Championship Monday was also a message to the NC-Double up yours.

Despite the four years of attempted Death by Inertia from the NCAA, and a snub from the baseball selection committee, Carolina Athletics had its greatest weekend in history. A day after the UNC women won the NCAA lacrosse championship over former ACC rival Maryland, the men won their fifth national title by beating the now Big-Ten Terrapins in what may have been the most thrilling championship game in the sport’s history.

Carolina also barely missed other NCAA titles in women’s tennis, and only the Memorial Day bummer of baseball not receiving an NCAA bid dampened the weekend. But only barely, considering what the lacrosse teams were doing.

Chris Cloutier scored in sudden-death overtime after Brian Balkam saved the game by stopping a point-blank shot, as Carolina became the first school to win both men’s and women’s lacrosse titles in the same year since Princeton did it in 1994. And while the NCAA is still trying to screw with UNC by making the Diamond Heels the highest RPI’d team to miss the baseball big dance, Carolina continues to prove it has one of the best athletic programs in the country. And it won’t change, no matter what say the Committee on Infractions.

Recruiting might have been damaged for a year or two across the board, but Tar Heel teams still won the Coastal Division in football and nearly won the national basketball championship. Now, they have followed with one of their best spring seasons ever despite the baseball blip that says more about the flawed ACC tournament format than Mike Fox’s ball club.

By beating Maryland in both lacrosse finals, the ACC rubbed it in a little with the school that bolted for the big money of the Big Ten. Women’s lacrosse has been sensational under Coach Jenny Levy, winning its second title, and the men rallied from a poor start this season to give Coach Joe Breschi his first national championship and the school’s first in 25 years. What an anniversary present for the 1991 team!

The NCAA trauma is almost over, but Carolina will be stronger for it on the field and in the classroom.  Under Bubba Cunningham, UNC Athletics has been resilient in one of the most over-blown, hyped-up scandals in college history. The Tar Heels have taken their lumps – and are just starting to get even.