Carolina Basketball has something to celebrate this week.
Tuesday was the 17th anniversary of Roy Williams returning to his alma mater and resurrecting a program that had sputtered. And rebuild it, he did. How about his stats since coming home:
- 9 ACC regular-season titles (first in the ACC)
- 45 NCAA tournament wins (first in Division I)
- 5 Final Fours (tied for first in Division I)
- 4 NCAA titles game appearances (first in Division I)
- 3 national championships (tied for first in Division I)
Last week, WCHL rebroadcast UNC’s win over Illinois with Woody Durham making the call from St. Louis, giving Williams his first national championship. Counting Final Fours in his last two seasons at Kansas, it was Ol’ Roy’s third in four years.
Here are a few things I remember about that game.
The top-ranked Illini chose to wear their orange uniforms. Williams was happy to wear UNC’s blue unies, since it was a true road game with Illinois just across the Mississippi River. But CBS didn’t like the color contrast and asked Carolina to wear its home whites.
During the National Anthem at the Edward Jones Dome, the bald eagle Challenger was let loose to soar around the stadium.
Illinois went 5 of 19 from 3-point range and trailed the Tar Heels by 13 points at the half. It seemed easy after close encounters with Villanova, Wisconsin and Michigan State on the way to Monday night. But the Illini got hot in the second half, and their late 10-0 run, coupled with Carolina going scoreless on six straight possessions, resulted in a tie game in the closing minutes.
Then Raymond Felton drilled a big trey and, after Rashad McCants’ wild shot was tipped in by Marvin Williams, the Tar Heels held on for the 75-70 win. Current assistant coach Sean May had his 15th double-double in the last 20 games (26 points and 10 rebounds) and won the Final Four Most Oustanding Player.
Dean Smith and Michael Jordan visited the Heels’ locker room after the game. Carolina fans were happy for their coaches and their players, but equally happy for themselves after enduring six years when their team did not win an outright ACC title and lost to Duke 15 times.
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