To reflect on the year, Chapelboro.com is re-publishing some of the top stories that impacted and defined our community’s experience in 2022. These stories and topics affected Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the rest of our region.
After an up-and-down season, there was some question whether the 2021-22 UNC men’s basketball team, Hubert Davis’ first as head coach, would even make the NCAA Tournament at all. But by the end of April, Davis’ group had become one of the most beloved in school history. The Tar Heels put together a string of thrilling wins at the end of the campaign, including two memorable ones over Duke, and were a few plays away from winning a national title. It was a spring Carolina fans will never forget.
With their season standing upon the edge of a knife, the Tar Heels were about to enter a once-in-a-lifetime environment. Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium is normally a tough enough building for Carolina to play in, but the atmosphere on March 5 would be particularly daunting: that evening would mark the final home game of legendary Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career. Krzyzewski had announced the previous summer that the 2021-22 season would be his last with the Blue Devils, ironically shortly after Carolina’s Roy Williams had announced his own retirement.
Krzyzewski’s final season at Duke had contained all the pomp and circumstance fans had expected, and Carolina fans had dreaded. He’d received honors at each away arena, with even the Dean Smith Center recognizing his last visit to Chapel Hill (UNC fans, however, weren’t as kind to the retiring coach, chanting a particularly vulgar word at him as he entered). The Blue Devils had throttled the struggling Tar Heels that night by 20 points, and UNC had given no reason to believe its visit to Durham would be any different. A loss to a bad Pittsburgh team in Chapel Hill and a win against middling Syracuse which required a last-second comeback and overtime simply amplified the chatter around the Tar Heels: they weren’t an NCAA Tournament team.
With a chance to not only send their Hall of Fame head coach out with a bang, but to also potentially eliminate their arch-rivals from postseason contention, Duke naturally brought the house down. An extended pregame ceremony featured Krzyzewski entering the arena through a tunnel of his former players and taking a picture at midcourt. The various Blue Devil alumni, including J.J. Redick, Christian Laettner, Shane Battier and Grant Hill, wore white pullovers featuring a special logo made for Krzyzewski’s final home game. The ceremony started so early and ran for so long that ESPN interrupted a broadcast of Texas playing Kansas (more on them later) in overtime to feature both that game and the Duke ceremony in a double-box.
The Tar Heels faced all of that, and an 11.5-point spread from the sportsbooks, when they stepped onto “Coach K Court.” But unlike the teams’ first meeting, Carolina came to play. UNC struck first on an Armando Bacot dunk in the first half and held an early 11-4 lead thanks to baskets from Brady Manek and R.J. Davis. The Blue Devils fought back, using a 14-0 run late in the half to turn a 28-23 deficit into 37-28 lead. With the game close to getting out of hand, Carolina buckled down: it closed the first half with another 11-4 run, the final three coming on a long-range effort from Davis to beat the buzzer and cut the lead to 41-39.
After halftime, the Blue Devils pushed their lead to as large as seven points at 56-49 with 12:50 remaining. Then, Carolina’s offense turned on the jets. The Tar Heels used a 16-5 run to take a 65-61 lead and force a Duke timeout. As the second-half clock wound down, UNC kept scoring and scoring and scoring again. All five of Carolina’s starters contributed baskets. Even wing Leaky Black, who to that point hadn’t scored a point in the game, made his presence felt with an acrobatic reverse layup along the baseline. Manek, the transfer from Oklahoma playing in Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time, hit crucial three-pointers and played all 40 minutes. He and the rest of the Tar Heel starters didn’t sit at all in the second half, leading to GoHeels.com columnist Adam Lucas to give the group of Manek, Caleb Love, Davis, Bacot and Black a nickname: the Iron Five.
