Tag: greatest teams

Record: 32-4, 15-1 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Lost in final
NCAA Tournament: Lost in Elite 8
Final AP Ranking: 3
All-ACC Players: Roshown McLeod (1st), Trajan Langdon (1st), Steve Wojciechowski (3rd)
All-Americans: None

The 1995 season was a disaster for the Duke program. The narrative is well known. Coach K had back surgery, tried to come back too soon, and had to be shut down for the season. The team was turned over to Pete Gaudet. Unfortunately for his reputation, they fell apart, finishing last in the ACC regular season.

We’ll never know what their record would have been had K been healthy, but make no mistake: this team wasn’t very good. This was not a Top 10 team that Pete Gaudet ran into the ground. Our memories tend to craft narratives that are tidier than reality, and a common one about this team is that 1995 was a one-year aberration. Not exactly. The 1996 team was 18-13, 8-8 and lost to Eastern Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. There were real problems in the program, and some rebuilding was in order. Give Coach K credit for recognizing this. I’m sure it would have been easy to tell himself that his return would solve everything. But he understood that the program had slipped since the Laettner/Hurley/Hill days. They had to look at the kids they were recruiting.

So starting in 1997, and for the next several years, he went on one of the great multiyear recruiting runs in college basketball history. Let’s take a look at the major recruits and transfers during that period and classify them as All-American, All-ACC, major contributor, or non-impact players or transfers.

Year	All-American	All-ACC	Major Contributor	Non-Impact/Transfer
1997	Chris Carrawell	Roshown McLeod Nate James		Mike Chappell
1998	Elton Brand Shane Battier	William Avery		Chris Burgess
1999			Corey Maggette
2000	Jason Williams Mike Dunleavy	Carlos Boozer		Casey Sanders Nick Horvath
2001		Chris Duhon		Andre Sweet
2002		Dahntay Jones Daniel Ewing
2003	JJ Redick Shelden Williams		Shavlik Randolph Sean Dockery	Michael Thompson
2004			Luol Deng

So in this stretch, K signed 24 big-time players. A full 14 of those players – 58% – were All-ACC players. Seven (29%) were All-Americans. Two others, Maggette and Deng, were one-and-done players who almost certainly would have reached All-ACC level had they stayed. So basically over an eight-year period, 2/3 of the players K brought in were All-ACC level players. He was bringing in an average of one All-American and one other All-ACC caliber player per year.

Don’t you wish your coach could do that?

In terms of sheer volume of really good players, it may not equal late 2010s Duke, when K was reloading his team with a handful of elite one-and-done guys every year; but in the context of the time, that’s about as good a recruiting stretch as anybody ever had.

Now, to bring it back to 1998. The 1997 team had been very good, but you get the sense that the hangover from 1995 had not worn off completely. Jeff Capel and Greg Newton were still around, and they were (perhaps to an unfair degree) strongly associated with 1995’s failure. Despite winning the ACC regular season, it was somehow unsurprising when the Blue Devils fell to 4-12 NC State in the first round of the ACC Tournament and were upset by Providence in the second round of the NCAAs. It would be left to the 1998 team to finish the task of restoring Duke to the top of the college basketball world.

Notice was served in the Maui Classic when the Blue Devils toppled #1 Arizona and usurped that ranking for themselves. This was a team that could absolutely bury you. They beat Virginia by 44, Villanova by 28, Maryland (which was ranked) by 32 and 27, Wake by 36 and 31, #12 UCLA by 36.

One team they didn’t bury was Carolina. In fact, they got buried over in Chapel Hill, 97-73, and suffered a similar if less embarrassing fate in the ACC Tournament final. Of course, that 1998 Carolina team with Jamison and Carter was itself a great team that would go on to make the Final Four.

Duke got a tough draw in the NCAA Tournament with eventual champion Kentucky being in their region. The Wildcats were the strongest of the #2 seeds and had a good argument for a #1 seed themselves. They had nearly won the national championship the previous year and had breezed through the 1998 SEC. The game was a classic. Duke led by 17 with 9:30 to go, but sparked by a flurry of threes and a flagrant foul on McLeod, Kentucky stormed back and pulled out an 86-84 victory.

Though they didn’t win the ACC Tournament or reach the Final Four, this was the team that erased any lingering memories from Duke’s mid-1990s mediocrity and re-established them as one of college basketball’s elite programs.

