This Past Season Aside, UNC Has History Of Redemption

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As everyone knows, North Carolina’s call for redemption last season fell short. Very short.

The Tar Heels embraced the rallying cry after falling to Kansas in the national championship game in 2022, a contest they led by 15 points at halftime.

So, as was the case following UNC’s buzzer-beating defeat to Villanova in the 2016 NCAA title game, in which the Heels launched a well-documented redemption tour, the 2023 club did the same thing.

Only they were unsuccessful, which is rare at Carolina, given its history of redemption leading to banners hanging in the Smith Center.

The 1982 Tar Heels did it, though. So did the 1993 Heels. The 2005 squad, 2009 and, of course, 2017 did. Each story is different, but each were fueled by something deep within to make amends for whatever previously transpired.

Let’s take a closer look:

*Note: The 1957 team that went 32-0 and beat Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain for the national championship has no connection to a redemption theme.

Dean Smith’s first NCAA title came a year after his team roared to the national championship game on the strength of a 39-point effort by Al Wood in the Final Four win over Ralph Sampson and Virginia. Two days later, after uncertainty the game would be played because President Reagan had been shot earlier that afternoon in Washington, D.C., UNC and Indiana went at it.

Wood scored 18 points against the Hoosiers, but the Heels fell short, 63-50, and watched Isaiah Thomas and Bobby Knight cut down the nets.

The following year, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Jimmy Black, and Matt Doherty welcomed a freshman named Michael Jordan aboard, and the Tar Heels went 32-2 and defeated Patrick Ewing and Georgetown, 63-62, for the national championship.

Jordan converted what quickly became a legendary 17-footer for the winning points, Worthy was the MOP, and the Tar Heels got redemption from the following year.

The Tar Heels weren’t coming off a title game loss, but considering that Duke won back-to-back national championships in 1991 and 1992, one can call the 1993 championship a form of redemption, as the Heels regained their perch atop college basketball.

Aiding the fuel is that Duke’s 1991 title was over Roy Williams and Kansas, which defeated the Tar Heels in the Final Four, a game in which Dean Smith was ejected late in the contest. Who will ever forget the name Pete Pavia? If you don’t understand, google his and Smith’s names together.

The ’92 Heels and senior Hubert Davis fell to Ohio State in the Sweet 16. Duke won the title again, beating a brash Fab Five from Michigan.

So, the following campaign, Smith put a photo of the New Orleans Superdome in each player’s locker at the start of practice. The mission was clear: Win the national championship, and re-stake its claim along 15-501 and college basketball.

The Heels did that, with Donald Williams winning the MOP after going 5-for-7 from 3-point range in wins over Kansas in the Final Four and Michigan in the championship.

To best understand why this was a form of redemption is to recognize just how bad things were within the UNC program when the Tar Heels went 8-20 in 2002. They were laughably bad. The program had gone over a cliff.

The 2003 Heels went 19-16, courtesy of a brilliantly talented freshman class of Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, and Sean May, who missed half the season with a broken foot. The 2004 team was under Roy Williams, who replaced Matt Doherty, who was fired for a variety of reasons. His three seasons were tumultuous, to say the least.

In 2005, however, it all came together, and the Tar Heels defeated Illinois to win the national championship. It was redemption for Williams, who had lost the title game two years earlier to Syracuse in his final game as Kansas’ head coach, and it was redemption for a bunch of Tar Heels that had been through hole heck, especially the seniors.

Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel, and Melvin Scott went from 8-20 as freshmen in a dysfunctional situation, to a national championship three years later. That was true redemption.

If you remember 40-12, you’ll understand why the 2009 Tar Heels got redemption. In a highly anticipated Final Four matchup versus Kansas, the Tar Heels couldn’t possibly have played worse in falling behind 40-12 with six minutes left before halftime. It was an abhorrent performance on both ends of the floor.

Yet, the Heels made a fierce push at the Jayhawks, and had Danny Green’s three from the left wing not rattled out, the lead would have been cut to 58-56. He missed, and the Heels never got any closer. And if not for that horrific start, the 2008 Heels would have advanced to the national title game instead of Kansas, which beat Memphis two nights later.

The following year, Carolina blitzed through the NCAA field winning each game by double-digits, and then blew out Michigan State in the national championship game in Detroit.

Recent history here, but the 2016 Heels reached the national title game after pounding Syracuse in the Final Four. They didn’t play great against Villanova, which did a nice job keeping Brice Johnson in check.

But Marcus Paige hit one of the greatest forgotten shots in NCAA history, converted a double-pump 26-foot 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds remaining typing the score at 74-74. But, Kris Jenkins’ three at the buzzer won it for Villanova setting up the ultimate redemption tour that was completed when the 2017 Tar Heels defeated Gonzaga for the national title.