University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Looking Out For No. 1
December 2, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Dec. 2, 2011
By Adam Lucas
Tomorrow's journey into Rupp Arena marks just the seventh game (out of 2,768 contests in the history of the program) against a nonconference number-one ranked team in Carolina basketball history. A look at the previous battles:
Nov. 21, 1987: Carolina 96, Syracuse 93 (OT)
Playing without J.R. Reid and Steve Bucknall, the third-ranked Tar Heels weren't supposed to be much of a match for the top-ranked Orangemen, the team that ended Carolina's season in a heartbreaking 1987 regional final. Jim Boeheim's team was loaded, featuring a frontcourt that included Rony Seikaly and Derrick Coleman and Sherman Douglas running the offense at point guard.
But a Tar Heel freshman class that included Rick Fox, Pete Chilcutt and King Rice--a trio that would eventually take Dean Smith back to the Final Four in 1991 as seniors--helped Carolina recover from an 11-point halftime deficit, and Chilcutt sent the game into overtime with a turnaround jumper that tied the score at 85. Fox, Kevin Madden and Jeff Lebo made five of six key free throws in overtime to seal the game, and Ranzino Smith contributed 21 points.
For a terrific slice of Carolina basketball history, read Alexander Wolff's report on the game from Sports Illustrated, in which he calls the win "like going to a revival house and seeing a Dean Smith film festival."
Feb. 21, 1988: Temple 83, Carolina 66
This one was as sour as the Syracuse win was sweet. The 17-point defeat marked the fifth-ranked Tar Heels' worst loss at home since a 22-point whipping by Maryland in 1975.
It wasn't always a blowout. Carolina actually led, 39-34, at halftime. But Temple, behind John Chaney's trademark zone defense, forced 29 UNC turnovers (18 in the second half) and started the second half on a 19-0 run. The Owls shot 68 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes. "I can't remember a second half against us quite like it," Dean Smith said.
In what now seems like a strange scheduling quirk but used to be commonplace, the game was the second half of a back-to-back weekend at the Smith Center. The Tar Heels defeated Maryland, 74-73, the day before taking on Temple.
March 17, 1990: Carolina 79, Oklahoma 77 (NCAA Tournament)
In one of the signature games of the second half of the Dean Smith era, the unranked and eighth-seeded Tar Heels upended top-ranked Oklahoma in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
After a disappointing 19-11 regular season and a first-round ACC Tournament loss to Virginia, Carolina was supposed to be a postseason afterthought. Under Billy Tubbs, high-octane Oklahoma was in a race with UNLV to determine which squad might be college basketball's best bandit. The Tar Heels' streak of nine consecutive trips to the Sweet 16 looked like it was over.
Rick Fox wouldn't let it happen. The Tar Heels easily broke the Sooners' customary fullcourt pressure early in the game, forcing Tubbs to retreat. And then Carolina turned the final minutes over to Fox, as the junior scored 23 points, including the game-winning baseline drive and bank shot--on a play originally designed for Hubert Davis that Dean Smith altered at the last second--as time expired.
Fox remains adamant that Smith's final instructions coming out of a timeout with eight seconds left--"Remember, Rick, we don't need a three, we only need two"--prevented him from hoisting an off-balance three-pointer and instead driving to get a better (and ultimately indelible) shot.
Dec. 8, 1999: Cincinnati 77, Carolina 68 (Chicago)
In perhaps the most forgettable of Carolina's half-dozen games against top-ranked teams, Kenyon Martin scored 16 points and grabbed 9 rebounds as the Bearcats proved to have too much muscle. The game was part of the short-lived Great Eight event intended to match the final eight teams from the previous year's NCAA Tournament, and was played at Chicago's United Center.
Cincinnati controlled the game throughout, cruising to an early 41-24 lead. The seventh-ranked Tar Heels eventually closed the gap to 50-48, but 17 points from Joseph Forte weren't enough. The game marked Carolina's first-ever loss to the Bearcats.
The trip to Chicago came in the middle of one of Carolina's most difficult early-season schedules ever, one that should make this year's travel-weary UNC fans feel a little better. Under head coach Bill Guthridge, the Tar Heels played just two games at the Smith Center in the first six weeks of the season, while making road trips to Maui, Charlotte, Buffalo, Chicago, Miami, the Meadowlands and Louisville.
Jan. 17, 2004: Carolina 86, Connecticut 83
In front of one of the best crowds ever at the Smith Center, the ninth-ranked Tar Heels upset the Huskies for the second straight season. Rashad McCants scored UNC's last 10 points of the game, including a game-winning three-pointer with just over six seconds left.
The play, set up for the final seconds by Roy Williams, who was in his first season as Tar Heel head coach, set off a court-storming celebration at the sold-out Smith Center.
Jawad Williams played the game with a broken nose and Raymond Felton finished with seven assists and just one turnover. The victory marked Williams's first win over a top-ranked team as Carolina head coach.
April 4, 2005: Carolina 75, Illinois 70 (NCAA championship game)
Time has changed the perception of this game considerably. Now, the 2005 Tar Heels feel like the natural champion, led as they were by McCants, three different Williamses (Jawad, Marvin and Roy), Felton, the rags-to-riches senior class of Jawad Williams, Melvin Scott and Jackie Manuel, and an epic final month from Sean May.
In April of 2005, however, the mood was different. The Tar Heels entered the Final Four as the nation's second-ranked team, but were widely considered an underdog against the top-ranked Illini, a team that was causing some chatter about an undefeated season before they fell to Ohio State in the regular season finale. The St. Louis crowd was decidedly pro-Big Ten; it wasn't quite like the 2009 game in Detroit in front of virtually the entire campus of Michigan State, but it was closer than some remember.
It didn't matter. May earned Most Outstanding Player honors with 26 points and 10 rebounds, Felton made a clutch three-pointer over Illinois' Billy Packer-proclaimed "shut-down man," Deron Williams, Marvin Williams tipped in a McCants miss to give Carolina a 72-70 edge with 1:27 left, and Felton's steal and 3-of-4 free throw shooting sealed the win over the final 60 seconds.
The Tar Heel national championship was the first of the Roy Williams era.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of six books on Carolina basketball, including the official chronicle of the first 100 years of Tar Heel hoops, A Century of Excellence, which is available now. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter and Facebook.
