UNC Basketball: The Biggest NCAA Tournament Moments under Roy Williams
By Chris Ward
2009
The Tar Heels entered the season coming off a beatdown at the hands of Kansas in the Final Four back in 2008. But to the delight of the fans, the Tar Heels returned Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Deon Thompson among others.
They were primed for a title run and had some memorable moments during it.
UNC legend Tyler Hansbrough breaks the ACC scoring record
After a regular season where the Tar Heels didn’t fall lower than 5th in the AP poll championship or bust was the goal. But just because the only thing to make this season successful would be a championship doesn’t mean there weren’t fun moments along the way.
Tyler Hansbrough put the finish touches on his illustrious college career against Radford in the first game of the NCAA tournament. Hansbrough hit a free throw with 15:43 to go to put his career point total at 2,770 to place him officially at the top of the ACC all-time scoring list (and bumping off JJ Redick from lead).
Ty Lawson puts the Heels on his back with a toe Injury
After Ty Lawson sustained a toe injury at Duke in 2009, UNC fans were nervous of what the injury would mean for their title hopes.
Lawson sat out of the ACC Tournament and nerves slightly increased. He then sat out the first game of the NCAA Tournament against Radford and the questions surrounding Lawson were at an all-time high.
Once he was cleared to play vs LSU the doubts and nerves were quickly shot down. Ty Lawson had a quiet first half vs the Tigers only scoring two points. Luckily the Tar Heels had a nine-point lead at half. LSU gave UNC all they could handle in the second half but Lawson had found his rhythm and answered every punch the Tiger’s threw.
Lawson had 21 points in just the second half and led the Tar Heels to an 84-70 victory to head to the Sweet Sixteen.
UNC Beats Player of the Year, Blake Griffin, to Advance to the Final Four
The 2009 tournament run is a tough one to really point to specific moments. Not because it wasn’t special to Tar Heel fans around the world, but more because it was as dominating of an NCAA tournament as there’s ever been.
The most memorable game before the championship was against the No. 2 seed and player of the year Blake Griffin led Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners were a trendy pick to beat UNC and get to the Final Four by the media, and Blake Griffin creating a matchup nightmare was a big reason why.
Griffin was certainly great in the game, but his 23 points and 16 rebounds couldn’t propel the rest of the team to beat UNC.
UNC took a nine-point lead into halftime and finished winning the game by 12.
The Tar Heels run the Michigan State Spartans off their (close to) home floor
North Carolina and Michigan State had met at Ford Field in Detroit during the regular season and UNC gave MSU a 35 point beat down 98-63.
Although the stakes were much higher for this one the results were the same. The Tar Heels jumped on the Spartans early and never looked back.
The Heels took a 55-34 lead; the largest lead and most points in a half in NCAA Championship history. After the final buzzer sounded, the Tar Heels were victorious 89-72 giving Roy Williams his second title in 5 years and tying him with Dean Smith for most National Championships in UNC history.