Season: 1986-87
Record: 32-4 overall, 14-0 ACC(1st place)
ACC Tournament: Lost in finals to NC State and I am still not over that one either.
NCAA Tournament: Lost to Syracuse in the Elite Eight
Roster: Steve Bucknall, Jeff Denny, Marty Hensley, Curtis Hunter, Rodney Hyatt, Jeff Lebo, Michael Norwood, Dave Popson, J.R. Reid, Kenny Smith, Ranzino Smith, Scott Williams, Joe Wolf.
Source: UNC Media Guide
Where this season is concerned I offer up three names that may as well as pass as curse words in Tar Heel Nation:
Digger Phelps
Vinny Del Negro
Rony Seikaly
UNC lost a total of four times during this season making them easily a top ten team for this countdown and along with 1984 one of the two best UNC teams not to make a Final Four. The interesting note on this version is that the roster does not represent a group of players with tremendous stardom written all over them. Kenny Smith and Scott Williams are the only two players on this team to make a significant splash in the NBA with both winning NBA titles as role players Houston and Chicago respectively. JR Reid was pretty much a bust in the pros and Joe Wolf is the only other player on this roster that spent any real time in the NBA. In this respect they were as true a Dean Smith system team as any and the result was a cohesive unit that had a good chance to win the national title except the best team does not always do so.
Like the 1984 team UNC went through the ACC undefeated at 14-0 and aside from an OT win over UVa in Chapel Hill was never really challenged. The Heels then needed double OT to dispatch the Cavaliers in the ACC Tournament setting up what stands as one the most annoying and infuriating upsets ever suffered by a UNC team. And yes, that includes Weber State.
The 1987 ACC Championship was supposed to be a foregone conclusion. NCSU had gone 6-8 in the ACC regular season and was 17-14 entering the ACC Tournament. The Heels had beaten the pack by 17 and 18 during the regular season and came in averaging 91 ppg. Somehow the Heels only score 25 in the first half, allow NCSU to shoot 56% from the floor and end up losing. How bad was this loss? It was so bad that Dean Smith was walking to the locker room after the game and put his hand up to cover the camera that was filming him. Needless to say it was a fairly miserable loss. Pretty much like losing to Notre Dame in South Bend which included the fans there throwing objects on the court despite the fact they were winning.
The loss in the East Regional Final to Syracuse goes down as one of the more disappointing eliminations from the NCAA Tournament and in my mind seems to fit right in with the 2007 team’s loss to Georgetown. In fact if you count 1987, 1994 and 2007 Big East teams have been a pain in UNC’s rear end more than once. UNC has little problem winning regional finals played in Syracuse but not against Syracuse. It turns out that it was not meant to be especially with Jeff Lebo ending up with the flu and UNC unable to do much with Rony Seikaly. Syracuse went on to loss on Keith Smart’s jumper in the title game and the Heels were left wondering why 1987 ended the same way as 1984 with a body of regular season glory followed by heartbreaking losses in tournament play.
Of course it is funny how much we frame these discussions on the losses when this team blew the doors off the ACC in 1987 and save one bad Sunday afternoon could have completed the full sweep of the conference. This team also holds the school record for points per game and is second in three point shooting percentage meaning they were an offensively explosive team to watch. With Kenny Smith running the point as a senior would you expect anything less?
Countdown So Far
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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As a lifetime, Upstate-NYer, and a life-long Boeheim hater, losses to Syracuse rank ahead of losses to anyone, for me. Even Duke…
The only loss more painful to me than the Syracuse one was in 98 to Utah. I loved this team. Like you said THF, they pretty much dominated everyone, but in the end it wasn’t meant to be. Jeff Lebo said he felt responsible because he didn’t make a shot against Syracuse and problably shouldn’t have played. I remember JR Reid making the cover of SI as a freshman dunking over 3 Wake Forest players, scattering them like bowling pins.
Hey Thank the Passer, your thoughts are mine. This loss was a hard one to swallow, although I think that the final four was probably where we belonged, and didn’t expect to go much further. That 98 team should have cut the nets down. BTW, what happened to Rick Majerus? Wasn’t he under some kind of controversy not long after that defeat? Seemed like a good coach to me.
