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A number of UNC top ten teams have bunched losses together.
It is too early to panic about the current Tar Heels’ downturn after beginning the ACC season 9-0 and rising to No. 3 in the national rankings. It can happen in college basketball, even for the best teams and Hall of Fame coaches.
For example, take Roy Williams’ 2016 team that reached the Final Four and lost the national championship game on a buzzer-beater by Villanova. Those top ten Tar Heels lost at Louisville and at Notre Dame, then after beating Boston College and Pitt lost at home to Duke. Obviously, the sky didn’t fall.
Ol’ Roy’s 2012 powerhouse never left the top five in the country but lost two out of three to UNLV and Kentucky early in the season. The 2009 Heels, who went on to win it all, lost their first two ACC games at home to BC and at Wake Forest. And, as we all know, Ol’ Roy is in both basketball halls of fame.
Matt Doherty’s first UNC team had won 18 straight and was ranked No. 1 before it lost three of its last five ACC games at Clemson, at Virginia and at home to Duke in the regular-season finale.
Bill Guthridge’s Final Four-bound 2000 team was knocked out of the top ten with three losses in five games to Cincinnati, Indiana and Louisville before recovering to make its NCAA tournament run. Dean Smith’s 1995 team that was never out of the top ten lost three of six late in the season.
One of Smith’s most popular teams in his 36 years was 1977, when the Tar Heels dropped from No. 4 to No. 13 by losing three late games at State, to Wake Forest at home and at Clemson by 20 points, 93-73. Smith is famous for giving that team two days off when they all returned to Chapel Hill and told them, “Be ready for practice Wednesday and I will tell you how we’re going to win the national championship.”
He wasn’t kidding. The Phil Ford-Walter Davis-John Kuester-Mike O’Koren group, without injured star center Tommy LaGarde, won the next 15 games all the way to the Final Four when it lost the infamous heartbreaker to Marquette Monday night in Atlanta with Ford and Davis playing hurt.
I am not saying that Hubert Davis’ third team will do the same thing, but his first unranked team did something almost as remarkable, when it won 11 out of 12 including two wins over Duke at Cameron and in the Final Four to finally finish ranked No. 25.
What I am saying is, “Let’s just see what happens with this team.”
Featured image via Associated Press/Adrian Kraus
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.
“Let’s just see what happens with this team.”
Good advice. This is a very good basketball team. Syracuse played their best game of the year against us and shots went in that wouldn’t normally fall. It was a 1 point game when a SU shot taken as the clock wound down, from half a mile away, with Bacot defending hand up, banked off the backboard and became a 3 point shot. That’s how Syracuse shots were falling.
We didn’t play our very best, but we didn’t play poorly either. If you look at the data, other than the score, you might conclude we won… The 3 losses of late are by 12 total points. A bit of better luck and we win all three. I always believe.
I am enjoying this season.