The Power Five: North Carolina’s 5 Greatest Basketball Teams
Mar 3, 2014; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; A basketball on the floor of the Smith Center. The Tar Heels defeated the fighting Irish 63-61 at Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
3. 1981-82
Record: 32-2; Defeated Georgetown 63-62 to win national championship
The wait had been exasperating.
Annually a favorite to bring home a national championship, the Tar Heels always seemed ready to bite down on a title only to have the meal pulled just before digging in. Three times Smith had guided teams to national championship games (’68, ’77, ’81) only to come up short.
Finally, after a lanky freshman named Michael Jordan buried a 16-foot jumper from the left wing, and James Worthy found himself on the receiving end of an errant pass from Georgetown’s Freddie Brown in the closing seconds could the Tar Heels hand their legendary coach his first national crown. Which makes the ’81-’82 team first in the hearts of many.
North Carolina’s Big Three in Jordan, Worthy and Sam Perkins are the names that quickly come to mind in ’82 remembrances, but the squad that provided the program its first national title in 25 years was littered with talent throughout its roster.
Twelve of the 14 players on the score sheet would be NBA Draft picks from 1982 to ’86 (the Draft stretched 10 rounds in those days, and though the Tar Heels’ offense averaged less than 67 points per contest, a defense that surrendered only 55.4 points a game ranked 10th nationally.
Steering the UNC offense was one of the more underrated point guards in the school’s history in Jimmy Black, whose 525 assists still ranks 10th on the program’s career list. Sophomore forward Matt Doherty rounded out the starting five that captured the ACC regular-season and tournament titles, but the path to a national championship was anything but smooth.
The Tar Heels’ journey nearly ended before it started, with North Carolina outlasting James Madison 52-50 in a second-round matchup before moving past Alabama 74-69 in an East Region semifinal.
UNC took the region title with a 70-60 win over Villanova and survived a semifinal bout with Houston 68-63 to set up an epic final against the Hoyas featuring heralded freshman center Patrick Ewing and All-American senior guard Eric “Sleepy” Floyd.
The clash was a back-and-forth affair before Jordan’s jumper in the final seconds gave North Carolina its final points. The Tar Heels then sealed the victory with Brown inadvertently tossing the ball to Worthy to clinch UNC’s title.
Worthy was tabbed a consensus first-team All-American and was the top overall pick by the Los Angeles Lakers in that year’s draft, while Perkins was a consensus second-team All-American before earning first-team honors the following two seasons and becoming a first-round selection of the Dallas Mavericks in 1984.
Whatever became of the Jordan kid? Like Perkins, he would receive consensus first-team All-American honors the next two seasons and was the national Player of Year in ’84. The No. 3 over pick of the Chicago Bulls that year, he would lead the Bulls to six NBA titles, earn five NBA Most Valuable Player awards, make 14 All-Star Game appearances and be considered by many the greatest player of all time.