Record: 36-3, 14-2 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semifinal
Final AP Ranking: 1
All-ACC Players: Tyler Hansbrough (ACC POY), Wayne Ellington (2nd)
All-Americans: Tyler Hansbrough (National POY)

This was the forerunner to the 2009 national championship team. In fact, the core of that team – Tyler Hansbrough, Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, Danny Green, and Deon Thompson – were together for three seasons from 2007-2009. All three teams were ranked in the Top 5 and each could have won the national championship. The 2007 team, despite its youth, had a tremendous year, winning the ACC regular season and tournament and reaching a regional final. Despite the one-and-done departure of freshman Brandan Wright, expectations were sky high for the 2008 team.

They opened with 18 consecutive wins and stormed to a 32-2 record, ACC regular season and tournament titles, and a #1 national ranking. The offense was overwhelming. The Tar Heels were the best offensive rebounding team in the country, bar none. They made free throws a huge competitive advantage, leading the nation in free throws made. Hansbrough, Ellington, Green, and Lawson all shot over 80%. They led the nation in two-point field goals made and led the ACC in two-point FG%. Like many of Roy Williams’ teams, they didn’t shoot many threes, but when they did, they shot them well. They were the most efficient offense in the country according to kenpom.

There were some minor vulnerabilities lurking. They were a good defensive team, but not a great one. They gave up 80+ points an awful lot for a great team. On the interior, they lacked a real shot-blocker (this is where Wright would have come in handy), and Hansbrough was never a great defender.

It was also an unusually easy schedule for a Carolina team. They scheduled Ohio State and Kentucky on the road, which sounds tough, but those programs were having down years. Their toughest nonconference game was probably the opener at Davidson with Steph Curry. The ACC was a bit down that year; after Carolina and Duke, Clemson was pretty good, and that was about it. Carolina was the only ACC team to make it to the Sweet 16 that year. So the gaudy record was a little bit deceiving. They weren’t quite as battle-tested as you might expect a 32-2 ACC team to be.

But nitpicking aside, this team was clearly a strong contender to win the national championship. They cruised through the East region without much of a challenge, setting up a showdown with fourth-ranked Kansas in the Final Four. What followed was one of the strangest games I can ever remember watching. Kansas got out to a shocking 40-12 lead in the first half. Carolina cut the lead to all the way to five with eight minutes left, and Danny Green had a good look at a three that rimmed out that would’ve cut it to two. From that point, Kansas dominated the last eight minutes and won going away.

But it doesn’t take away from a tremendous year for this group. 36-3, ACC champions, made the Final Four, stopped only by the best team in the country and eventual champion. And with no seniors and no underclassmen leaving early, it set them up perfectly for what was to come in 2009.

Record: 31-3, 17-1 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in round of 64
Final AP Ranking: 1
All-ACC Players: Kyle Guy (1st), Devon Hall (2nd), Ty Jerome (3rd)
All-Americans: None

We may as well begin by acknowledging the elephant in the room. There is no consideration of 2018 Virginia that does not begin with their historic loss to UMBC. That is what most people will remember about this team: one game that overshadows everything else they accomplished. There has never been a game like that game, and perhaps there never will be. For a team like UMBC to score 53 points in the second half against the best defensive team in the country, in a game when they had everything to play for… I don’t typically look for psychological explanations for sporting events, but I don’t think this is explainable otherwise.

Even the psychological explanation is problematic. Typically when I think of sports psychology in basketball, I think of shooting under pressure. Perhaps we can all understand a poor shooting performance in a high pressure situation. But how do you explain a complete defensive breakdown in a high pressure situation? And don’t tell me it’s because De’Andre Hunter was out. I know he was an excellent player, and it hurt them, but he played only 20 minutes per game that year. They were still playing great defense when he wasn’t on the floor.

I can’t explain that game. But I do know that before that game, Virginia went 31-2. I know they played 21 games against ACC competition and won 20 of them. That record is simply too good to leave off this list.

There’s been a lot said over the years regarding Virginia’s style of play and whether it hurts them in March. It’s not just Virginia; a team’s style of play and how that affects their postseason prospects is a frequent topic of debate for sports pundits. You’ll notice that no two authorities ever seem to agree in their assessment of what particular style of play leads to postseason success. Defense wins championships, offense wins championships, the Yankees are too reliant on the home run, etc. These debates tend to be long on unsubstantiated assertions and conjecture, and short on facts.

