A Tournament of North Carolina's Tournament Wins (McGuire Region)

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)

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)

On to the McGuire region. 

UNC's win over Kansas in 1957 sealed a perfect season, it was against one of the true greats of basketball (Wilt Chamberlain and Phog Allen), happened in triple overtime a day after the Heels went triple overtime to beat Michigan State. No matter who it was matched up against is going to lose this one, and UNC's come from ahead win over Baylor in 2022 is no match for what Frank McGuire's New York boys did. 

Here is a good one. UNC's win over Oregon was sandwiched between the Luke Maye shot to beat Kentucky and the national championship win over Gonzaga. But UNC was trailing big to Oregon and fought hard to come back to finally win it (thanks to timely offensive rebounds). Speaking of hard fought games, North Carolina's win over Kentucky in the 1995 regional final was heated. Rasheed Wallace got into a scuffle and the threw down a thunderous dunk late to seal one of Dean Smith's best non-title wins. 1995 wins this one.

Another UNC-Kentucky title takes the win as the 2017 is best known for Luke Maye's shot. Still, that UNC-Temple battle in 1991 was epic as Mark Macon's 31 points weren't enough (Macon's three point attempt to send the game into overtime missed the mark) to end the Heels' Final Four run. Current UNC head coach scored 19 points in that game, tying Rick Fox for the team high.

Finally is UNC-Duke in 2022 against ... well, it doesn't matter. UNC-Oklahoma in 2009 was fun (Blake Griffin hit his head on the backboard at one point) but wasn't really all that memorable. UNC's win over Duke in the Final Four easily takes this one. 

Up next is the Roy Williams region.