These Fantastic Historical Themes Provide Backdrop For UNC-Kansas

By David Glenn

The 2021-22 North Carolina basketball team already has written one of the most amazing stories in the history of one of the nation’s most decorated college programs.

Here are five “fun facts,” some of which you can’t find in the history books, that will serve as part of the backdrop for tonight’s NCAA championship matchup against Kansas (9:20 pm, TBS).

  1. Hubert Davis: With a North Carolina victory against the Jayhawks, Hubert Davis would become the first rookie college head coach ever to lead his team on a season-long journey to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship.

Davis already is one of only 10 first-year college coaches to lead his team to the Final Four and one of only four to reach the NCAA title game.

The only existing example of a rookie college coach winning the NCAA championship came in 1989, when Michigan interim head coach Steve Fisher led the Wolverines to six straight victories on the March Madness stage. During the regular season that year, Fisher had served as an assistant coach to Bill Frieder, who was fired two days before the NCAA Tournament.

  1. #8 Seed Lowest Ever: While the Cinderella label is certainly not a shoe that fits this UNC squad perfectly, the Tar Heels are one win away from tying 1985 Villanova as the lowest-seeded team ever to win the NCAA Tournament.

It’s easy to forget, but more than 90 percent of NCAA champions come from among top-four seeds. In fact, only four lower-seeded teams ever have won the Big Dance: #8 seed Villanova (1985), #7 seed Connecticut (2014), #6 seed Kansas (1988) and #6 seed NC State (1983).

Even decades later, the “Cardiac Pack” of Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano and “Danny and the Miracles,” the underdog Jayhawks team led by coach Larry Brown and future #1 NBA draft pick Danny Manning, join the 1985 Wildcats among the most famous teams in NCAA history.

  1. Relatively Modest W-L Mark: While UNC’s coaches and players have used the “disrespect” card to their advantage over the last month especially, the Tar Heels’ pre-tournament record (24-9) would rank among the worst of any NCAA champion in history.

In an event that dates to 1939, only three teams with more losses on their resumes ended up shocking the world and winning it all, and they’re the same three teams mentioned above: 1983 NC State (26-10 final record), 1985 Villanova (25-10) and 1988 Kansas (27-11).

In reality, prior to their March 5 victory at Duke, UNC’s 2021-22 resume didn’t get much respect because it didn’t deserve much respect.

Heading into that Duke game in Durham, in their four games against top competition, they had suffered humbling and/or humiliating defeats to Purdue (93-84), Tennessee (89-72), Kentucky (98-69) and Duke (87-67 in Chapel Hill). At the time, the Tar Heels’ best wins were against Michigan and Virginia Tech teams that also were on the NCAA Tournament bubble. On Feb. 16, they had lost 76-67 at home to Pittsburgh, one of the worst teams in the ACC.

History should reflect that the true message behind the 2021-22 Tar Heels is less about unfair disrespect from outsiders and infinitely more about an amazing group of coaches and players whose unshakable belief in each other and individual and collective improvement ultimately turned an apparently mediocre season (as of mid-February) into a stunning success story.

  1. Fighting NBA Factor: Amazingly, since the creation of a professional basketball draft in the United States, every single NCAA champion — 74 in a row! (1947-2021) — has had at least one future top-30 draft pick (the equivalent of a modern first-round selection) on its roster at the time it captured the championship (https://chapelboro.com/town-square/holding-court-the-recipe-for-final-four-success).

The overwhelming majority of title teams have had several such players. All but one of the Tar Heels’ previous (of their record 21) Final Four squads have had multiple top-30 picks, with most having three, four or even five such selections (please see the accompanying chart).

Viewed from a different professional prospective, the 20 most recent national champions averaged five future NBA players each. UNC’s five most recent NCAA champions, dating back to the sensational Michael Jordan-Sam Perkins-James Worthy trio (each became a top-four NBA pick) from Dean Smith’s 1982 squad, also averaged five future NBA players each.

On the NCAA championship teams of Kentucky coach John Calipari in 2012 and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in 2015, seven of the eight players who appeared for those teams in the national championship game ultimately played in the NBA (most regularly, some only briefly). UNC’s 2005 and 2009 NCAA champions had six and seven future NBA players, respectively.

Although nobody has a perfect crystal ball to project the 2022 or 2023 NBA drafts, and especially young college players still have plenty of time to improve their professional prospects, it’s clear that the 2022 Heels don’t have anything close to that sort of NBA capital.

While Kansas has a projected first-round pick in senior guard Ochai Agbaji and several other possible NBA players, the Tar Heels’ main hopes are sophomore guard Caleb Love (whose electrifying NCAA Tournament will elevate his status) and junior center Armando Bacot, who have been projected as second-round selections (at best) in virtually all reputable mock drafts.

  1. More Amazing History: Regardless of what happens tonight, UNC has built upon its long-held reputation as one of the most successful programs in college basketball history.

UNC is playing in its 180th NCAA Tournament game, second only to Kentucky (182), and many more than the next programs on the list, Kansas (163rd tonight), Duke (157) and UCLA (150). The Tar Heels have the most all-time victories (131) in the Big Dance.

UNC is playing in its 21st Final Four, adding to its own record. Next-best are UCLA (18), Duke (17), UK (17) and KU (16). Carolina also is the only program to appear in the national semifinals and at least one NCAA championship game in each of the nine full (or current) decades of the event’s history, with those Final Four appearances coming in 1946, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2017 and now 2022.

UNC is playing in the NCAA title game for the 12th time, second only to UCLA (13). The Tar Heels are playing in the championship game for the third time in the last six tournaments, including under Roy Williams in 2016 (national runner-up) and 2017 (NCAA champions).

With a victory tonight, UNC would achieve its seventh NCAA title, behind only UCLA (11) and Kentucky (8). The Bruins have only one championship since 1975, and the Wildcats have only one since 1998. The Tar Heels, of course, had three (1957, 1982, 1993) prior to the turn of the century, but also three (2005, 2009, 2017) since then, with the possibility of a fourth tonight.

Next Time: The Aftermath!

(featured image by Todd Melet) 


David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.

The founding editor and long-time owner of the ACC Sports Journal and ACCSports.com, he also has contributed to the Durham Herald-Sun, ESPN Radio, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Raycom Sports, SiriusXM and most recently The Athletic. From 1999-2020, he also hosted the David Glenn Show, which became the largest sports radio program in the history of the Carolinas, syndicated in more than 300 North Carolina cities and towns, plus parts of South Carolina and Virginia.


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