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R.J. Davis is not alone in elimination game misses.
So many things went right for Alabama and wrong for Carolina to not advance to the Elite Eight versus Clemson, which the Tar Heels would have been favored to beat and move on to the Final Four.
Davis, regrettably, had the worst shooting game of the season and perhaps his career, Alabama’s Grant Nelson had his best game for the Crimson Tide and the Heels only lost by two points after leading by three with 1:32 left on R.J.’s last of eight free throws.
Davis remains one of UNC’s greatest players wherever he suits up next season. He is part of an infamous legacy of Tar Heel shooting guards who had poor games from the 3-point line in NCAA Tournament losses.
In the 1991 Final Four, for example, All-ACC wing Rick Fox shot 5 for 22 and 0-7 from the 3-point line in the loss to Roy Williams’ Kansas Jayhawks. That was the year WE were favored to play UNLV for the national championship but had to stay in Indianapolis and watch Duke beat both Vegas and Kansas for its first NCAA title.
Contrast that with 1993, when Donald Williams sent his jersey into the rafters by earning Final Four MVP after making 10 of 14 long balls in victories over Kansas and Michigan, when the Heels made 71 and 46 percent from the arc in New Orleans, where Dean Smith won both of his NCAA titles.
It went back the other way in 1995, when the team’s best outside shooter that season, Dante Calabria, went 0-7 on triples while the rest of the team hit 10 for 21 in the semifinal loss to Arkansas at the Seattle Kingdome. In 1997 back in Indianapolis, Vince Carter and Shammond Williams went 2 for 15 from the 3-point line in the semifinal loss to eventual national champion Arizona.
Probably the most infamous occurred the following season, Bill Guthridge’s first as head coach and the first of his two Final Fours. Guthridge had a rotating starting lineup of Antawn Jamison, Carter, Williams, Ed Cota, Ademola Okulaja and Makhtar Ndiaye, whose turn it was to start against Utah and Shammond’s turn to come off the bench. Going into the game, Williams had easily fired a team high of 191 attempts from the arc and made better than 40 percent of them. But against the Utes, he went 1 for 9 and 2 for 12 overall for the favorite to win the NCAA championship at the cavernous Alamodome in San Antonio.
A more pleasant note to end on was Roy Williams’ last of three NCAA crowns in 2017 when ACC Player of the Year Justin Jackson, the last from UNC before R.J., went 0-for-9 from outside but made 6 of his 10 other shots in the 71-65 win over Gonzaga in, yep, Phoenix.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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.
