University of North Carolina Athletics
Jacobs: Tar Heels Have The Hang Of This Winning Thing
March 24, 2010 | Men's Basketball
March 24, 2010
by Barry Jacobs, TarHeelBlue.com
Sometimes you try to make history. Sometimes making history is thrust upon you.
Certainly, as the Tar Heel men's basketball team prepares to head to New York's Madison Square Garden for next Tuesday's semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament, players and coaches find themselves in the thrust-upon category. Still, there is something to be said for a chance to become the first squad to win the NCAAs one year and the NIT the next.
The days are long past when the NIT was considered the premier postseason basketball tournament, superceding the NCAAs. For years, though, even when it had been eclipsed, the NIT remained an important competition. Until 1975, when multiple entrants from the same league were admitted in the NCAA tournament field, other good teams in major conferences often migrated to the NIT, eager to prove themselves against quality opposition and to visit "The Garden," then considered a basketball mecca.
This was such a big deal for Alabama's resurrected program in 1973, legendary football coach Bear Bryant not only accompanied C.M. Newton's team to New York and sat on the end of the bench, but delayed spring football practice so he could attend.
The Crimson Tide finished fourth, losing to North Carolina in the consolation game. That was one of five previous NIT appearances by the Heels. They've won the title once, and counting this year built a better winning percentage (.750, with 12 wins in 16 games pending next week's outcome) than any other original ACC program.
UNC's 1971 NIT title was the first national championship won by a Dean Smith club. The crown was secured by beating Duke in the semifinals, then Georgia Tech (an independent at the time) in the finals. The tournament MVP was 6-6 junior Bill Chamberlain, who scored a career-high 34 points in the title game for UNC.
Since then four other ACC teams won NIT championships: Maryland in 1972, Virginia in 1980 and 1992, and Wake Forest in 2000. Virginia Tech won twice (1973, 1995) prior to joining the conference.
North Carolina's NIT title presaged a return the following year to the NCAA Final Four, where it lost to another future ACC member, Florida State. Only twice has a team won the NIT and advanced the following season to the Final Four -- Virginia duplicated UNC's trick by reaching the Final Four in 1981, only to be eliminated by the Tar Heels.
Four teams won the NIT the year after appearing in the Final Four - Ohio State in 2008, Minnesota in 1998, Kentucky in 1976, and Dayton in 1968. OSU, UK, and Dayton reached the NCAA championship game, and lost, the year prior to winning the NIT.
Over the years, the NIT fell on tough times, like a train station during the rise of the interstate highway system.
The NCAA field grew to 64 entrants (plus play-in game), inviting as many as half the members of the power conferences. Increasingly overshadowed, the independent NIT blatantly manipulated matchups in often-vain efforts to draw crowds and money. This kept the event alive, but lessened its legitimacy.
Recently, guided in part by a cadre of former coaches, including C.M. Newton and Les Robinson (The Citadel, East Tennessee State, N.C. State), the NCAA has owned and operated the NIT as a second-tier tournament. Upper seeds still play on their home courts, but there is a sense of order and merit that somewhat mirrors the NCAAs.
In fact, if one imagines the 32 NIT contestants added to the 64 already in the NCAA field, that yields the 96-team format some see as the future of the NCAA tournament.
For Carolina, of course, the sting of competing in the NIT is as much about the past as the present. Conversely, winning the NIT is as much about the future as the present.
Frankly, there's an understandable abashedness in going from the top of the heap in college basketball in 2009, when the Heels swept to their fifth NCAA title, to being excluded entirely from the main event in 2010.
Such a tumble is uncommon, especially in the modern era. Since 1975 and the widening of the field, just eight of 35 champions did not earn an NCAA bid the following season. That includes the Kansas club that Roy Williams took over in 1989, the first defending champion barred from NCAA participation due to probation.
Over the 21 seasons since the Jayhawks got slapped down, only two defending champs failed to make the NCAAs the next year. Both were decimated by early departures to the pros.
Florida, which won consecutive NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, saw four juniors leave following its second championship. Big men Al Horford and Joakim Noah and forward Corey Brewer were among the top nine picks in the '07 NBA draft. Guard Taureen Green went in the second round.
What's easy to forget is that the other champ that lost a step due to NBA defections was this year's Tar Heel squad.
Point guard Ty Lawson and shooting guard Wayne Ellington were first-round selections in 2009 after completing their junior years. Accompanied by the graduation of seniors Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green, that cost UNC four starters and, in retrospect, limited its ability to extend Roy Williams' streak of 20 straight NCAA appearances at Kansas and Carolina.
Prior to this year's regular season finale at Durham -- perhaps the low point of 2009-10 for the Tar Heels -- a former head coach in attendance insisted Williams would not accept an NIT bid. This seemed silly, as was later borne out.
"If somebody's going to invite me to play, I'm going to go play," Williams said after UNC's quick exit from the ACC Tournament.
Getting a chance to continue competing can only help a youthful squad learn and improve. Authorized extra practice sessions are a major reason football coaches love to play in a bowl; the dividends may accrue immediately, or a year later.
Forget the size of the stage. The Heels finally seem to have the hang of this winning thing. Instead of sitting home and licking their wounds, they have redeemed what Williams called "the kind of year we never imagined."
