’t just about layups and rebounds. It’s about dollars and cents.

It’s about book deals, T-shirt sales and printing contracts.

What Dick Vitale likes to call the Big Dance has become the Big Chance: The chance to make money.

And this year, for area businesses that made or sold championship merchandise, nothing could be finer than a win by Carolina.

“Duke has won it and Maryland has won it, but there is nothing like Carolina winning the national championship,” said Greg Tuza, owner of The Conference Store in Greensboro. “It’s better than Christmas because everybody is happy.”

The joy can be explained by Forbes Magazine, which last month crowned the Tar Heels the most valuable basketball team in the country, worth $25.9 million.

The ranking is based on the money that men’s basketball programs contribute to their universities, their athletic departments, their conferences and their communities.

The magazine also said sales of Tar Heels merchandise have led ACC schools for the 13th consecutive year.

For area merchants, that means they view this year’s championship team as an economic stimulus package in baggy shorts.

“I have never seen a championship have such an impact on sales — NBA, NFL, NCAA — it doesn’t matter who it is,” said David Jenkins, manager of Tailgator’s in High Point, where business has jumped 50 to 70 percent over last April. “It’s been amazing.”

At stores like Tailgator’s, customers began lining up Tuesday morning to buy championship T-shirts, the first items available for purchase.

On Wednesday and Thursday, merchants added hats, decals, pennants, banners and car flags.

Later will come at least two books recapping the championship year, a video running down the season’s highlights and a championship game video.

“North Carolina is probably the largest brand in college basketball,” said Sue Harnett, a former basketball player at Duke, whose company, Replay Photos, sells pictures from the championship game, its aftermath and the celebration in Chapel Hill. “That’s hard for a Dukie to say.”

So far, Harnett said, sales are up 50 percent over last season, when Kansas won the national championship.

This year, Harnett’s company will offer a new product, a 4-foot-tall wall sticker of UNC star Tyler Hansbrough. The image is made by a company in Winston-Salem, Alliance Display & Packaging.

“That’s not a bad one to start with,” Harnett said of the UNC All-American. “We think that will be a popular item with a lot of our followers.”

Harnett and others credit North Carolina’s economic impact on its long basketball tradition, the caliber of its players and its huge fan base.

Given the deep recession, merchants and vendors say, the championship has come at a welcome time.

Since late Monday night, Castle Shirt Co., a screen printing business in Kernersville, has turned out 45,000 T-shirts.

“It’s ongoing,” said Dan Zmuda, the owner. “As reorders come in, we will continue to print as needed .... This will balance off our poor first quarter in just a couple of days.”

And the orders will keep coming, merchants say.

“We got our originals at 8 o’clock on Tuesday and were sold out by 10,” said Dean Harrison, a partner in Graham Sporting Goods, speaking of his store in Burlington. “We’ve reordered at least eight times.”

Some merchants expect sales to taper off over time, but others expect the Tar Heel buying trend to continue.

At The Conference Store, Greg Tuza said his sales are up five-fold from last April.

“The follow-through for Carolina winning really lasts until next basketball season,” Tuza said. “Not only does it help the month’s bottom line, it helps the year’s bottom line.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com