Analysis of Recursive Programs: Problem (b) "in the dark"

Exercise 9.2 of Aho, Hopcroft, and Ullman. Solve the following recurrances, where T(1) = 1, and T(n) for n > 2 satisfies:
(a) T(n) = 3T(n/2) + n2

"guess a solution and prove it is correct using induction." Assume that n is a power of 2.
Hint: The solution contains a term cnlog2 3      
Consider T(n) = 3T(n/2) + n2 < cnlog2 3 + bn2

PROOF:
Base:
T(1) = 1 by definition
T(1) < c*1log 3 + b*1 (assume logs are always base 2) implies
1      <       c + b             OK, remember this for later

Induction hypothesis:
Assume THM is true: T(n) = 3T(n/2) + n2 < cnlog2 3 + bn2 for all n < n'.

Induction step:

Suppose n is greater than n', let n = n' + 1

then, T (n) = 3T(n/2) + n2 (by definition of T(n))

since n/2 < n', by induction hypothesis, T (n/2) = c(n/2log2 3) + b(n/2)2

Looks ugly but if we realize that all we really need now is that T(n)< cnlog2 3 + bn2
and that the 3's nicely cancel, then all we need is (3b + 4) / 4 < b       so...
3b + 4 < 4b
3b - 4b < -4      
-b < -4
b > 4

Hence, by induction on n

T(n) < cnlog2 3 + bn2

is true for all n > 1       if b> 4 and 1- b < c , so nice choices are b = 4 and c = 1.
OR, c could be -3 to make things = which would give us the closed form expression of
-3nlog2 3 + 4n2