In general, I think this kind of argument is a lot of hooey. The game is the game, and it doesn’t suddenly become a different game after the regular season. There is no particular style of play that works in the postseason.

However, there is some evidence that balanced teams tend to overperform in the postseason, and by extension, unbalanced teams tend to underperform. Balanced in this context means balanced between offense and defense. 2018 Virginia was relatively unbalanced. Kenpom had them ranked #1 in defensive efficiency and #30 in offensive efficiency.

So I don’t buy that Virginia’s style “doesn’t work in the postseason”. They won the national championship the next year with the exact same style. The difference is, the 2019 team was just better offensively and therefore was better balanced. Balanced teams are harder to game plan for, better able to compensate when something isn’t working, and therefore harder to upset.

Record: 28-5, 9-3 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national final
Final AP Ranking: 5
All-ACC Players: Phil Ford (1st), Walter Davis (1st), Tom LaGarde (2nd)
All-Americans: Phil Ford (1st)

This team is often remembered for what might have been, but what they did accomplish was impressive enough. In case you’re unfamiliar with the details, All-ACC center Tom LaGarde injured a knee in mid-February and missed the rest of the season. Sweet-shooting Walter Davis broke his finger in the ACC Tournament against NC State. He was able to come back and play, but the injury may have hampered his effectiveness. And All-American guard Phil Ford hyperextended his elbow in the round of 16 win over Notre Dame and did not seem to be himself after that. In spite of all that adversity, the Tar Heels advanced to the national championship game before losing to Marquette.

It’s an interesting narrative, but the funny part is, Carolina won all those games, except the last one. From the time that LaGarde got hurt, they won twelve in a row. So if you’re lamenting what might’ve been, the only thing there is to lament is the national championship game. Would the Tar Heels have won it with a healthy group? I have no idea. I do think they were a better team at full strength than Marquette, but the better team doesn’t always win.

If you look at the game as it was actually played, Walter Davis played well. It’s not obvious from his stat line that he was hampered in any way. Ford, though, did not play well after the injury, and it seems likely that he was affected. The other thing this game is remembered for is Dean’s decision to go to the Four Corners midway through the second half with only a slim lead. They had used the same tactic to good effect in prior games, but this time it didn’t work. Marquette regained the lead and salted it away from the line in the last few minutes, going 23-for-25 for the game.

The attention on what might’ve been shouldn’t detract from the tremendous run this team made. In succession, they beat a really good Purdue team, #10 Notre Dame, #3 Kentucky, and #4 UNLV. The Tar Heels trailed at half in three of those four games. Davis, freshman Mike O’Koren, and senior guard John Kuester played extremely well. Ford gutted it out in spite of his elbow, and Rich Yonakor filled in admirably for LaGarde.

From the Weird Scheduling Department: Carolina’s last regular season game was a non-conference game on Sunday against #10 Louisville. Not only is it odd to have a non-conference opponent for your last regular season game and Senior Day, but they played at Duke just the day before. Why in the world would you schedule games on back-to-back days like that to finish the season? There must be a story behind that. In any case, it didn’t bother the Tar Heels, who ran away from Louisville in a game that wasn’t as close as the 96-89 score indicated.

Record: 26-4, 12-2 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semifinal
Final AP Ranking: 2
All-ACC Players: Bob Verga (1st), Jack Marin (1st), Steve Vacendak (2nd, ACC POY)
All-Americans: Bob Verga (2nd), Jack Marin (2nd)

After a hiatus of a couple of months, I’m ready to restart my countdown of the 50 greatest ACC teams ever. We continue the series with the 1966 Duke team.

Duke’s teams from 1962-1966 represent arguably the best five-year run in league history. I wrote about this previously in my Jack Marin post. If pressed, I would probably give the edge to Duke 1998-2002, but it’s close.

After reaching the Final Four in 1963 and 1964, Duke’s 1965 team had dipped just a bit. They still won the ACC regular season and were ranked in the Top 10 all year, but they were beaten by NC State in the ACC Tournament final and did not get the opportunity to make another Final Four run. But Verga, Marin, and Vacendak were all underclassmen. With the addition of big man Mike Lewis, it set the Blue Devils up for success in 1966.

