It took the Tar Heels 11 years to do it again in New Orleans.

A lot happened between Dean Smith’s first and second national championships. Carolina won more games in the 1980s than any other college program, but despite going undefeated twice in the ACC there were no more Final Fours in the decade after 1982.

At the same time, Duke emerged as the new America’s team, beginning a run of reaching seven Final Fours in nine years between 1986 and 1994. The Blue Devils won their first-ever NCAA title on a painful Indianapolis weekend, when UNC lost to Roy Williams and Kansas and the Dukies stunned No. 1 and unbeaten UNLV.

Losing some of their thunder to the arch-rival motivated Carolina in 1993 to put together a classic run. As the top seed in the East, the Tar Heels won regional thrillers over Arkansas and Cincinnati with a team whose sum was even better than its individual parts.

They drew Kansas again, this time back in New Orleans, and Eric Montross, George Lynch and Donald Williams combined for 62 of the team’s 78 points in the Super Dome semifinals, advancing to play the Fab Five of Michigan on Monday night.

Roy Williams hung around and waved a Carolina pompom as his alma mater battled the Wolverines into the final seconds. Smith replaced four weary starters late in the second half to give them a breather, and when back they stretched the lead to five points. Michigan cut it to one when Chris Webber, the Michigan star who had 23 points and 11 rebounds, called the ill-fated timeout after being trapped into the corner by Lynch and Derrick Phelps, the Tar Heels’ two best defenders.

Donald Williams, Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four with 10 3-pointers, sewed up the win with four free throws. Carolina had come back to steal the spotlight away from Duke and give Smith the momentum to reach two more Final Fours before he retired in 1997.

The consummate coach had arrived at the dome shortly before his team took the court for warm-ups. He loosened up his players by saying, “If you don’t know how to play basketball by now, there’s not much more I can teach you.” Final score: Carolina 77, Michigan 71.

 

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