University of North Carolina Athletics
Chansky: Meadowlands Madness
March 22, 2007 | Men's Basketball
March 22, 2007
East Rutherford, N.J. - Okay, Carolina fans, what are your best (and worst) memories of the Meadowlands, the massive landfill in New Jersey where the Tar Heels will visit this weekend for the ninth time in the last 26 years?
Think about the highest highs and lowest lows that have occurred in what was then known as the Brendan T. Byrne Arena (for the former governor of New Jersey) before Continental Airlines purchased the naming rights in 1996.
(And, a word of caution, Duke's four East Regional Championships between 1986 and 1990 don't count.)
Remember the game the day after Christmas in 1981, when the top-ranked Tar Heels virtually opened the building by beating No. 2 Kentucky? James Worthy (26), Sam Perkins (21) and freshman Michael Jordan (19) combined for 66 of the team's 82 points in Carolina's first nationally televised game of its eventual national championship season.
How about that slightly more-painful game a year later, when a Worthy-less Tar Heel team that had lost the first two games of the 1982-83 season managed nine points in the first half against LSU before Jordan and Buzz Peterson rescued them to a 47-43 win?
The highest-lowest weekend in Carolina's Meadowlands memory book had to be the 1987 East Regional, before which the Tar Heels ran the ACC table (14-0) and looked like a shoo-in to get back to the Final Four first time since 1982.
On Friday night, freshman J.R. Reid drove, spun and shot his way to 31 points as he out-dueled Notre Dame's David Rivers (23 points) in the regional semifinal. The Heels were heavy favorites over then-underrated Syracuse on Sunday, the morning sophomore guard Jeff Lebo woke up with a case of the flu.
Dean Smith still regrets playing Lebo, who dazed his way around the court for 28 minutes, missing all five of his shots in the 79-75 heartbreaker. "I should have sat Lebo and played Ranzino Smith," Dean Smith confided after a tearful press conference in which he said he failed seniors Kenny Smith, Dave Popson, Joe Wolf and Curtis Hunter, who won 115 games in four years but not an ACC Tournament or regional.
That Syracuse team, of course, was a Keith Smart (of Indiana) jump shot from winning the national championship the next week, one that had Ron Seikaly, Derrick Coleman and Sherman Douglas, all future pro stalwarts, in its starting lineup.
There was a loss to Georgetown in the 1989 ACC-Big East Challenge and a blowout of Notre Dame a year later. There was also a win over Seton Hall in 1992, sandwiched between the Tar Heels' two absolute best weekends in the Meadowlands (which before being filled, flattened and feted with an arena, football stadium and race track was anything but a sweet-smelling swamp. And, no, Jimmy Hoffa isn't buried there).
In 1991, Carolina replaced Duke as ACC champion and almost-annual visitor to the East Regional, which was played here eight times from 1985-1995. The Tar Heels had rocked the Blue Devils in the ACC Tournament final in Charlotte, won first- and second-round games in Syracuse and were heavily favored against a regional field of unranked foes.
They dispatched Eastern Michigan on Friday night, shooting 53 percent and draining 6-of-9 three pointers, as season-leading scorer Rick Fox was the only regular not in double figures. Pete Chilcutt and Hubert Davis had 18 each, freshman Eric Montross 17, King Rice 12 and George Lynch 10.
On Sunday, the opponent and sentimental favorite was Temple with senior All-American Marc Macon and veteran coach John Chaney, both of whom had never made a Final Four. Fox's hot hand got Carolina out to a big lead, but Macon's 31 points and nine boards brought the Owls back to within three in the dying seconds.
On Temple's last possession, Macon let fly from the "e" in Meadowlands on the floor and, as was his custom, shouted "good" as the ball headed for the basket. He had already made 12 of 22 shots and drained half of his eight three-pointers, but this one hit back rim and bounded to Rice who raced down the court in a victory sprint.
As he approached Chaney for the handshake, Dean Smith let out an audible sigh of relief. Behind 38 points from Fox and Davis, Carolina's eight-year Final Four drought was over. Macon and Chaney would end their careers with no such luck.
Far and away, the most anxiety-provoking trip to Jersey for the Tar Heels and their fans came two years later and three years before the Meadowlands hosted the last Final Four (1996) to be played in a basketball arena. Can you bear to remember that one?
Carolina had finished first in the 1993 ACC standings and would have won the tournament as well had Derrick Phelps not been clobbered by Virginia on a breakaway layup in the semifinals. Phelps returned to play, albeit gingerly, in first- and second round romps over East Carolina and Rhode Island in Winston-Salem.
He was almost 100 percent by the regional semifinals, but deep and talented Arkansas still ran out to a double-digit lead in the first half. Carolina clawed back to a halftime tie and finally put away the Razorbacks on a back-door beauty from Lynch to leading scorer Donald Williams, who with 22 points was on the way to the 10 best days of his life.
If you recall how nerve-racking that game was, you probably want to stop right here. On Sunday came Cincinnati with Bob Huggins stalking the sideline and future pros Corey Blount and Nick Van Exel leading the big, bad Bearcats.
Van Exel, who had dissed the Dean the day before by saying he should have won more than one NCAA title, lit up the Heels in the first half, as Cincy built another big lead before Carolina cut the deficit to one at the break. In the locker room, Phelps piped up about Van Exel and said "he's mine."
Indeed Van Exel was, scoring only four of his 23 points in the second half. The game, however, remained in doubt until the last seconds of regulation. With the score tied and the ball, Smith drew up an amazing alley-oop play for Brian Reese and said as the huddle broke, "Just lay it in because there isn't time to dunk it."
Actually, there was time, but Reese's slam ricocheted out and captain Lynch barked at his teammates as overtime began, "Get your heads up, we're winning this game!"
Williams drilled two monster three-pointers to finally put the game away and send Carolina back to its second Final Four in three years. The Tar Heels answered Van Exel by delivering Smith's second national championship as The Donald made 10 more treys in wins over Kansas and Michigan in New Orleans.
In comparison to the Meadowlands madness of the week before, those games seemed easy in the Big Easy.
