Season: 1983-84
Record: 28-3 overall, 14-0 ACC(1st place)
ACC Tournament: Lost in semifinals to Duke
NCAA Tournament: Lost to Indiana in the Sweet Sixteen
Roster: Brad Daugherty, Matt Doherty, Cecil Exum, Steve Hale, Michael Jordan, Timo Makkonen, Cliff Morris, Sam Perkins, Buzz Peterson, Dave Popson, Kenny Smith, Joe Wolf.
Source: UNC Media Guide
There is such an incredible similarity between 1984 and 1987 it is only appropriate they be placed back-to-back in this countdown.
This was a great team hands down and it is the common belief among many of us that had Kenny Smith not broken his hand UNC ends up winning the national title. I would call that a slight stretch given what kind of shenanigans goes on in Final Fours. However it is a reasonable assumption that if this team could have kept rolling with the same chemistry and momentum it built before the injury to Smith who knows what mnight have happened.
The 1984 team was a perfect roster combination of talent and experience. You still had three starters left from the 1982 title team in Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty and Michael Jordan. Jordan had reached that NPOY level and Perkins was near the top of the UNC scoring and rebounding list. Doherty provided that key jack of all trades role you need. UNC was able to put a lineup on the floor that had Smith/Steve Hale at PG, Jordan at SG, Matt Doherty at SF, Sam Perkins at PF and Brad Daughtery at C. That is a loaded lineup and well versed in the art of winning a title.
This version of the Tar Heels is also a prime example of how much one or two bad games in March can wreck an entire season. The regular season in 1984 contained an impressive string of wins over ranked opponents, seven in all. The only loss came on an off day against Arkansas. The loss in the ACC semifinals to Duke was a key juncture in ACC history as well as the UNC-Duke rivalry. The Heels had been riding high while Duke struggled under a new head coach. UNC had won six straight over Duke including a double OT win in Chapel Hill the week before. This game turned out to be the moment when Duke began reasserting itself as a viable ACC power.
Still losing in the ACC Tournament was not the end of the world. UNC was still a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and received a bye in the field of 48 before dispatching Temple putting UNC into the Sweet Sixteen against Indiana. Then Dan Dakich happened. If I made a list of opposing players which will never, ever be loved by Tar Heel fans, this guy might top the list. In fact given what happened that fateful Thursday night 24 years ago, Dakich might have actually been hated less by UNC fans had he went to Duke.
For those who do not remember, Dakich is given credit for being the player to lock down Michael Jordan that night and in the process Jordan ended up with three fouls early leading to some serious time on the bench. Dean perhaps waited too long to bring Jordan back and by the time the Heels got their act together a furious rally was needed which ultimately fell short. It was hardly an appropriate ending for Perkins, Doherty and Jordan who wore their Tar Heel jerseys for the last time that night. Perkins and Doherty graduated while Jordan jumped to the NBA. Their departure marked the end of a tremendous Tar Heel team whose failure to win the title with such a loaded squad is first among disappointments in the annals of UNC history.
And the 2009 team better make darn sure it stays that way.
Countdown So Far
8. 1987
9. 1997
10. 1991
11. 2007
12. 1986
13. 1994
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
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Wow, those highlights will keep me smiling all day. Great season.
Comparing the upcoming season to that one has a lot of merit. I hope this time the title comes back to Chapel Hill. We certainly have a loaded team returning, and we will be losing a lot I think after it’s over.
That poll makes me a little discouraged.
“Football? When does basketball start?”
That’s exactly what Butch is trying to change, but the mere fact that somebody voted for it (and that you included it as an option) is upsetting.
Dan Dakich…that name still makes me want to vomit. That game was severly depressing…but what a great team!!!!
Wilson,
I just wanted to see what kind of votes it would pull.
Kenny Smith’s injury certainly affected the team chemistry. I was at the Double OT dook game sitting right in front of the pep band. What an atmosphere!!!
I do remember Johnny Dawkins stealing the ball from Kenny Smith because he had some big wrap on his left wrist/hand.
Watching the Four Corners with Michael was exhilarating because you knew there would some kind of dunk, either by Jordan, Perkins or Daugherty.
Thanks THF, the 87 state win over us and being reminded of the 84 Indiana win has induced gastrointestinal distress for me the last two days.
Hang in there guys…next Wed, Thur and Fri we talk national title teams and it will be all good.
Even though we failed to win a National Title after 81-82, those years of 82-86 marked my favorite UNC teams to date. Every player was just so good, athletic. When will you see another point guard like Smith? When will you see any other guard like Michael? Perkins? Worthy? Daugherty a center who can run the floor, hit face up baskets, back you down and dunk on you? We may run a lot now, but I don’t think there will ever be a group of assembled athletes like this one. Vince Carter is the closest thing we have had since then. I miss those 6′3 to 6′6 guys who are just stellar athletes that can do everything. We had that in Carter and Stackhouse. We just do not see those kind of kids being brought up nowadays. But those early-mid 80’s teams are why I am a Tarheel fan!!!