That quintet used its relentless offense to pull away in the surreal final minutes, with a thunderous dunk from Bacot punctuating the memorable win. Carolina’s 94-81 victory was one of the most stunning upsets in the history of the rivalry, and punched the Tar Heels’ ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Armando Bacot’s dunk against Duke became a signature play from Carolina’s win. (Image via The Daily Tar Heel/Helen McGinnis)
UNC was awarded a No. 8 seed in the tournament, identical to its seeding in 2021. But unlike that season, which saw the Tar Heels get blown out by No. 9 seed Wisconsin in the first round, Carolina announced its presence in March Madness with authority. UNC destroyed No. 9 seed Marquette in its opening game, 95-63. The 32-point margin of victory was the largest in the history of the NCAA Tournament’s 8-9 game. Manek and Love combined for 51 points, with Love scoring 21 of his 23 points in the first half alone.
The Tar Heels’ next game would be much tougher: a showdown with No. 1 seed and defending national champion Baylor in the second round. Though the Bears entered the game sporting a 27-6 record and had spent a month as the No. 1 team in the country, Carolina kept the good times rolling in the early part of the game. With Manek still red-hot from the field, UNC lead by 13 points at halftime and extended that lead to as large as 25 midway through the second half. Manek, the former Sooner, was tormenting his former Big 12 rivals to the tune of 26 points in just 28 minutes of action.
Brady Manek was unstoppable against Baylor – until he was ejected. (Image via Todd Melet)
But with the Tar Heels already eyeing a Sweet 16 berth, the game changed dramatically when Manek was ejected for elbowing Baylor’s Jeremy Sochan in the face while jostling for a rebound. With the veteran sharpshooter gone, Carolina’s offense crumbled under the relentless pressure defense of the Bears, and the 25-point lead melted away with alarming speed.
Still, Carolina led by six points with 30 seconds remaining after a free throw from Bacot. Sochan then banked in a desperation three-pointer, Baylor fouled Bacot again and the big man missed both foul shots. On the other end, Bears guard James Akinjo muscled a layup through a foul from Davis and converted his and-1 free throw. The game was tied, and the Tar Heels couldn’t knock down a game-winning shot as time expired in regulation.
As the game went to overtime, the Baylor-heavy crowd in Fort Worth could feel a win in the cards. Love had fouled out earlier in the game, meaning the Tar Heels were down two starters for the extra period. Reserves Dontrez Styles, Puff Johnson and Justin McKoy were pressed into emergency service, despite Hubert Davis’ penchant for not playing his bench in critical moments.
As the overtime began, the ball found Styles in the corner. The freshman from Kinston, N.C. used a jab step to create some space, then coolly elevated and knocked down a three-pointer. That play no doubt calmed down the frazzled Tar Heels, who once again found themselves in the lead. Though Baylor did tie the game once again in overtime, the Bears could never push in front. A spectacular and-1 layup from R.J. Davis with 1:18 remaining gave Carolina a six-point lead, and the Tar Heels were able to gut out the rest of the afternoon. Davis ended with a career-high 30 points. In unforgettable fashion, UNC had knocked out the defending champions 93-86, and was headed to the Sweet 16 once again.
R.J. Davis’ clutch play helped Carolina secure its upset over the Bears. (Image via Todd Melet)
The regional semifinals in Philadelphia saw the Tar Heels matched up with another college basketball blue blood: No. 4 seed UCLA. Like Baylor, the Bruins had reached the Final Four in 2021 and were expected to do so again in 2022. The two teams traded jabs throughout a defensive struggle in the first half. Love, who had been so hot against Marquette, scored just three points in the half, and the Tar Heels trailed by three points at the break.
After donning a new pair of shoes for the second half, Love came out of the locker rooms a changed man. The sophomore guard caught fire, knocking down long threes and acrobatic twos to pace the Carolina offense. Love tied the game with 1:40 remaining with another three. He only had the chance to do so after Bacot saved a rebound by leaping over the baseline and hurling the ball behind him.
On UNC’s next possession, Love called his own number again, nailing yet another three and sending the Tar Heel fans in Philadelphia into a frenzy. He ended the night with a career-high 30 points, and the Tar Heels had needed every last one of them to fight off the Bruins. The 73-66 win sent Carolina through to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2017.