After an early loss at #10 South Carolina, the Blue Devils faced defending national champion and top-ranked UCLA twice on back-to-back nights. Duke whipped the Bruins in both games and promptly jumped to #1 in the polls where they stayed for most of the season.

They dropped only two more games the rest of the way, finishing with a full three-game lead over second-place NC State. In the ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils put up 103 points in an opening round blowout of Wake Forest. In the semis, they edged North Carolina in the infamous 21-20 slowdown game. In the final, Duke topped NC State for their third ACC title in four years and avenged their loss to the Wolfpack from the year before.

In the regionals, the Blue Devils defeated fifth-ranked St. Joe’s and a Syracuse team featuring Dave Bing and Jim Boeheim to advance to the Final Four, where #1 Kentucky awaited. In a tight, tense game that wasn’t decided until the end, the Wildcats prevailed 83-79. Unfortunately for Duke, Bob Verga was suffering from the flu (or strep throat, depending on whom you ask) and scored only four points. Kentucky went on to fall to Texas Western in that classic 1966 final that is remembered for its racial and civil rights implications as much as for the action on the court. Had Verga not come down with something, it might have been Duke (who was just as white as Kentucky) playing in that game.

An interesting fact is that Steve Vacendak was the ACC Player of the Year in 1966 despite making only second-team All-ACC. At the time, the All-ACC vote was taken before the ACC Tournament, the ACC POY vote after. Vacendak’s tournament performance made such an impression on the voters that they voted him Player of the Year.

Bubas’ teams consistently had tremendous size and dominated the glass. The 1963 and 1964 teams started two 6’10” guys, which was pretty much unheard of in that era. The 1966 team was not quite so big, but Marin was an excellent rebounder at 6’6″ and Lewis is one of the best rebounders in league history. The net of it was a rebounding margin of +12.8.

Lowest ACC Tournament Scoring Averages for Winners of Everett Case Award (Tournament MOP):

• Steve Vacendak, Duke, 1966 – 10.0
• Dudley Bradley, North Carolina, 1979 – 12.5
• James Worthy, North Carolina, 1982 – 13.3
• John Kuester, North Carolina, 1977 – 13.5
• Lou Pucillo, NC State, 1959 – 13.7

Record: 26-5, 9-3 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semifinal
Final AP Ranking: 2
All-ACC Players: Bob McAdoo (1st), Dennis Wuycik (1st), Bill Chamberlain (2nd), George Karl (2nd)
All-Americans: Bob McAdoo (1st)

Carolina had experienced a slight dip since their incredible three-year run from 1967 to 1969. The 1970 team, led by All-American Charlie Scott, ended up being somewhat disappointing. The 1971 team didn’t have any big stars, but Dean coached ’em up and they wound up having a much better season than expected, winning the regular season and the NIT championship – back when that meant something.

Despite the loss of South Carolina, the league on balance was getting stronger at this time. Maryland was on the rise under Lefty Driesell, Virginia had their best teams ever behind standout Barry Parkhill, NC State was starting to put together that mid-1970s juggernaut, Duke was hanging onto a little bit of post-Vic Bubas strength, and Tates Locke had something going at Clemson.

North Carolina had to replace two key players from the previous year, and the only impact player coming up from the freshman team was Bobby Jones. They needed another piece, and that piece was Bob McAdoo. The Greensboro native had played two years at Vincennes Junior College in Indiana. He was famously the only junior college player Dean Smith ever signed. He fit in perfectly, giving the Tar Heels the interior scoring and rebounding presence they needed.

But it wasn’t all McAdoo. Dennis Wuycik was a tremendous player who earned first team All-ACC honors. Bill Chamberlain and George Karl made it onto the second team. Steve Previs was a pass-first point guard who made things go, and Jones provided great defense, rebounding, and 67% shooting.

After an early season loss at Princeton, they turned it on. There were but three more regular season losses, all on the road, by a total of five points. The Tar Heels faced second seed Maryland in the ACC Tournament final. The Terps were a program on the rise, led by sophomore big men Tom McMillen and Len Elmore. But the Tar Heels’ balance was too much.

