With North Carolina not invited to participate in the 2023 NCAA tournament, I read someone on Twitter roast Tar Heel fans (like me) that we are just going to sit and watch old tournament games to fill the void.
Hmm. What a great idea.
Watching old tournament games sure is fun and it can make you remember the good times while the bad times forced you to have nothing to do. So instead of just watching old North Carolina hoops games, how about we create out own tournament of Heels' NCAA tournament wins to see which one is the best.
So below are the 32 best games, and I divided them up into four regions -- Jordan, McGuire, Williams and Smith regions. We will battle over the next three weeks to see who comes out as the best game in Carolina tournament history. The seedings have the six tournament champions getting the No. 1 seeds and the top No. 2 seeds. From there, just the best games no matter where they happened in the tournament.
Here is the entire tournament revealed. In a few days, we will have our first round winners and our Sweet 16. Here ya go:
JORDAN REGION
1 - UNC/Georgetown (1982) vs 8 - UNC/Notre Dame (1985)
4 - UNC/Oklahoma (1990) vs 5 - UNC/Cincinnati (1993)
3 - UNC/Ohio State (1946) vs 6 - UNC/Villanova (1982)
2 - UNC/Michigan State (1957) vs 7 - UNC/Ohio (2012)
MCGUIRE REGION
1 - UNC/Kansas (1957) vs 8 - UNC/Baylor (2022)
4 - UNC/Kentucky (1995) vs 5 - UNC/Oregon (2017)
3 - UNC/Kentucky (2017) vs 6 - UNC/Temple (1991)
2 - UNC/Duke (2022) vs 7 - UNC/Oklahoma (2009)
WILLIAMS REGION
1 - UNC/Illinois (2005) vs 8 - UNC/Purdue (1977)
4 - UNC/UNLV (1977) vs 5 - UNC/Stanford (2000)
3 - UNC/Davidson (1969) vs 6 - UNC/Notre Dame (1977)
2 - UNC/Gonzaga (2017) vs 7 - UNC/Loyola Marymount (1988)
SMITH REGION
1 - UNC/Michigan (1993) vs 8 - UNC/James Madison (1982)
4 - UNC/Virginia (1981) vs 5 - UNC/Tulsa (2000)
3 - UNC/Houston (1982) vs 6 - UNC/Villanova (2005)
2 - UNC/Michigan State (2009) vs 7 - UNC/Charlotte (1998)
So let's do the Jordan Region. Of course the top overall seed is North Carolina's win over Georgetown in the 1982 national championship game. The game is simply iconic and probably cruises to the Final Four. The 1985 game against Notre Dame was a barn burner with Kenny Smith going at it with the Irish's David Rivers (Brad Daugherty was huge with 18 points).
The 1990 team that upset Oklahoma is one of the great moments in Carolina history. Rick Fox's shot to beat the top seeded Sooners is iconic. Their opponent is an underappreciated UNC-Cincinnati game in the regional final (Brian Reese's missed dunk just lives in my memory together ... but it worked out).
Most people won't know about UNC's 1946 win over Ohio State in the East regional final, but the game went into overtime before John Dillon and Jim Jordan led the Heels to their first Final Four. In another East region final, UNC had such a great team effort to eliminate Ed Pinkney and the Villanova Wildcats. Michael Jordan led the way with 15 points.
Finally is likely a mismatch. There is UNC/Ohio in 2012 which is best known as the Stillman White game. White, a freshman walk-on, had to start in Carolina's Sweet 16 game due to Kendall Marshall's wrist injury suffered against Creighton in the previous round. They take on Carolina's Final Four win over Michigan State in 1957. That triple overtime game would be placed among the most revered wins but gets overshadowed by their win over Kansas the very next day ... and the fact we don't have vivid YouTube videos of it. 1957 wins.
The first round Jordan Region winners:
1 - UNC/Georgetown (1982)
4 - UNC/Oklahoma (1990)
2 - UNC/Michigan State (1957)
3 - UNC/Ohio State (1946)
Stay tuned and we will run down the McGuire Region next.
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