University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heels, Orange Have History
January 10, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Of the four most recent additions to the Atlantic Coast Conference--Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse--Carolina has the least basketball history against the Orange.
That will begin to change tomorrow, when the Tar Heels travel to the Carrier Dome for only the second time ever, in what will be just the eighth game between the two programs.
Here's a look at the seven previous meetings:
March 16, 1957: Carolina 67, Syracuse 58 (at The Palestra, NCAA Tournament).
In the Eastern Regional championship game, Syracuse tried to play physically with the undefeated Tar Heels. That led to 45 free throw attempts for Frank McGuire's team, and they converted 33 of them on the way to the nine-point win.
The victory gave Carolina a 30-0 record, then the college basketball record for most wins in an undefeated season. The Tar Heels would eventually tack on two triple-overtime victories in the national semifinal and national championship game, as they completed the only undefeated NCAA championship season in program history.
March 20, 1975: Syracuse 78, Carolina 76 (at Providence, NCAA Tournament).
Fresh off an ACC Tournament championship behind the MVP performance of freshman Phil Ford, Carolina had cruised past New Mexico State in the opening NCAA Tournament game. The ride came to an end in Providence, as the Tar Heels could never quite put away the Orangemen.
Jimmy Lee, who finished with 24 points on 12-of-18 shooting, hit a 15-foot jumper with three seconds remaining to provide the winning margin in a game that featured eleven second-half lead changes. Ford scored 24 points and Brad Hoffman added 20 for the Tar Heels.
This was in the pre-Big East era, when Syracuse was still considered a college basketball upstart. "Our only problem this week was convincing ourselves that we could beat North Carolina," said Syracuse head coach Roy Danforth. "We had three or four meetings this week to talk about it, and we finally believed that we could do it."
The loss was the first for Carolina in an East Regional game since Dean Smith became the UNC head coach.
Jan. 8, 1983: Carolina 87, Syracuse 64 (at Charlotte).
The defending national champion Tar Heels got 18 points from Michael Jordan and 15 from Brad Daugherty in an easy win over previously undefeated Syracuse.
The ninth-ranked Orangemen had a 40-36 lead with 19 minutes remaining, but the Tar Heels used runs of 8-0 and 15-3 over the closing minutes to put the game away.
Dec. 10, 1983: Carolina 87, Syracuse 64 (at the Carrier Dome).
Different venue, same exact result. In the program's only previous visit to the Carrier Dome, Carolina emerged with the same 23-point margin of victory with a very similar roster to the one that had inflicted the beating the previous season. Michael Jordan scored 19 points, and Brad Daugherty had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
A Carrier Dome crowd of 32,235 was on hand to see the visit from the top-ranked Tar Heels. A similar sizable throng is expected on Saturday.
March 21, 1987: Syracuse 79, Carolina 75 (at the Meadowlands, NCAA Tournament).
In one of the most painful losses of the late Dean Smith era, the tenth-ranked Orangemen upset the second-ranked Tar Heels in the East Regional final, preventing Kenny Smith's decorated class--which included Joe Wolf and Dave Popson--from making a Final Four in their UNC careers.
With the Final Four set to be played in New Orleans, where Carolina had won the 1982 crown, and the Tar Heels spending the entire season near the top of the national polls, it looked like the stars were aligning for another title run. But Syracuse got stellar post play from Rony Seikaly (26 points) and Derrick Coleman (14 rebounds) and led the entire game on the way to the program's first Final Four berth under Jim Boeheim.
"I thought all along we would come back to win," Dean Smith said. "We just ran out of time."
They almost did mount the comeback--Carolina had the ball down by three with a minute left, but Kenny Smith's three-pointer rimmed out.
Nov. 21, 1987: Carolina 96, Syracuse 93 (OT) (at Springfield, Mass.).
Exactly eight months later, the two teams met again, but this time it was Syracuse that was the favorite. Boeheim's club was the top-ranked team in the nation, but they were upset by a relatively unknown Carolina squad that was playing without star J.R. Reid and veteran Steve Bucknall, who were suspended for an off-court violation.
In their place, the Tar Heels got star turns from freshmen Pete Chilcutt and Rick Fox, who combined for 29 points. Chilcutt made the game's biggest shot, as his foul line jumper bounced through to tie the game at 85 at the buzzer and send it into overtime.
Syracuse built a four-point lead in the extra session, but Ranzino Smith and Chilcutt tied the score, and then two clutch Jeff Lebo free throws provided some breathing room.
Nov. 20, 2009: Syracuse 87, Carolina 71 (at Madison Square Garden).
In hindsight, the Tar Heels were dramatically overrated at number-six in the country, but Syracuse's complete domination was still impressive. The Orange used a 22-1 second half run to take the victory behind 25 points from Wesley Johnson. The blitzkrieg included 13 straight misses and six turnovers from the Tar Heels.
Ed Davis had 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Marcus Ginyard added 15 points.
Adam Lucas is the editor of CAROLINA.