As luck would have it, Carolina’s first NCAA Tournament game would be in the round of 16 against… South Carolina. These two teams had gone toe-to-toe the previous two seasons in the ACC, and the Tar Heels still had a bitter taste in their mouths about the Gamecocks’ 52-51 ACC Tournament title win the previous season. South Carolina was still formidable, but with John Roche and Tom Owens gone, they were no match for the Tar Heels.

Next up was the Chuck Daly-coached and third-ranked Penn Quakers. With McAdoo, Wuycik, and Karl leading the way, Carolina pulled away in the second half for a 73-59 victory.

The end came in the Final Four against Florida State. It was the Seminoles’ first and still only appearance in the Final Four. McAdoo was terrific, but the rest of the group was a little off, and FSU held on for a 79-75 win. (Fun fact: Florida State was coached by Hugh Durham. Durham made the Final Four one other time in his career with the 1983 Georgia Bulldogs, who defeated the Tar Heels in the regional final before losing to NC State in the Final Four. So both of Durham’s Final Four teams upset a Dean Smith-coached Carolina team, then lost the next game.)

This was a great offensive team. They are one of only 14 teams in ACC history to average 89+ points per game. They set the ACC record for FG% in a season at 52.8% (later broken by 1975 Maryland). And they are one of only two teams since 1970 (1990 Duke is the other) to average more than 30 free throw attempts per game.

At this point in Dean Smith’s career, he had been to four NCAA Tournaments. In each of those tournaments, the Tar Heels as ACC champions received a bye into the round of 16, which meant they had to win two games to win the region and advance to the Final Four. In those first four tournaments, they won all eight of those games and made the Final Four all four times. In the process, here are the teams they beat:

• 1967: #5 Princeton and #9 Boston College
• 1968: #3 St. Bonaventure and #8 Davidson
• 1969: #9 Duquesne and #5 Davidson
• 1972: #6 South Carolina and #3 Penn

That’s pretty good, huh? Eight NCAA regional games against Top 10 opponents, 8-0 record, four Final Fours?

Record: 27-5, 12-2 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semifinal
Final AP Ranking: 4
All-ACC Players: Charlie Scott (1st), Bill Bunting (1st), Dick Grubar (2nd)
All-Americans: Charlie Scott (2nd)

This was the third of three straight ACC Championship and Final Four teams at North Carolina. Larry Miller was gone, but the Tar Heels still had Charlie Scott, and they had three outstanding seniors in Rusty Clark, Dick Grubar, and Bill Bunting.

This trio isn’t as well known as they ought to be. They never lost an ACC Tournament game; they won the ACC regular season three times; at no time was any of their teams ranked outside the Top 10; and they reached the Final Four three times. Each of the three made All-ACC once. They were overshadowed to some degree by two all-time greats in Miller and Scott, but they were special players in their own right.

This team rolled along like a machine. They started the year ranked second in the polls and never dropped below fourth. A narrow loss to St. John’s at Madison Square Garden, a two-point game against South Carolina, and a loss to Duke in Vic Bubas’ last home game at Cameron were the only blemishes on a 22-3 regular season.

The ACC Tournament is remembered for Charlie Scott‘s 40-point game in the final against Duke. It was right up there with Randolph Childress 1995 as one of the all-time great performances in a tournament final. The other significant event in the tournament was an injury to Grubar that would keep him out of the NCAA Tournament. This meant more time for Eddie Fogler, Jim Delany (the same Jim Delany who was later commissioner of the Big Ten), and Gerald Tuttle.

On to the East Region in the NCAA Tournament. UNC as the ACC champion received a bye into the regional semifinals and a matchup with #9 Duquesne, where the Tar Heels survived a second-half Dukes comeback to eke out a one-point win. Next up was fifth-ranked Davidson in a rematch of the regional final from the prior year, won narrowly by the Tar Heels. This year’s Wildcats had beaten four ACC teams during the regular season in what turned out to be Lefty Driesell’s last season before taking the Maryland job. It was a thrilling, high scoring, back-and-forth game. In the end, there was a little too much Charlie Scott. The New York junior scored a game-high 32 and sank the decisive jumper with two seconds left. It was an especially bitter pill for Driesell, who had recruited Scott hard and was thought to have the inside track before a late push by Dean Smith convinced Scott to come to Chapel Hill.