With Kenny we take the trophy.
One notable fact about this team is that they went undefeated in the ACC regular season. They beat a scappy Duke team in the last game of the regular season in overtime, I believe.
What was the guys name who pulled him down from behind?
Him being Kenny Smith
can you replace Matt Doherty’s name in the post with M___ D____ or with “He who shall not be named”?
Well, when we are speaking in the context of his playing career using his name seems appropriate. In other instances I see merit in your argument.
I think about M___ D____ like this: I really felt OK about him coming in. He had done a good job at the catholic school and I thought he would be in a position to get some real help from Coaches Smith and Gut. After that I have forgotten the rest; such things could have never really happened?
So, I agree, let’s fondly remember the player. And not hash out that bad sitcom, “A Coach’s Tail”.
I’ve never really been too ashamed of Doherty. Granted he was at the helm when we had our worst season ever, and he clearly had some issues, but I’m not ready to forget him as a player or a coach. Certainly I’d like to forget some of the games we played during his tenure, but everyone was on the Doherty bandwagon when he started. I know that I was. He got in over his head, and we can’t really blame him for that. I know that if UNC had called me up to coach, I’d have been right there as well. Yet when things fell apart, everyone dropped him like he was radioactive. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have been let go, but I think he got part of a bum rap.
I probably blame Baddour more for hiring an unproven coach to head the nation’s best basketball program, just so he could say he ’stayed in the Carolina family’. And remember, Doherty is part of the Carolina family, so he deserves better than what some of us are prepared to give him.
But of course, 8-20 is a tough pill to swallow, and if there had been no Matt then there would be no Roy
I agree exactly with your thoughts HeelYeah. And without Doherty, there may have been no national title in 05 as well. Yes the program sucked for a while, but if Guthridge had any recruiting ability, we may not have been in the 8-20 as well. That team was a bunch of young talent, and Roy may not have been able to do a WHOLE lot better with them too. I imagine any team under Roy will never go 8-20. But I think that Matt would have turned that team around as well, albeit, probably without a National Title. I am in no way ashamed of Doherty and our program during that time. Yes, Dick B is to blame somewhat of what happened. There were other good coaches outside the family that WOULD have been able to give us a better record than what we had. But Doherty did bring the cream of the crop to UNC before his departure. We should be thankful for that, and let him leave with a good measure of dignity.
Type his name out: M-A-T-T D-O-H-E-R-T-Y, as I think we’ll hear about him again a little later in the countdown.
Thanks to HeelYeah for typing all that stuff about “Doherty, The Coach” and saving me the trouble.
THF has an addiction to the “Green Tea” photo. I have an addiction to apologizing for the Doherty Era. We all have our cross to bear.
I can’t disagree about the recruiting being a factor, but the problems I saw with Matt was cleaning house, including some office staff and the assistant coaches, and his failure to use Coach Smith to help him along. I know he wanted to be his own man, but all that is foolish. So, when the players revolted he didn’t have much of a chance, and any support.
I’m not ever really ashamed of this part of Carolina Basketball, but I feel bad for Matt that he botched a good opportunity. It was all handled so wrong.
You are right Wilf, he did botch an opportunity. An opportunity he wasn’t ready for, and Dick B should have known that. Yes, I’d like to keep the coaching staff in the family, but I think it is borderline foolish to do so when other, and better coaches are available. But, given what Doherty came in with, and what he left us with in terms of talent, he did a fair job. If he was left with a good measure of young recruits, he may have faired better. He did leave Roy with a good young class, unlike what he was left with when he came in, and already having that class aided in Roy being able to get that championship in 05. I wish the best of luck to Matt Doherty. It is my hope that he is able to rebuild somewhere and have a good program. I sure hope if there is bitterness with him and UNC, it is reconciled with time, and UNC can once again become a favorable part of his life.
And yes again Wilf, he would have had much more of a support system if he’d let others get involved. I am usually not in support of that, but with him being such a young coach and only a few years under his belt, it would have been the wisest thing to do, unlike Roy, who has coached a major program before with success, and really needs no one.
“I sure hope if there is bitterness with him and UNC, it is reconciled with time, and UNC can once again become a favorable part of his life.”
Well said, I second the motion….
hmm… perhaps the proper way to Refer to Mr. Doherty is to call him Matt Doherty when referring to his playing days and Doh!! when referring to his coaching days.
For all the word that have been written over the years about the man, I firmly believe that he knows how to coach and he knows how to recruit. Now, for the off-court stuff (both with players and staff)… that’s what got him in hot water. I’m sure he learned from those mistakes while at Carolina and will end up much the better administrator for it. Not that he’ll ever end up back in Chapel Hill, but I can certainly see him successfully running a program at a major-conference school before he calls it quits.
One thing about this team that I forgot. This was Cecil Exum’s senior season. Exum is the only men’s basketball number to be retired at my alma mater, Southern Wayne High School. Go Cecil! Isn’t he coaching in Australia now or something?