Season: 1993-94
Record: 28-7 overall, 11-5 ACC(2nd place)
ACC Tournament: Won Championship
NCAA Tournament: Lost to Boston College in the 2nd Round
Roster: Dante Calabria, Larry Davis, Pearce Landry, Jeff McInnis, Eric Montross, Derrick Phelps, Brian Reese, Kevin Salvadori, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Donald Williams, Serge Zwikker.
Source: UNC Media Guide
Feel free to complete the following sentence in comments section:
I knew this team was in trouble when…
For me it was the OT loss to UMass in the Preseason NIT. Something just was not right about that and in now way am I slighting UMass here but the Heels should have won that game and most certainly should have lost about 4-5 total and least made it back to the Final Four. The lesson here is never underestimate the importance of a player like George Lynch in terms of leadership. Also never discount what kind of impact introducing players like Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace into the mix can do to upset the apple cart.
Chemistry is two fold. There is the chemistry between players on the personal level and there is the chemistry on the court where everyone understands their role and performs it to par. So if you are looking for examples where each of these went wrong 2001 was the former and 2007 was the latter. 1994 was both at the same time. It became clear that the attitudes of the freshman was oil to the water of the upperclassmen. There was an element of players not getting along in the locker room with a side of veteran players being upset about their playing time being consumed by the freshman. The main issues was adding players like Stackhouse and Wallace who were clearly more interested in being the stars rather than playing a role as part of the team. The result was a general lack of cohesion in execution on the court.
Still, it was not a horrible season by any stretch. The Heels won the ACC Tournament for the 2nd time in four years after going 11-5 and finishing second. The issue the sticks in most fans’ craws is the loss to Boston College. Now I am on record as admitting an undying grudge versus the Eagles over this loss. BC ranks fairly high on teams I dislike mostly due to this loss and the fact BC guard Dana Abrams took Derrick Phelps out with a vicious foul on a fast break. UNC just plain struggled all day but still had a chance to tie or win it on the last play that somehow resulted in Rasheed Wallace taking a three from the corner. What? You have Donald Williams on the roster and the best you get it Wallace for three from the corner? Yeah, that was not a happy Sunday as I recall. Of course trouble was evidently brewing two days previous when the Heels were required to give way too much time and effort in dispatching Liberty. I was at UNC Greensboro at the time and saw Liberty in person at a home game. There is no way a UNC team as loaded as this one should have struggled to only score 71 points on Liberty.
In the final analysis, this was a great collection of players but not a very good team. A very disappointing ending to what should have been a chance to equal Duke’s back-to-back title runs, especially since the Final Four was played in Charlotte. It also was a huge heaping of salt and lemon juice on a thousand paper cuts to see Duke play for the national title and come very close to going three in four seasons.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little thinking about this season.
Countdown So Far
14. 1983
15. 1989
16. 1988
17. 1985
18. 2006
19. 2001
20. 1992
21. 1996
22. 1999
23. 2000
24. 2004
25. 1990
26. 2003
27. 2002
![[Bloglines]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Technorati]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.tarheelfanblog.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Loading ...
I knew this team was in trouble when…
George Lynch was drafted by the Sixers.
Ok, maybe not that early, but I really, really, liked watching him play!
I agree C. Michael. It would have been nice if he was on this team as well. Seems like we lacked toughness (in spite of having Rasheed)in the tournament.
Even with the noticeable lack of a cohesive team throughout the year, this is the most devastated I’ve ever felt after a Carolina loss. It was hoped that this team would get it together for a postseason run, especially after taking home the ACC championship. The only other loss that could rival this during my lifetime was the loss to Utah.
I still have nightmares about Bill Curley.
What ever happened to Rick Majerus? Wasn’t there some kind of controversy that entailed him a few years later? Seemed like a good coach to me.
Just think about how the Dukies feel about us right now THF. Instead of throwing up, I think they flop around in an attempt to draw sympathy and deal with their pain.
I knew this team was in trouble when… I enrolled at UNC in August of 1993.
After being a die hard Heel fan since I was old enough to know what basketball was, I knew that something was bound to happen. I had just barely missed the opportunity to storm Franklin after the title in ‘93, so I figured that was how my (and UNC’s) luck would go. Unfortunately I was right, as I also had to endure the Childress explosion in the ‘95 ACC final, the Arkansas debacle a few weeks later, and the ice cold shooting in the ‘97 Final Four. Of course, how crazy is it that I’m complaining about watching the Heels go to 2 Final Fours in 4 years and winning an ACC title over the Raleigh Dogpack? I guess that is the unfortunate life of a Carolina fan!
I knew this team was in trouble when I watched Jerry Stackhouse play AAU summer ball for the Charlotte Royals in 92. I realized I was watching an extremely tallented player who was a 16 year old kid in a 25 year old man’s body. The problem was he was a black hole; the ball went in and never came back out. I thought that when he got to Chapel Hill this would be a problem and it was. He never respected the veterans on the team and Montross and Co. resented it bigtime.
It’s funny, because I never associate the ‘94 team with any of the UNC teams that “should have” won it all (i.e., 1977, 1984, 1995, 1998, 2008). In retrospect, 1994 was a transitional year between the Montross/Phelps/Reese/Lynch era to the Wallace/Stackhouse/McGinnis/Calabria era. I watched this team often, and I never felt that they were truly one of the nation’s best. The Liberty game was one of the most frustrating games that I have witnessed a UNC team play (nowhere near the Kansas Debacle). There was a kid on Liberty who, I think, blocked three shots on one posession. The game is on YouTube, if you have the stomach for it. It is fun to watch for posterity, but little else. Wallace (easily) played the hardest of all the freshmen, and won a spot in the starting rotation by season’s end. Stack put it on cruise control at times, but still averaged better than twelve points a game. McGinnis was McGinnis, and never pretended that he was in the same character zip code as Hubert Davis or Derrick Phelps.
This is the one team where hindsight should be handicaped in that Dean was dealt all the right talent cards, but had to play them in two different games. I’ll stop there before I go overboard with card-game-metaphors, but Dean basically had to babysit the younger kids, and then when they were getting Dean’s attention, he had to appease the older kids. It must have been like Baby Blue Day Care or something. I’m sure if Dean could have gone back and done this season over, he may have started Wallace earlier on to establish a more dynamic defensive presence. Also, Stackhouse had a better outside shooting touch than did Reese, so maybe he could have started at the wing. I have no problems with the Phelps/Williams guard combo.
The BC game was truly a hard one to stomach. What’s worse, Curly’s ugly mug gets on the cover of SI and the heading was “Take That Tar Heels!” Ugh, Boston teams and have to be the sorest winners in all of sports, be it professional or collegiate. Try to avoid listening to ANYTHING Bob Ryan has to say. We all seem to agree (to varying degrees) that either/both Mike Patrick and Dook Vitale are hard to stomach…Bob Ryan is the bottom of the barrel.
What’s worse is having lived in MA, the general population outside of Chestnut Hill does not really give a crap about BC basketball, even when they are winning.