In the Final Four, Carolina faced sixth-ranked Purdue, led by first team All-American Rick Mount. This is where Grubar’s absence finally caught up with the Tar Heels. Purdue’s backcourt of Mount and Bill Keller dominated Fogler and Tuttle, outscoring them 56-6 and forcing them into 12 turnovers. The Boilermakers pulled away in the second half to a 92-65 victory.

This team played fast. Their average of 89 points per game still ranks in the top 20 all-time in the ACC. They set league records for total field goals made (later broken by 1973 UNC) and field goals per game (later broken by 1973 NC State).

With Grubar injured, there was a built-in excuse to fail to make it to another Final Four. But they found a way, capping off an unmatched three-year run. No other ACC program has ever had a three-year stretch of winning the regular season, winning the tournament, and making the Final Four.

Record: 31-6, 13-3 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national semifinal
Final AP Ranking: 6
All-ACC Players: Chris Duhon (1st), JJ Redick (2nd), Shelden Williams (2nd), Luol Deng (3rd)
All-Americans: None

These Duke teams are starting to run together. But this edition was really good. They had balanced scoring with all five starters (JJ Redick, Luol Deng, Shelden Williams, Chris Duhon, and Daniel Ewing) averaging double figures. This was the sophomore version of Redick and Williams – good, but not as good as they would be later. Duhon was the point guard, the spiritual and defensive leader, and the energy guy (Jay Williams said of Duhon “it was like he drank a million Red Bulls”). Off the bench the Blue Devils featured sophomores Shavlik Randolph and Sean Dockery.

The Blue Devils were the nation’s best team according to kenpom. They did it on both ends, featuring the second-most efficient offense and third best defense. If they had a weakness, it was defensive rebounding. In fact, one of the themes of the Redick-Williams era Duke teams was their poor defensive rebounding. Williams himself was a great rebounder, but nobody else was. They never really found that second big man, and that would eventually come back to haunt them.

They stumbled early in a loss to Purdue, then proceeded to win 18 straight, ascending to the top of the AP poll. The ACC that year was absolutely brutal, with seven out of nine teams ranked in kenpom’s Top 30. Eventually the Blue Devils had to lose a few, and they did. But they won the regular season title by two full games and finished 25-4 and ranked fifth in the polls.

Duke had absolutely dominated the ACC Tournament in the previous five years or so. This time, it was someone else’s turn, and that someone was Gary Williams and Maryland. Led by tournament MVP John Gilchrist, the Terrapins defeated 15th-ranked Wake Forest, 17th-ranked NC State (overcoming a 19-point halftime deficit), and fifth-ranked Duke in consecutive games to bring home Williams’ first and only title.

Duke was the top seed in the Atlanta region. They survived two tough regional games against Illinois (essentially the same team that would reach the national championship game the following year) and Xavier. In the Final Four, it was a battle royal with the UConn Huskies. This game is remembered for Emeka Okafor going off in the second half as literally all of Duke’s big men – Williams, Randolph, and seldom-used Nick Horvath – fouled out after playing a total of 41 minutes among the three of them, prompting K to tell one of the officials, “You cheated us.” Incidentally, it’s also remembered as one of the worst “bad beats” of all time, as Duhon banked in a 3-pointer as time expired to flip the point spread.

We all know about one-and-done, but I had forgotten exactly when the NBA stopped taking high school players, which forced the one-and-done situation that we still live with today. The answer is 2006. Deng played before that rule was in place. As the second-ranked recruit (after Lebron James) in the high school class of 2003, he could have gone straight to the NBA from high school, but he chose to come to college, and then he chose to leave after a year. It’s hard not to play the what if game with Deng. Of course there are 100 players you could do that with, but Deng and Corey Maggette are different because they did it when it was rare and before the rule was in place. You have to think that one of those 2005-6 Redick/Williams teams that both had disappointing endings may have had a different outcome.

Record: 33-7, 14-4 (1st place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in national final
Final AP Ranking: 3
All-ACC Players: Brice Johnson (1st)
All-Americans: Brice Johnson (1st)

This team did something that seems impossible in modern basketball: they were a great offensive team but a poor three-point shooting team. They were last in the ACC in three-pointers made per game. They were third-to-last in three-point FG%. I looked back at the most efficient offenses in the country over the last 20 years according to kenpom, and I have no hesitation in saying that this team is the worst three-point shooting team of that group. But they were the most efficient offense in the country in 2016. How did they do it? Three things: 1) they absolutely dominated the offensive glass; 2) they took care of the ball; and 3) they were incredibly efficient on two-point shots.

