Record: 29-8, 10-4 (2nd place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national championship
Final AP Ranking: 6
All-ACC Players: Al Wood (1st), James Worthy (2nd)
All-Americans: Al Wood (2nd)
Trivia Question: who are the only coaches to lose more than two NCAA championship games?
Trivia Answer: Mike Krzyzewski, 4; Dean Smith, 3; Roy Williams, 3
Is this one of the 50 greatest ACC teams? They didn’t look like it in the regular season. They won the Great Alaska Shootout and had a huge early season win over Indiana but also lost to Wake Forest in the Big Four Tournament and lost consecutive non-conference games to Minnesota and Kansas just before ACC play started. They swept a very good Maryland team but lost twice to Virginia, dropped another game to Wake Forest, and lost to Duke on Gene Banks‘ Senior Day in overtime. It added up to a 22-7 record and a #12 ranking going into the ACC Tournament. That’s when magic started happening.
After an easy opening round win over NC State, the Tar Heels faced #11 Wake Forest for the fourth time in the semifinals. With 40 seconds left, the Tar Heels had the ball down by one. The ball was deflected into the backcourt and a scramble ensued in which Jimmy Black did everything but put a full nelson on Mike Helms as they battled for it. No foul was called, the Tar Heels recovered the loose ball, and they were able to get an open look for Mike Pepper who hit the game-winner. That set up another one-point win in the final over Maryland, who had blown out top seed Virginia in their semifinal. With the game tied at 54, Maryland turned it over on three straight possessions and the Tar Heels were able to take advantage and grab a lead that they would not relinquish, though the game was not decided the final seconds.
The Tar Heels were sent out West as the #2 seed. It turned out to be a favorable draw as #1 seed Oregon State lost right away. After the Tar Heels survived a tough Sweet 16 game against a Utah team featuring future NBA players Tom Chambers and Danny Vranes – in Salt Lake City no less – they had no trouble with Rolando Blackman and Kansas State in the regional final.
That set up a showdown with a Virginia team that had started 22-0, lost 3 of 5, then seemingly righted the ship with three easy wins to get to the Final Four. The Cavaliers had swept the regular season matchups, but they say it’s hard to beat a good team three times. Al Wood must have thought so. He exploded for 39 points – still the record for a national semifinal – and led the Tar Heels to 13-point win. A national title was not to be – Bob Knight, Isiah Thomas, and Indiana made sure of that – but it was a stirring run.
It wasn’t a deep team. They basically played six guys. Wood, James Worthy, and Sam Perkins were the stars; Jimmy Black, Mike Pepper, and Matt Doherty were the supporting cast. That’s something you notice about Dean Smith teams. There were certain invariants – they got the ball inside, they rebounded, they played unselfishly, they played defense without fouling – but there were other areas where he adapted to what he had. If he had ten good players, he played ten; if he had six good players, he played six. They got very little scoring from their backcourt. They had no true center. Didn’t matter. Dean figured it out.