The game was at Notre Dame, under the Golden Dome — but the Tar Heels had the luck of the Irish.
The last time I used a version of that line was on St. Patrick’s Day, 1977, when Carolina played Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament in College Park, Maryland. The Fighting Irish of bombastic coach Digger Phelps took at 10-point lead at halftime with torrid shooting that wound up 67 percent for the game and by out-rebounding UNC 30-22.
The Heels roared back from a second-half deficit and Phil Ford, who had wrenched his right elbow in a scrum for a loose ball, went to the foul line and made the two winning free throws with a throbbing arm that would plague him all the way through the national championship loss to Marquette 11 days later in Atlanta.
Somehow, as Ford and Walter Davis played hurt, Carolina won 79-77 to keep that magical season alive without star center Tom Lagarde, sidelined in February with a severely injured knee. UNC fans wrapped light blue ribbons around their index and middle fingers in support of “Sweet D” who had missed the first weekend win over Purdue.
Davis, who had fractured his finger against Virginia in the ACC tournament, managed 8 points and 8 rebounds as Ford, freshman Mike O’Koren and senior John Kuester combined for 59 points to outlast Notre Dame’s four starters in double figures. A thriller for sure.
I called in my commentary for the next morning from a phone booth after midnight. “It was St. Patrick’s Day, but Carolina had the luck of the Irish,” I began.
With Ford sitting out most of the regional championship win over Kentucky and Kuester running Four Corners, the Tar Heels advanced to the Final Four and beat UNLV in the Saturday semifinal.
Saturday’s game in South Bend looked equally, if not more, bleak for the 2025 Tar Heels with simply the opportunity to play in the NCAA tourney at stake. But, with a similarly special performance, Elliot Cadeau made two shots that will live in the overstocked annals of UNC hoops.
The chances of winning a game in the last five seconds when trailing by three points are long under any circumstances. But sinking a 3-pointer from the wing AND getting fouled as he released it, then swishing the free throw to avoid overtime is literally one for the books.
ELLIOT CADEAU WITH A CHANCE FOR A FOUR POINT PLAY DOWN 3 IN THE FINAL SECONDS! @UNC_Basketball 🤯 pic.twitter.com/4xXZCyUz2i
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) January 4, 2025
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) January 4, 2025
Wait, there is more for Cadeau — a 27-percent shooter from the arc and 72-percent shooter from the foul line. He kept his arms straight up to contest 6-foot-8 Irish star Markus Burton’s potential winning layup as the buzzer sounded to cap the forever five seconds the Irish had to speed down the court. The win should send Carolina home for three of the next four ACC games with renewed confidence to keep improving.
Despite the dramatic finish, this kind of uneven play has got to stop if the 9-6 and 2-1 Heels are going to string some wins together and get back into the NCAA conversation, where the latest projected bracketology has them as an 11th seed playing No. 11 Arizona State at the First Four in Dayton.
And Carolina has the opportunity to do that over the next two weeks against SMU, which was blown out at home by Duke Saturday, at an N.C. State team that lost big to Wake Forest, then Cal and Stanford who sport a combined 1-5 ACC record.
Repeating familiar patterns, Carolina lost a double-digit lead in the first half and could not put the Irish away despite shooting 58 percent in the second period. And once again, freshman Ian Jackson led the team with 27 points, the third time he has set his collegiate career high. “I can’t think of another guard at Carolina who scored so easily,” Hubert Davis said.
Cadeau’s heroics gave him 10 points as the only other double figure scorer. R.J. Davis had 8 points, shooting 3-9 from the floor and missing all three long balls. But he led the team with 8 assists, showing his unselfishness while defenses continue to double team last season’s ACC Player of the Year.
Along with Jackson’s 11 for 18, the rest of the team shot 17 for 28 — which should have been good enough to overcome a 12-0 Irish run early in the second half that made it a close game to the wire. Burton, back in action after missing seven games with an injury, had 17 points in the second half and seven in the rally that eventually tied the score with 10:25 remaining. From there, the lead changed hands seven times until ND went up 73-70.
Davis could not get the ball on the last possession and Cadeau fired from the right wing while covered by Matt Allocco, a Princeton transfer and perhaps the most savvy player on his team. When the whistle blew for the foul and the three-ball went in, Allocco held his head over a mistake that would cost his team the game.
“We’ve been in that spot a lot of games,” Hubert Davis said after the heartstopper. “Most of our games have been close in the last four minutes, so we feel really experienced and like we know what to do and what not to do.”
Indeed, the frantic final seconds felt like finishes against Louisville, UCLA, Florida, Michigan State, Dayton and all the way back to Allen Fieldhouse vs. then-No. 1 Kansas.
“The first 30 minutes of the game, we were sound defensively” Davis said. “On the offensive end, we were sharing the basketball, getting the shots we wanted. In the first half we missed like three or four layups, but I felt really good about what we were doing. Then in the middle of the second half, we were getting beat straight one-on-one, and it was causing us problems; they were either scoring or getting to the free throw line, and that allowed them to come back and take the lead.
“We needed this one for our confidence, for our overall joy,” the head coach concluded. “I’m happy with the result and felt like we played Carolina basketball. [We] were able to win on the road in the ACC, which is very hard to do. I’m really happy for them. It’s such a great group of kids, but we have to become a team. We have to join together, solve problems together and hold each other accountable.”
Cadeau said of the winning free throw, “I literally asked Coach, ‘What if I don’t make it? What defense are we in?’ He said, ‘I’m not even thinking about that.’ So he had confidence in me, which helped a lot.”
Along with a little Irish luck.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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