The Biggest ‘Wildcard’ UNC Team of All-Time?

With the Carolina basketball team playing for the national championship game tonight against Kansas, I can’t help but wonder how they got there. If you only watched games from the last month, it wouldn’t be any surprise whatsoever. They’ve been playing really good ball, and consistently playing as a team, and have made a serious run through March beating some really good teams along the way. But it hasn’t been this way for much, much of the season.

Coming into the season, there were far more questions than answers. The number one question was, of course, how will Hubert Davis do as head coach and what kind of changes would he make from his predecessor Roy Williams? Then there were the questions of how much of a jump sophomore guards RJ Davis and Caleb Love would show after their freshman seasons. What about Bacot? After Garrison Brooks, Day’Ron Sharpe, and Walker Kessler all left the program, Bacot would be the lone big man. Could he carry the weight on his shoulders? Also, don’t forget the incoming transfers. We asked ourselves, how would Brady Manek, Justin McCoy, and Dawson Garcia fit in with Carolina?

Beginning the season ranked #19 in the country, there was hope surrounding the program, but it was definitely overshadowed by all of these questions. So, as fans, we waited anxiously for the season to begin to have these questions answered. And after a few easy games, things went south. In back-to back days in a November tournament, Carolina lost to Purdue and got beat handily by Tennessee. It’s never good when a program like Carolina loses back to back games, much less losing the way they did.

Then they beat Michigan by 21 points, leaving everyone to wonder if Carolina had figured things out, or if Michigan was just that bad. But when they played Kentucky things got very ugly, losing by 29 points. It was at this point that I decided Carolina just wasn’t a very good team this year. They had potential, sure, but I just didn’t see them putting that potential together any time this season.

Once ACC play started, they won some games, and lost some games. But the thing was, their losses were head-scratching. At the time, losing to Notre Dame didn’t make sense. I didn’t think the Irish were very good (turned out they made it to the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament). They would go on to get blown out by Miami by 27 points, and follow that up with a 22-point loss to Wake Forest, which was as confusing as it was frustrating. I understood that Wake was a decent team this year, but you just can’t get blown out by them. They weren’t a Tim Duncan or Chris Paul or Jeff Teague-led team. Two conference blowout losses in a row were a big time low point.

Of course they would go on to win a few games, just enough to keep them in the conversation, but overall, no one really took them serious as a good team. Then it was time for the Duke game, and at that point in the season with how Carolina had been playing, I wasn’t too surprised by the 20-point loss. I wasn’t happy about it at all, but at the same time, I can’t say I didn’t feel too good going into that game. The team strung together a few more wins, but no over any good teams, and then they lost to the lowly Pittsburgh Panthers. At this point I was wondering if they were even going to make the NCAA Tournament. And to be honest, so was the rest of the college basketball world. They NEEDED to win at least 4 of the next 5 games, one of which included Duke.

And they did just that, beating Virginia Tech, Louisville, State, and Syracuse, before going into Cameron Indoor to send Coach K out with a loss in his final home game. That game was huge, not only for beating their fierce rival and Coach K in his last home game, but it instantly transformed Carolina from a bubble team to an NCAA team. And that’s all it took.

As a number 8 seed in the tournament that no one, and I mean no one considered a legitimate contender, Marquette was crossed off the list. #1 seeded Baylor was crossed off the list, as was #4 UCLA, #15 and Cinderella St. Peter’s, and #1 seeded Duke in the two teams’ first ever meeting in the NCAA Tournament, on the big stage in the Final Four. Now the UNC basketball team is here, with a chance to cut down the nets tonight in New Orleans against #1 seeded Kansas. I’ve never doubted a team and been proven wrong as significantly as I have this season. With so much talent, they could just never put it all together all season long. But they seem to have now, at the perfect time. Even if they don’t win tonight, I’ll be a proud fan for how far they’ve come, proving everyone wrong, and beating Duke twice on their way to be where they are. They have achieved more than what anyone ever thought, now if they could just achieve a little bit more.

Garett