Record: 34-4, 13-3 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Lost in semifinal
NCAA Tournament: Won
Final AP Ranking: 2
All-ACC Players: Ty Lawson (ACC POY), Tyler Hansbrough (1st), Danny Green (3rd)
All-Americans: Tyler Hansbrough (1st), Ty Lawson (2nd)
North Carolina came into the 2009 season as the clear preseason #1. The 2008 team (#28 on my list) had finished 36-3 and reached the Final Four, and the only departures from that team were role players Alex Stepheson and Quentin Thomas. Their six top scorers – Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, Danny Green, Deon Thompson, and Marcus Ginyard – were all back. Add to that three McDonald’s All-Americans – Larry Drew, Tyler Zeller, and Ed Davis – and the Tar Heels had a championship-caliber roster.
Ginyard unfortunately hurt his foot and missed the season. But if it slowed the Tar Heels down, you couldn’t tell. They took down Kentucky, Oregon, Notre Dame, and Michigan State in non-conference play as they raced to a 13-0 start. But their first two ACC games were clunkers – a home loss to Boston College and a road loss at Wake Forest.
After a get well game against a weak Virginia team, the Tar Heels got things rolling. They won 13 out of their last 14, including a sweep of Duke. The only blemish came in an overtime loss at Maryland in which Greivis Vasquez had 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists – one of the greatest triple-doubles in ACC history. Their regular season run culminated with a Senior Day win over Duke.
Going into the ACC Tournament, the main concern was the health of Ty Lawson who had injured his toe running into the basket stanchion. He played through it in the second Duke game, but he was hurting. Roy Williams, prioritizing the NCAA Tournament as he always did, made the decision to sit Lawson for the ACC Tournament in hopes that he would be ready for the NCAAs. Without Lawson, the Tar Heels struggled to beat Virginia Tech in the quarters and fell to Florida State in the semis. But Roy had bigger things in mind than a mere ACC championship.
It paid off. When Lawson returned for the second round game against LSU, he looked like his old self, and the Tar Heels were off and running. I’m trying to find some drama in the NCAA Tournament, but there just wasn’t any. Carolina controlled every single game. They covered the spread in every game. They led at half in every game. Their closest margin of victory was 12 points. The championship game against Michigan State was over at halftime. This team dominated the NCAA Tournament like few teams have.
Hansbrough was more or less his usual self, but Lawson and Ellington were the biggest stars. Ellington averaged 19.2 points on 55% from the field and 53% from three. Lawson averaged 20.8 points and had 34 assists against 7 turnovers in the tournament. In the final against Michigan State, Lawson had eight steals.
This group was just about perfect on offense. Everything you want – high FG%, didn’t turn it over, got to the line a lot, made free throws, great offensive rebounding team. They didn’t shoot a lot of threes, but when they did, they made them. On defense, their one vulnerability was defending the three-point line. They allowed ACC opponents to shoot 37.1% from three. One of the keys to their NCAA Tournament run was tightening that up. In their six tournament games, opponents shot 35-131 from three – a 26.7% clip.
It was one of those teams that if you wanted to have any chance to beat them, you had better score, because you knew they were gonna score. You weren’t going to beat this team 56-55. Once they shored up their perimeter defense, there were no weaknesses left. There was nothing to attack. They were a team on a mission to finish the job they left unfinished in 2008, and they did exactly that.