That frontcourt. Brice Johnson, Justin Jackson, Isaiah Hicks, and Kennedy Meeks. This group collectively made 689 two-point shots, converting at a 58% clip. Johnson had just an unbelievable year – 17 points per game on 61% shooting, 78% from the line, one of the best rebounders in the country, Top 10 in the league in steals, Top 10 in blocks. Kenpom rated him as the best player in the country that year, just ahead of the actual ACC Player of the Year Malcolm Brogdon. I don’t know who was better and I have nothing negative to say about Brogdon – but Johnson was really good.

Marcus Paige and Joel Berry were terrific in the backcourt as well. Paige’s numbers went down over the course of his career, but if you look at it, it’s due to the fact that it wasn’t until 2016 that Carolina had another guard. Prior to that year, his backcourt mates had been Leslie McDonald and Nate Britt. When Berry emerged in 2016, Paige finally had that complementary player, and while it took away from his numbers a bit, it worked out beautifully for the team.

There was a puzzling early season loss at Northern Iowa – I assume that was the “homecoming game” for Marcus Paige – and a couple other shaky moments. But the Tar Heels closed the regular season with a resounding win in Cameron Indoor and were ready for the ACC Tournament.

I always got the feeling that Roy Williams was annoyed by the existence of the ACC Tournament, but once he got there, the competitive juices started flowing and he wanted to win as badly as anybody. This was a tournament that more or less followed the script. Carolina and Virginia were the two best teams with the two best players, and they squared off for the championship. The only regular season meeting had been won by the Cavaliers on their home court just two weeks earlier.

It was a tense, tight affair. Virginia maintained a slim lead for most of the game until a 15-2 run by the Tar Heels starting about midway through the second half turned a four-point deficit into a nine-point lead. Virginia cut it back to three, but couldn’t get any closer. It was kind of a turn-the-tables game in that it was Virginia who dominated the glass but couldn’t make a shot. Brogdon was outplayed by Joel Berry, who was rewarded with the Everett Case Award as the tournament MVP.

The Tar Heels earned the top seed in the East region. As NCAA tournaments go, they had a pretty easy time of it. There was really no point in any game prior to the final where they were in danger of losing. I don’t think they ever trailed in the second half of any game. They had a relatively easy path. The #2 and #3 seeds in their region lost, so as a result their regional final matchup was against Notre Dame, a team they had just beaten by 31 in the ACC Tournament. Their national semifinal opponent was surprise Midwest region winner Syracuse, who had taken down Virginia in that regional final.

But their luck with easy opponents ran out in the final. Villanova was the best team in the country and had been all year. It was a classic final between the two best teams. Carolina played a terrific game and came up three points short. Brice Johnson, by the way, had a better tournament than Most Outstanding Player Ryan Arcidiacono. Had it not been for the modern convention that the MOP always comes from the champion, Johnson would have been the easy choice.

Behind Johnson, this was an extraordinarily balanced team. It’s one of the few teams in my Top 50 that doesn’t have an individual player in my ACC Top 100. Nobody else averaged as much as 13 points, 6 rebounds, or 4 assists. But the top five players behind Johnson – Paige, Berry, Hicks, Meeks, and Jackson – were all very good players. Nate Britt and Theo Pinson gave them good minutes off the bench. It was a team where guys accepted their roles and embraced a certain style of play, and it worked.

UNC Offensive Rebound % Under Roy Williams, National Ranking Among D1 Teams (ACC Ranking in parentheses):

Of Roy Williams’ 18 Carolina teams, 10 of them were the best offensive rebounding team in the ACC, none was worse than third, and none was worse than 21st nationally except the forgettable 2013 team. That does not happen by accident. A remarkable record.

