1992–93 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team

Season summary

The 1992–93 team was led by George Lynch, Eric Montross, Brian Reese, Donald Williams, and Derrick Phelps. The Tar Heels started out with an 8–0 record and were ranked #5 in the country when they met #6 Michigan in the semi-finals of the Rainbow Classic. The Wolverines, led by the Fab Five in their sophomore season, won 79–78 to on a last-second shot. North Carolina bounced back with nine straight wins before losing back-to-back road games against unranked Wake Forest and #5 Duke. After seven more straight wins, the Tar Heels were ranked #1 heading into the last week of the regular season (their first #1 ranking since the start of the 1987–88 season). North Carolina beat #14 Wake Forest and #6 Duke to close out the regular season and clinch the top seed in the ACC tournament. North Carolina reached the tournament final, but they lost 77–75 to Georgia Tech without Derrick Phelps who was injured. Nonetheless, North Carolina was awarded the top seed in the East Regional of the NCAA tournament, defeating #16-seed East Carolina (85–65), #8-seed Rhode Island (112–67), #4-seed Arkansas (80–74), and #2-seed Cincinnati (75–68) to reach the final four in New Orleans.

In the national semi-finals, Smith's Tar Heels defeated his alma mater Kansas (coached by future North Carolina coach Roy Williams) 78–68, setting up a rematch with #3-ranked Michigan in the finals.

The national title game was a see-saw battle throughout, but is remembered best for Chris Webber's time out call with seconds left when Michigan didn't have any. Michigan was assessed a technical foul and North Carolina ended up winning 77–71, giving Smith his second national championship.

Personnel

• Dean Smith
• Phil Ford
• Bill Guthridge
• Randy Wiel
• Dave Hanners

Schedule and results

|- !colspan=9| ACC tournament |- !colspan=9| NCAA tournament

Awards and honors

• Dean Smith, Naismith College Coach of the Year
• Donald Williams, NCAA Men's MOP Award

Team players drafted into the NBA

Kevin Salvadori, Matt Wenstrom and Derrick Phelps also went on to play in the NBA, but were undrafted.

References

References

1. Adam Lucas. (2003-03-30). "THM: Looking Back At 1993". Tar Heel Monthly.
2. (March 19, 1993). "Smith Gets 50th Tournament Win as North Carolina Romps, 85-65". [[The Los Angeles Times]].
3. (March 29, 1993). "Tar Heels Require Outside Help". [[The Los Angeles Times]].
4. link. (2015-02-22 . Retrieved 2015-Apr-12.)
5. [http://www.bbstate.com/teams/UNC/schedule/93 BB State] {{Webarchive. link. (2015-09-23 . Retrieved 2015-Apr-12.)
6. "Final Four Most Outstanding Players". cbs.sportsline.com.
7. [https://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1993.html 1993 NBA draft], ''Basketball-Reference.com''
8. [https://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_1994.html 1994 NBA draft], ''Basketball-Reference.com''
9. {{cite basketball-reference
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