Someone who was born the last time Carolina and Georgetown met in men’s basketball would be a college freshman today.
Hard to believe, isn’t it? The Tar Heels and Hoyas are inextricably linked in college hoops lore, but Sunday’s meeting in the Smith Center is the first game between the two since the 2007 Elite Eight in New Jersey. That memorable afternoon saw No. 2 seed Georgetown rally from a 10-point deficit in the final six minutes to force overtime, then blitz top-seeded UNC in the extra session on its way to the Final Four.
Of course, the legendary 1982 NCAA championship game between the two schools will be top of mind Sunday. The Tar Heels are styling this weekend’s contest as a “throwback game,” with the team wearing its retro uniforms and the first 2,500 students receiving retro rally towels. We’ll have to see if Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley will wear a towel over his shoulder a la John Thompson, or if any Hoyas will channel Patrick Ewing and wear a gray shirt beneath their jerseys.
That national title game in the Superdome is, to this day, one of the greatest collections of talent in any college basketball game ever. Between the rosters and coaching staffs of both teams, there were six future Naismith Hall of Famers competing that night. My favorite nugget is that the UNC team featured five future National Coach of the Year winners: Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, Eddie Fogler and Roy Williams on the bench, and also Matt Doherty on the floor.
Doherty won his National Coach of the Year award in 2001 after his first season in Chapel Hill. Just two years later, he was gone – and ironically enough, it was the Hoyas who sent him packing. The 2003 Tar Heels missed the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season but qualified for the NIT thanks to a loaded freshman class which would eventually win a national championship. They beat DePaul and Wyoming in the first two rounds before hosting Georgetown at the Smith Center. UNC had fought back from a 10-point hole in the second half to tie the game at 70-70, but the Hoyas pulled out the win thanks to a late three-pointer. Doherty resigned less than a week later.
Overall, the two schools have met nine times, with the Hoyas holding a 5-4 edge in the series. UNC’s last win came in the 1999 Maui Invitational, when Guthridge led the No. 4 Tar Heels to an 85-79 win in the semifinals. Carolina also beat the Hoyas in the 1995 Sweet 16 in Birmingham before upsetting top-seeded Kentucky in the Elite Eight.
Needless to say, there’s usually high leverage when the Tar Heels and Hoyas face off. Not so much Sunday, although a win over a solid Big East team would certainly strengthen UNC’s already strong early-season body of work. The students waving the retro rally towels likely have no memory of how devastating the 2007 Elite Eight loss was, and have only experienced the euphoria of 1982 through YouTube.
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