No. 10: 1998

Our series counting down the Top 30 North Carolina basketball teams of all time continues.

Our mission isn't to make any declarative statements, but rather have some fun, give our readers something to discuss, walk down memory lane some and provide a needed escape.

Your thoughts and picks are welcome in our message board thread for this series.

Record: 34-4 (13-3)

NCAA Tournament: NCAA Final Four

ACC Tournament: ACC Champions

Ranking: 1

Coach: Bill Guthridge

All-Americans: Antawn Jamison; Vince Carter; Shammond Williams.

All-ACC: Antawn Jamison (1st); Vince Carter (1st); Ed Cota (2nd); Shammond Williams (2nd).

Honors: Antawn Jamison: Consensus National Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year, ACC Tournament MVP, NCAA East Region MOP; Bill Guthridge, ACC Coach of the Year.

What's To Know: If 1977 isn't the "What the heck" team of the ages for UNC, 1998 is. Unlike in the national title game, which was when Dean Smith drew rare criticism going to the Four Corners offense fairly early in the second half versus Marquette in '77, Bill Guthridge's six-man starting rotation also received criticism once the Tar Heels were eliminated in the Final Four.

Appeasing Makhtar N'Diaye, a well-traveled transfer, Guthridge included him in a starting rotation with much the much more deserving quintet of Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Shammond Williams, Ed Cota and Ademola Okulaja. And when the Tar Heels got to the Final Four as the favorites to win the national title, N'Diaye started in place of Williams. That was the turn in the rotation and Guthridge stuck with it even though Williams had struggled when coming off the bench as opposed to when starting.

Perhaps it wouldn't have mattered in the long run and UNC would have lost anyway, but the Heels opened in a funk trailing 12-2, 28-12, and 33-18 and didn't recover until near the very end and then ran out of gas.

Perhaps this team deserved a different fate. They were hands-down the best club in the nation and the Smith Center should have a 1998 national championship banner hanging perhaps even more than 1977. It has neither.

What the '98 team had, otherwise, was chemistry like few Carolina teams when the right five were on the court, for which Guthridge deserves a great deal of credit after taking over after Smith retired. They were often breathtaking in the open court and precision-like in the halfcourt.

Jamison was simply awesome would have set possibly unreachable records had he returned for his senior season the following year, and he should be regarded as one of the program’s best players of all time.

The maturity of Carter, amazing growth of Williams' game, incredible passing of the unflappable Cota to the steadiness of Okulaja were integral parts to this amazing squad that should have cut down the nets on the first Monday in April.

Note: Jamison and Carter combined to play 38 seasons in the NBA scoring a total of 45,770 points. Both players surpassed the 20,000-point mark.

1998 Schedule & Results

Antawn Jamison, 1st Round, No. 4 overall selection

Vince Carter, 1st Round, No. 5 overall selection

Shammond Williams, 2nd Round, No. 34 overall selection