Caleb Love was red-hot in the second half against UCLA. (Image via Todd Melet)
The regional final would provide a unique matchup for the Tar Heels: not No. 2 seed Kentucky or No. 3 seed Purdue, each of whom had beaten Carolina earlier in the season. No, UNC would be facing off against No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s who had upset both the Wildcats and the Boilermakers on their way to the Elite Eight. The Peacocks’ historic run had made them the darlings of the tournament, and the game in Philadelphia would be played less than two hours from the Saint Peter’s campus in New Jersey.
Despite that relatively hostile environment, the Tar Heels dominated the Peacocks from the opening tip-off, scoring the first nine points of the game and leading by as many as 21 in the first half. Bacot had his best game of the postseason, lording his size over the Peacocks to the tune of 20 points and 22 rebounds. Unlike Carolina’s games with Baylor and UCLA, this one was never in doubt. The Tar Heels cruised to a 69-49 win to advance to the program’s 21st Final Four, a national record.
Armando Bacot put together yet another outstanding game against Saint Peter’s. (Image via Todd Melet)
Carolina’s opponent in the Final Four? Who else could it be?
The Duke Blue Devils had put together their own memorable March run, securing one last trip to the Final Four in Mike Krzyzewski’s career by easily dispatching No. 4 seed Arkansas in the Elite Eight. The showdown in New Orleans would be the first-ever NCAA Tournament meeting between Duke and Carolina, and it would play out with Krzyzewski’s career on the line. Not only that, but the Blue Devils would have a chance to exact sweet revenge for their humbling loss to the Tar Heels a month earlier. In short, the NCAA hype machine was in high gear.
After six-days of non-stop buildup, it was finally time to play. As expected, both teams had to shake off some nerves in the beginning of the game, but eventually found their stride. Duke took a lead as large as six points late in the first half on a three-pointer from future No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero, but Carolina responded with six unanswered points to tie the game at 34-34. The Blue Devils took a 37-34 lead into the locker rooms.
Banchero continued to show off his game early in the second half, putting Duke up by seven points at 41-34 with a powerful dunk. But once again, the Tar Heels had an answer. Three consecutive three-pointers (two by Love, one by Manek) catapulted Carolina into the lead, and Love added four more points to make it a 13-0 UNC run and a 47-41 Tar Heel lead.
After that, it was back-and-forth between the two arch-rivals. After Duke tied the game at 47-47, neither side led by more than five points for the remaining 13:51. Each punch by the Tar Heels or Blue Devils was answered in kind. The game was so exciting and competitive, it averaged 16.3 million viewers on TBS, which the NCAA projected to be the second most-viewed college basketball telecast in the history of cable television.
But with 5:18 remaining and the game tied at 65, disaster struck for the Tar Heels. Bacot stepped on Leaky Black’s foot while on defense, rolling his right ankle. The big man crumpled to the floor and stayed down for a few heart-in-throat moments before being helped off the floor. It appeared UNC would have to play out the home stretch of the national semifinal without their rebounding machine.
Armando Bacot is helped off the floor after injuring his ankle against Duke. (Image via Todd Melet)
Puff Johnson subbed in for Bacot and even knocked down a pair of crucial free throws, but it was not long before Bacot was jogging to the scorer’s table to check back in. Whatever reserves of adrenaline he had left were operating at full power.
With the big man back in the fold, the lead continued to swing back and forth between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils. Duke’s Trevor Keels gave his team a 73-71 lead with 2:07 remaining, only for Manek to answer in kind 26 seconds later. Trailing again, Keels this time missed a three, only for Banchero to grab the offensive rebound over the hobbled Bacot. Banchero dished the ball out to teammate Wendell Moore, who made no mistake on his try from downtown, knocking it in to give Duke the lead back. Krzyzewski called timeout with 1:18 remaining, but not before Moore excitedly pumped his fist at midcourt. The Blue Devils clearly felt the game was theirs.
They nearly snuffed out the Tar Heels on Carolina’s next offensive possession, but R.J. Davis became the beneficiary of a questionable foul call on Duke’s Jeremy Roach. The call sent Davis to the line for two free throws, and he made both to give UNC a one-point lead at 75-74.