• 2004 – 11 (2)
• 2005 – 15 (2)
• 2006 – 9 (1)
• 2007 – 9 (2)
• 2008 – 1 (1)
• 2009 – 21 (3)
• 2010 – 16 (3)
• 2011 – 21 (1)
• 2012 – 10 (1)
• 2013 – 77 (3)
• 2014 – 13 (1)
• 2015 – 5 (1)
• 2016 – 3 (1)
• 2017 – 1 (1)
• 2018 – 3 (2)
• 2019 – 16 (3)
• 2020 – 12 (1)
• 2021 – 1 (1)

Record: 32-5, 13-3 (2nd place)
ACC Tournament: Won
NCAA Tournament: Lost in Sweet 16
Final AP Ranking: 3
All-ACC Players: Nolan Smith (ACC POY), Kyle Singler (1st)
All-Americans: Nolan Smith (1st)

The Kyrie Irving year. Duke was coming off a national championship, and going into 2011, there were two holes to plug. The first was replacing Jon Scheyer, and there the Blue Devils had several options, all of them good. Kyrie Irving was the consensus #2 recruit in the country behind UNC’s Harrison Barnes. Seth Curry was an impact transfer who had averaged 20 points per game as a freshman at Liberty. And sophomore Andre Dawkins had played well in limited minutes in 2010.

The second hole was on the interior. Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek had graduated. Neither got a lot of ink, but they played vital roles on the championship team, anchoring the interior of one of the best defenses in the country and grabbing a ton of offensive rebounds. There, the plan was replacement by committee with Ryan Kelly and the Plumlee brothers getting more playing time.

So it was yet another Duke team stacked with blue chippers. Despite losing Irving to a toe injury in the eighth game, the Blue Devils went undefeated at home on their way to a 27-4 regular season record. Still without Irving, they had one of the most dominant ACC Tournaments ever, winning every game by at least 14 points. At 30-4, Duke traveled to the West region as the top seed.

Perhaps their second round game against eighth-seeded Michigan should have been a warning. The Blue Devils led all the way, but Michigan cut the lead to one inside two minutes, and it was all Duke could do to hang on for the two-point win. The Wolverines shot 51% for the game.

Next up was Arizona, a tough draw for a game in Anaheim. The Blue Devils started well, but their defense in the second half completely fell apart. The final margin was 16. It was a disappointing ending for a team that had a tremendous year.

This was a really good team, but compared to the championship team from the year before, the biggest difference was that interior toughness and rebounding. The 2010 team with Thomas and Zoubek was one of the best rebounding teams in the country; the 2011 team took a step back in that regard on both ends of the court. The 2011 team was actually a better shooting team, but their offensive efficiency went down because there weren’t nearly as good on the offensive glass.

The other interesting storyline was Irving – his game, his injury, his absence, his return, and how all that affected the team. Coach K knew what he had; Irving was a Day 1 starter and showed immediately that he was ready. In his seventh college game, he scored 31 to lead the Blue Devils to a big win over Michigan State. But in the very next game, Irving sustained the toe injury that would keep him out for the rest of the season until the NCAA Tournament.

This meant more playing time for Seth Curry and Andre Dawkins and more scoring responsibility for Nolan Smith. That Duke went on to have such a great year says volumes about how they stepped up, but you have to wonder how the team would have developed differently with a healthy Irving all year. Based on his first eight games, he was playing at a first team All-ACC level. He would have been one of the all-time great freshmen in the ACC, possibly the country.

Irving’s return for the NCAA Tournament must have been challenging for the coaching staff. Duke had played 26 games without him. It’s certainly a good problem to have, adding such an incredible talent to a team that was already one of the best in the country. And there was really no decision about whether to play him; he’s too good. You can’t not play him. On the other hand, how do you integrate him into the team without disrupting everything? K chose to bring him off the bench. Seth Curry lost minutes to Irving and was ultimately a non-factor in the games against Michigan and Arizona. And you know Duke’s team defense must have been affected by trying to reincorporate Irving.

But I’m dwelling too much on what this team didn’t accomplish rather than what they did. With or without Irving, they went 32-5, were ranked #1 most of the year, and dominated the ACC Tournament. They earned their spot in the Top 50.

“[Kyrie Irving will] be like, ‘Get out of the way, I’ve got it,'” [Nolan] Smith said. “You don’t really hear that too often, when a freshman will tell two seniors on the wings to get out of the way. We have no problem letting him do it.” – from the AP write-up of Duke’s win over Michigan State, December 2, 2010