The North Carolina Tar Heels are right on the cut line for the NCAA Tournament, a place that's rather unfamiliar for the blue blood program. UNC has missed the NCAA Tournament before, including twice in the last four years, but when they do make the Big Dance, they tend to have a high seed.
The Heels were a 1-seed last year, the fourth time in the past decade they've received that honor. They've actually secured a 1-seed more than any team in history, accomplishing the feat 18 times. Kansas is second with 15.
That kind of recognition by the selection committee won't be happening this year, even if UNC can continue its current hot streak all the way through the end of the regular season and the ACC Tournament. The Heels have been playing their best ball of the season in running off four straight wins against Syracuse, NC State, Virginia and Florida State. That's not exactly a murderer's row though, so they'll still have a lot of work to do to secure their spot in the field.
In anticipation of their potential just-barely inclusion in the tournament, we thought we'd look today at some previous times that Carolina just snuck into the field. What are the worst seeds the Heels have ever received, and how did they fare in the tournament?
North Carolina's worst NCAA Tournament seeds of all-time
The last four at-large teams in the NCAA Tournament tend to be either 10- or 11-seeds, depending on how many bid thieves there are. Last year, the last four in were all 10-seeds, so Carolina can anticipate something similar this year if they're are able to sneak in.
That would be the worst seed in school history as, incredibly, Carolina has never been a double-digit seed even once. Since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979, UNC has made the field 41 times, and the worst seed they've received is an 8, something that's happened five times.
The Heels have had incredible success as an 8-seed, far more than any other school. As an 8-seed, they're 3-1 against 1-seeds. Only six 8-seeds have ever reached the Final Four, and Carolina has done it twice, the only school that can say that. The other schools are Villanova, Wisconsin, Butler and Kentucky.
1990: Carolina upsets 1-seed Oklahoma to reach the Sweet 16
The Heels had an uncharacteristically down season in 1989-90, losing 13 games for the first and only time in legendary coach Dean Smith's career. No matter, as they still made the tournament and then beat Missouri St. and 1-seed Oklahoma before falling to Arkansas in the Sweet Sixteen.
The upset allowed Carolina to reach the Sweet Sixteen for the 10th straight year, a streak they would eventually extend to 13. Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, no team has ever matched that, though Gonzaga, with an active streak of nine straight appearances, isn't far off.
Rick Fox led the Heels to the win over Oklahoma, making five of seven threes on his way to a game-high 23 points. Fox also scored the winning basket after catching a pass from current Heels coach Hubert Davis and driving to the basket, breaking a tie score with one second left to give Carolina the 79-77 win.
2000: Joe Forte puts the Heels on his back, carrying them all the way to the Final Four
Maybe it's a good thing for the Heels to play a team from Missouri in the first round and a 1-seed with red as its primary color in the second round. This team, coached by Bill Guthridge, went just 18-13 before the tournament, but reeled off four straight wins against Missouri, top-seeded Stanford (led by current Cal coach Mark Madsen), Tennessee and 7-seeded Tulsa in an unlikely Elite Eight matchup.
Joe Forte was just a freshman, but he scored 95 points in Carolina's five games, finishing second behind Michigan State's Morris Peterson as the scoring leader of the entire tournament. This run helped catapult him the next year to the ACC Player of the Year award and a First Team All-American selection.
This was a wild NCAA Tournament year, as UNC wasn't even the only 8-seed to make the Final Four. Fellow 8-seed Wisconsin joined them, but both fell one game short of the national title game. Wisconsin lost a Big Ten battle to eventual champion Michigan State, while Carolina was knocked out by the 5-seed Florida Gators, who themselves had a wild run by winning on a Mike Miller buzzer beater in the first round and knocked off 1-seed Duke in the Sweet Sixteen.
2013: Carolina beats Villanova but then loses a close game to 1-seed Kansas in the Round of 32
This Carolina team wasn't able to put together a magical run of its own, but the seeds were planted for an eventual title game appearance. Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson were just freshmen on this team, years before they would eventually go on to become All-Americans while leading the Tar Heels to the brink of a national championship.
Ironically, that painful 2016 title game loss came at the hands of Villanova, whom Carolina beat in the first round here. PJ Hairston and James Michael McAdoo were the only Heels to score in double figures in the next round against Kansas (a game that took place in Kansas City), and though Carolina was able to hang around, 22 points from the Jayhawks' Travis Releford and 16 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks from center Jeff Withey were too much to overcome in a 70-58 Rock Chalk win.
After leaving Kansas to come to UNC, Roy Williams faced his former team three times, all in the NCAA Tournament. Each game resulted in a Tar Heels loss. First was a Final Four loss in 2008, the year that Bill Self brought KU their first title since 1988. Next was 2012, as Kansas took advantage of Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall being out with a broken wrist to win their Elite Eight matchup. The very next year was this second-round clash.
Kansas has continued to have Carolina's number under Hubert Davis, beating the Heels for the national title in 2022 and again in the regular season this year.
2021: Roy Williams ends his career with a first-round loss to Wisconsin
Next up is the only time the Heels have ever lost their first game as an 8-seed, and it also happens to be the only time in 30 tries (!) that Roy Williams lost his first NCAA Tournament game, a truly unbelievable feat.
The Heels were simply outmatched in this one. Tony Bennett's Virginia teams always gave Carolina trouble, even in their best years, and this was a far from vintage UNC squad. Wisconsin was a near-perfect analogue of those Virginia teams, as they played disciplined defense, slowed the pace down, and were clinically efficient on offense.
Badgers guard Brad Davison had his best game of the season by far, dropping 29 points on 10-15 shooting. He far outpaced what Caleb Love and RJ Davis were able to do, as they collectively laid an egg by shooting 6-22 for just 15 total points. The Badgers won going away, 85-62, ending Roy's career in the process.
2022: Caleb Love leads the Heels to the national title game and sends Mike Krzyzewski into retirement
One year later, it was Mike Krzyzewski's turn to call it quits. Unlike his longtime Tobacco Road frenemy, Coach K engaged in a season-long farewell tour that looked like it very well could end in a storybook finish. The Tar Heels had something to say about that, though, first by beating K in his final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium with most of his former players in attendance, then in the Final Four in one of the most anticipated games in college basketball history.
Carolina had a roller coaster ride to get there. The Heels were on the bubble for much of the year until a late-season push, but they annihilated Marquette in the first round 95-63, then just hung on to beat 1-seed Baylor in overtime after giving up a 25-point second-half lead.
The Heels then beat 4-seed UCLA 73-66 in the Sweet Sixteen in one of the games of the tournament, as the Bruins, led by Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Johnny Juzang, were trying to get back to the Final Four for the second straight year. A relatively stress-free win over 15-seed Cinderella St. Peter's in the Elite Eight sent the Heels to New Orleans to face their biggest rival.
Carolina-Duke went beyond anyone's wildest expectations, which were already sky-high for such a monumental and unprecedented battle. Neither team led by more than seven all game, but Caleb Love stole the show with 28 points, including a dagger three-pointer over Mark Williams' outstretched hand to give the Heels a four-point lead with under 30 seconds remaining.
UNC looked poised to join 1985 Villanova as only the second 8-seed to ever win the national championship, but Kansas roared back from a 15-point halftime deficit (the largest ever overcome in a title game) to rip the title away. Love got a decent look at the buzzer to tie, but it fell just short.