The Power Five: North Carolina’s 5 Greatest Basketball Teams
Jan 26, 2014; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Clemson Tigers guard Rod Hall (12) dribbles the ball up the court as forward/center Josh Smith (33) looks on and North Carolina Tar Heels guard Marcus Paige (5) defends in the first half at Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
1. 2008-’09
Record: 34-4; Defeated Michigan State 89-72 to win national championship
The talent, the numbers, the dominance. The ’08-’09 Tar Heels were abundant in all in making one of the most emphatic runs to a national title in NCAA Tournament history.
Just how dominant was UNC in its six-game journey to claim the program’s fifth NCAA title? Its average margin of victory for the tourney was a robust 20.2 points, a figure made all the more remarkable in that four of the Tar Heels’ victims were ranked among the top 15 in the final AP poll.
Five players would become first-round NBA Draft selections of the next four drafts, and the team would be marked by the career of one of the most prolific players in NCAA history.
A national championship was the fitting culmination for senior forward Tyler Hansbrough, whose four-year career would rewrite the ACC and school record books. His 2,872 points catapulted him to the top of the ACC’s career scoring list, while is 1,219 rebounds are a program best.
Psycho T became the first player in league history to receive first-team All-ACC and All-American honors in each of his four seasons, and his 20.7 points per game led four players who averaged better than 13 points a game, including point guard Ty Lawson (16.6 points/game) who was named a consensus second-team All-American.
Both along with Wayne Ellington (15.8 points/game) would be opening-round picks in the ’09 Draft, while Danny Green (13.1 pts/game) was a second-round selection.
Interestingly enough, North Carolina sputtered out the gate to start ACC play, dropping its first two conference games against Boston College and Wake Forest. The Tar Heels, though, rebounded with 13 wins in their final 14 conference contests to snare the ACC regular-season title.
With Lawson sidelined with a toe injury, UNC dropped a second-round ACC Tournament matchup with Florida State but was awarded the top seed in the NCAA Tourney’s South Region where it began its jaw-dropping run.
The Tar Heels rolled to a 98-77 Sweet 16 win over Gonzaga and cruised into the Final Four in Detroit after a 72-60 victory over Oklahoma which featured national Player of the Year Blake Griffin.
There UNC continued its near flawless play easily defeating Villanova 83-69 to set the stage for a rematch with Michigan State (the Tar Heels had defeated the Spartans 98-63 on the same court four months earlier).
North Carolina proved no less dominant the second go-round racing out to a 36-13 lead before taking a 55-34 advantage into the break. Ellington’s 39 points over the final two games on 14-of-26 shooting (8-of-10 from 3-point range) solidified the shooting guard’s Most Outstanding Player award for the Final Four.
While the Tar Heels’ foundation that season was certainly built on experience (all five starters were juniors or seniors), a couple of rookies also were valuable contributors with one eventually concluding with his own memorable career.
Freshman Ed Davis averaged nearly seven points and over 6.5 boards, and became a first-round selection of the Toronto Raptors one year later. And while his numbers weren’t as high as his classmate’s, Tyler Zeller provided key minutes off the bench and planted the seeds to a four-year career that eventually earned him the 2012 ACC Player of the Year award, as well as second-team All-American honors from The Sporting News and USBWA before becoming a first-round pick of the Dallas Mavericks.