No. 14: 1987

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: 32-4 (14-0)

NCAA Tournament: NCAA Elite 8

ACC Tournament: Lost in finals

Ranking: 2

Coach: Dean Smith

All-Americans: Kenny Smith.

All-ACC: Kenny Smith (1st); Joe Wolf (1st); J.R. Reid (2nd).

Honors: Kenny Smith: Sporting News National Player of the Year; J.R. Reid, ACC Rookie of the Year.

What's To Know: The 1987 senior class for UNC basketball holds the unique distinction of being on two Tar Heels teams that went unbeaten in the ACC regular season but didn't reach a Final Four or even win an ACC Tournament championship.

Unlike the 1984 team, which had Kenny Smith's injury as an excuse, the '87 Heels just fell short, simply put. They were an extremely good basketball team led by Smith, a senior, as well as fellow classmate Joe Wolf and a freshman named J.R. Reid. Scott Williams, Dave Popson and Jeff Lebo also landed on NBA rosters from that team, and players such as Ranzino Smith, Steve Bucknall and Curtis Hunter were solid Carolina players, so this club certainly didn't lack for talent or depth. This was one of UNC’s best regular season teams ever.

They were one of Dean Smith's savvier teams, in part due to the experience of their leaders, but also because they were molded maybe more to Smith's preference than most of his other teams. They scored 100-plus points seven times, in the 90s 14 other times, and between 84 and 89 points five more times. That's 26 times scoring at least 84 points.

Their four losses came by a total of 12 points and were at UCLA, at Notre Dame, versus N.C. State in the ACC title game and by four to Syracuse in the Elite 8.

This might be the second best UNC team that didn’t hang a banner of any kind.

1986-87 Schedule & Results

Kenny Smith, 1st Round, No. 6 overall selection

Joe Wolf, 1st Round, No. 13 overall selection

Dave Popson, 4th Round, No. 88 overall selection

Curtis Hunter, 7th Round, No. 156 overall selection