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No. 2
Name: Phil Ford
Position: PG
Jersey #: 12
Years: 1974-78
Honors: National Player of the Year 1978; Three-time first-team All-America 1976, 1977 & 1978; ACC Player of the Year 1978; Three-time first-team All-ACC 1976, 1977 & 1978; ACC Tournament MVP 1975; ACC Athlete of the year 1977 & 1978: Freshman All-American 1975; Patterson medal 1978; Inducted into College Basketball Hall of Fame 2012; Named to ACC’s 50th Anniversary team; No. 12 is retired by UNC.
Notable Stats: Graduated as UNC’s all-time leading scorer (since broken by Tyler Hansbrough) with 2,290 points; Averaged 18.6 points in 123 games at UNC; 753 career assists; 6.1 average assists per game.
In Closing: Considered by many as the greatest Tar Heel ever. Ford is best remembered for running Dean Smith’s Four Corners offense to near perfection, but he was much more than that as a player. He was a terrific scorer, distributor and maybe the best floor general ever to play at Carolina. He is still third all-time at UNC with 112 games scoring in double figures; had 15 double-doubles (points & assists); shot 52.7 percent from the floor for his career; and was the only player in ACC history with 2,000 points and at least 600 assists until the mid-1990s, still only three players have achieved this.
If only the three-point shot existed during Ford’s career, he might still be UNC’s all-time leading scorer. Ford led the Tar Heels to two ACC Tournament championships and the 1977 national championship game. Ford didn't win a national title, in part because the ’77 team was riddled with injuries, including Ford himself. But him choosing UNC at a time when NC State was in its best run ever and dominating the ACC was instrumental in Dean Smith and Carolina regaining supremacy of the ACC and triggering Smith's greatest run in his legendary career are highly noteworthy in gauging this rankings process.
The value in that decision and the career he had resonated for decades after. If Smith ever would have acknowledged he had a favorite Tar Heel that played for him, it likely would have been Phil Ford. Many say he was the perfect Dean Smith player.
