A Tournament of North Carolina's Tournament Wins (Final Four)

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)

1-UNC/Georgetown (1982) vs 4-UNC/Oklahoma (1990)
2-UNC/Michigan State (1957) vs 3-UNC/Ohio State (1946)

1-UNC/Georgetown (1982) vs 2-UNC/Michigan State (1957)

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)

1-UNC/Kansas (1957) vs 4-UNC/Kentucky (1995)
2-UNC/Duke (2022) vs 3-UNC/Kentucky (2017)

1-UNC/Kansas (1957) vs 2-UNC/Duke (2022)

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)

1-UNC/Illinois (2005) vs 5-UNC/Stanford (2000)
2-UNC/Gonzaga (2017) vs 3-UNC/Davidson (1969)

1-UNC/Illinois (2005) vs 2-UNC/Gonzaga (2017)

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)

1-UNC/Michigan (1993) vs 4-UNC/Virginia (1981)
2-UNC/Michigan State (2009) vs 3-UNC/Houston (1982)

1-UNC/Michigan (1993) vs 2-UNC/Michigan State (2009)

So our Final Four is UNC/Georgetown (1982) vs UNC/Kansas (1957) and UNC/Illinois (2005) vs UNC/Michigan (1993).

Let's start with the second game. I've got UNC/Michigan for the win. Quite frankly, this was such a great game and beating that Michigan team ... the Fab Five ... is one of the best moments of Heels history. No offense to UNC/Illinois, but it just doesn't hold up against this one. I love re-watching both games, but that UNC/Michigan still fires me up. The 1993 team is in the title showdown.

Against who? UNC/Georgetown and UNC/Kansas are arguably the two most iconic championship games in Tar Heel lore. UNC/Kansas was the Tar Heels' first championship and, as you know by following this, was against Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas team ... in Kansas City ... in triple overtime ... a day after going to triple overtime against Michigan State ... and preserved an undefeated season. WOW!  Who beats that? Well, the 1982 UNC/Georgetown game does. It was Dean Smith's first national championship and went against John Thompson and Patrick Ewing's Hoyas. This game, of course, had Michael Jordan's game winning shot, but people sleep on James Worthy pouring 28 points in the win. Such an great game and such an important game for Carolina history.

So our championship is UNC/Georgetown (1982) against UNC/Michigan (1993). The two Dean Smith championship wins going against each other. Get it on!