On Duke’s next possession, lengthy big man Mark Williams drew Bacot’s fifth personal foul, this time sending the Carolina center out of the game for good. Bacot ended the night with yet another double-double of 11 points and 21 rebounds, the most in a Final Four game since 1983.
With the Blue Devils in the double bonus, Williams trotted to the line for two free throws to potentially give Duke the lead again. Though a good free throw shooter, Williams missed long on his first attempt. The sophomore then overcompensated on his next shot and left it short. Love corralled the rebound with under a minute remaining. With his team leading by a point and the clock ticking toward 30 seconds, Love calmly jogged up the court. The Blue Devils elected not to foul, instead relying on their defense and the 16-second difference between the game and shot clocks.
Love, whose propensity to take questionable shots had both thrilled and infuriated Tar Heel fans for his two seasons in Chapel Hill, knew the shot was his to take. UNC knew it. Duke knew it, too. With 28 seconds left, he made his move. Dribbling to the left of a screen from Black, Love elevated for a three-pointer over Williams, whose wingspan measures all of seven feet and seven inches. Somehow, Love’s shot escaped the long arm of the Blue Devil and found its target: the bottom of the net.
Caleb Love’s shot over Mark Williams has already become one of the most famous in UNC basketball history. (Image via Todd Melet)
The shot gave UNC a four-point advantage, and it was one which Duke was not able to slice away by the time the final buzzer sounded. Carolina had won its very own Game of the Century, 81-77 over its rival in the Final Four. Love finished with a game-high 28 points and played all 40 minutes.
The ensuing UNC celebration may or may not have been equal to that of a national championship win, but the Tar Heels did have one more game to go, and it would be for a title. They would face the Kansas Jayhawks in the championship game just two nights later. Bacot’s status was still up in the air, his one-legged performance down the stretch against Duke notwithstanding. The big man himself asserted he would play, but Hubert Davis contended he would put the health of the player ahead of his desire to win a basketball game.
In the end, Bacot did play, and the Tar Heels were better for it. After enduring a 7-0 Jayhawks run to begin the game, Carolina recovered and then some, exploding out to a lead as large as 16 points. A buzzer-beating putback from Puff Johnson gave UNC a 40-25 lead at halftime, but that was unfortunately as good as it would get for the Tar Heels. Kansas responded like champions do in the second half, erasing the deficit with incredible speed and even leading by as many as six points midway through the period.
Carolina was able to finally find its sea legs thanks to outstanding play off the bench by Puff Johnson. The Tar Heels stayed close for the remainder of the game, even taking a brief one-point lead on a putback by Manek with 1:41 left. But with Bacot unable to fully compete on the glass, the Jayhawks took advantage: an offensive rebound led to the go-ahead bucket with 1:21 remaining, and then Bacot’s ankle finally gave out on Carolina’s next possession. He had to be helped off the floor again and sat dejected on the Tar Heel bench.
Armando Bacot hides his face after re-injuring his ankle in the national championship against Kansas. (Image via Todd Melet)
After a hectic final few moments, Carolina still had a last-ditch attempt to tie the game. The ball went to Love, but this time his three-pointer missed the mark. The Jayhawks celebrated a 72-69 victory, with their 16-point comeback the largest in the history of the championship game. UNC, meanwhile, was left to ponder what might have been.
Still, the 2021-22 season will go down as one of the most memorable in the history of the UNC men’s basketball program. The Carolina Basketball Museum is already adorned with mementos of the Final Four win over Duke, and Tar Heel fans are quick to remind everyone who will listen of the two late-season wins over the Blue Devils. In a larger sense, Carolina’s run through the NCAA Tournament gave fans some of their first sporting thrills since the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020.
“This is the words of one fan came up to me,” Hubert Davis told 97.9 The Hill this past summer, “he said that it felt like we were back to normal… the support for this team, for this program, for me personally, for our coaching staff and this program has been nothing short of unbelievable the entire season.”
Featured image via Todd Melet
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