Majerus is head coach at St. Louis now. He left Utah in 2004 and worked for ESPN. During that time he took the job at USC but a few days later changed his mind. In 2007 he took the job at SL. Not much on the way of controversy I am aware of, that is unless you are talking about this:
http://deadspin.com/346458/rick-majerus-will-show-you-his-billiken
The controversy I remember (on this game) is that Majerus and former Tarheel George Karl supposedly talked about how to beat the Heels in that game.
George Karl must be a good consultant to have. Maybe there still was many similarities in UNC basketball from Karl’s days to 1998.
THF, was that incident that you linked me to news-worth at the time?
Probably not but it was downright funny.
The Jet was more than just a role player when Houston won titles in 94 and 95. He was the starter both years (though his backup, some guy named Sam Cassell, got about the same number of minutes in 94-95) and average over 10 ppg and 4 apg both years — along with shooting over 40% from three both seasons.
The Jet also poured in 40 at Clemson that year.
Jonathan,
What I meant was Smith was not necessarily a star. In the NBA you usually have three key players and everyone else are role players who make key contributions. Smith was definitely that though he did set a record for threes in a NBA Finals game with six against Orlando.
I think the Weber State and G-Town losses were more painful in my mind. Three reasons:
1. My UNC consciousness begins in 1995.
2. NC State was, no matter how you slice it, a talented team. Harold Arcineux was a one-man show, absolutely destroying us. Also, Weber was an elimination game; NC State was not.
3. As far as I know, we didn’t have a double digit lead in the second half against Syracuse only to go completely cold and let the Orange shoot the lights out.
Also, about the entire countdown: I would place the 2006 team much higher, on the basis that absolutely no one expected them to play as well as they did.
The state loss makes me nauseated to this day and you can see the banner in the RBC. The win solidified Jimmy V’s legend even though his teams generally were poorly coached, played bad defense; but he had some kind of a magic wand.
Yes, this was a Tar Heel team that certainly could have won it all.
“The controversy I remember (on this game) is that Majerus and former Tarheel George Karl supposedly talked about how to beat the Heels in that game.”
Karl helped Majerus with the gameplan to defeat Arizona in the Elite Eight, not UNC in the Final Four…at least that’s the way I remember it. Can’t really see George Karl helping anybody gameplan against his Heels, especially in the Final Four.
THM,
Note that I called it one of the “most annoying and infuriating upsets.” Weber was more painful mainly because it was the end of the season. It was also flat out humiliating. The loss to NCSU in the ACC finals was like dragging nails across a chalk board over and over. First of all it was NCSU and no matter how you slice, talent or not, they were 17-14 and had a losing ACC mark because they were not a very good team. They did not suffer any major injuries and simply fell part after starting the season 12-4.
Secondly, the fact UNC won both games handily and was 16-0 in ACC games and only had two losses overall when the title game was played added to the general feeling that UNC should win the game with ease only to see them score 25 points in the first half when they were averaging 91 ppg.
HP is correct that this is one of those games that adds stock to the legend of Jim Valvano which may be a little overwrought but such is human nature.
Also bear in mind that this was the second time in five years UNC had lost to NCSU in the ACC Tournament. The Heels did get the best of them in 1985 but 1983 became all the rage because the Pack did in 1987 what they did in 1983 and that was squeak into the NCAAT by getting the automatic bid.
When you add the fact UNC had lost a ACC title for the 2nd time in three seasons, failed to win the ACC title for the 2nd time after finishing 14-0 and NCSU had actually won two ACC titles since UNC won their last one in 1982 it was the kind of loss that made you feel like you picked the wrong week to quit drinking.
The way 1987 ended seemed to be a portent of things to come. 1988 saw us lose thrice to The Rat and his pack of dorks, and then ‘89 saw us get shafted in the seeding and lose to (eventual champion) Michigan. Then came the ‘90-’92 stretch where Duke took over and we had to see their merchandise infiltrate sports apparel stores nationwide.
I am most excited in that we are getting to those teams that ended the season cutting the nets down, because I’ve been feeling a bit grim recounting the unfortunate conclusions to (one too many) great seasons.
To us, those losses that sent our boys home still hurt…but, in terms of national perception, the Heels had the incredible Final Four run from ‘91-’00 that made up for lost ground. Throw in the ‘93 and ‘05 titles, and you have some happy thoughts…are we there yet?