No. 11: 2008
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.
No. 11: 2008
Record: 36-3 (14-2)
NCAA Tournament: NCAA Final Four
ACC Tournament: ACC Champions
Ranking: 1
Coach: Roy Williams
All-Americans: Tyler Hansbrough.
All-ACC: Tyler Hansbrough (1st); Wayne Ellington (2nd).
Honors: Tyler Hansbrough: ACC Player of the Year; consensus National Player of the Year; East Region MOP.
What's To Know: For a long stretch of the season, the 2008 Tar Heels played like the national front runners. They were awesome at times, including in advancing to the Final Four having won four NCAA tournament games by a total of 101 points.
Tyler Hansbrough was the national player of the year leading a team that opened the season 18-0 and battled through some key injuries, including to point guard Ty Lawson during a crucial stretch. Perhaps the most interesting stat that reflects how good this team was is that Carolina went 13-0 in true road games. Its two regular season losses came at home (Maryland and Duke), and then there was the final defeat, the one that UNC fans will never, ever forget.
The final score of Carolina's Final Four loss to Kansas was 84-66, but the sore anyone who watched that game won't soon forget was 40-12. Kansas opened up a 40-12 lead on the Heels in their first game versus Roy Williams' former program since he returned to Chapel Hill, and while the Heels were a shot away in the second half from catching the Jayhawks, they were blown a second time to close out the game.
As bad as that was, a lesson was learned and the following year this group exorcised those demons and capture the national championship. The layering process from the upset loss to George Mason in 2006, the blown lead versus Georgetown in the 2007 Elite 8 and then this debacle in San Antonio fortified the 2009 team fueling it to the national title.
Yet, had the 2008 club won it all, it would have been a very worthy champion.
2008 NBA Draft
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