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)
1-UNC/Kansas (1957) vs 4-UNC/Kentucky (1995)
2-UNC/Duke (2022) vs 3-UNC/Kentucky (2017)
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)
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 Dean E. Smith region.
The first game is a route. The 1993 national championship game between North Carolina and Michigan is legendary for a variety of reasons, but as a Heels fan this is one of the most important wins in program history. That beats UNC holding off James Madison's upset bit that would've ended that 1982 run.
Up next is the 1981 Final Four game between Ralph Sampson's Cavaliers and the Tar Heels against Joseph Forte's 28 points to get UNC into the Final Four in 2000. We're taking the 1981 game and Al Wood's 39 points avenging a regular season sweep from the Hoos.
It is a similar theme when UNC vs Houston happened in 1982. Sam Perkins was the man in that game and the Heels held off Clyde Drexler, Akeem Olajuwon and the Cougars in the Final Four. The 2005 Carolina-Nova game was the Tar Heels' biggest test during their 2005 title run, but ... dude ... I just said Akeem (as he was known then) and Drexler! We're going with 1982.
Finally, there was the complete dismantling of Michigan State in Detroit for the 2009 national championship against one of the more interesting games I will ever remember. I'm from Charlotte and went to UNC-Charlotte and there was quite a buzz when the Tar Heels and 49ers faced off in the second round of the 1998 tournament. Charlotte wanted to beat their big brothers badly and took the Heels to overtime before losing by ten. Memorable, but that 2009 game was a clinic in domination of a title game and of a tournament.
So we have our Sweet 16. Up next is whittling it down to the Elite 8.
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