Keeping It Heel
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UNC Basketball: Tar Heels’ toughest moments of the past 20 years

By Blake Cockrum

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 01: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts during the second half of their game against the Boston College Eagles at the Dean Smith Center on February 01, 2020 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Boston College won 71-70. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 01: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts during the second half of their game against the Boston College Eagles at the Dean Smith Center on February 01, 2020 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Boston College won 71-70. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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UNC Basketball
30 Dec 2000: Head Coach Matt Doherty of the North Carolina Tar Heels signals from the sidelines during the game against the Charleston Cougars at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Tar Heels defeated the Cougars 64-60.Mandatory Credit: Craig Jones /Allsport /

Matt Doherty’s 8-20 season

In Matt Doherty’s first season as head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, they went 26-7 overall and tied Duke for an ACC-best 13-3 conference record. They made it to the ACC Tournament final — where they lost to Duke in blowout fashion for the second time in a week — but earned a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament. And despite a disappointing second round loss to Penn State in the NCAA Tournament, they finished the season ranked inside the top-10 of both the Associated Press Top 25 and the Coaches Poll. By all accounts, things were really looking up for the Tar Heels.

The 2001-02 Tar Heels were a completely different story, finishing the season with an 8-20 record, and a 4-12 mark in conference play. In what is widely considered the team’s worst season in program history, the Tar Heels finished in a three-way tie for seventh-place, and lost three games to rival Duke by a combined 66 points.

Granted, Doherty and the Tar Heels lost a handful of players from the season before — Brendan Haywood, Julius Peppers and Joseph Forte, to name a few. Seniors Jason Capel and Kris Lang were holdovers from the prior year, and Doherty added a solid core of young players in Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel and Melvin Scott. They simply couldn’t get anything to work on the court that season, though, as their youth, inexperience and lack of star-power caused them difficulties from start to finish.

After going 19-16 the following season with a core of players that would go on to win the NCAA Tournament championship just two years later, Doherty was removed as the Tar Heels’ head coach and replaced by former UNC assistant Roy Williams.

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