"And we really felt like we had a chance to win the national championship and we came up short. It was the best team I ever played with," Davis recalled Sunday. "Prior to us winning the national championship in 2017, from 1991 to 2017, I had watched that game at least once every year. Kansas later lost to Duke in the title game. After his own college career, and more than a decade spent in the NBA, Davis returned to North Carolina as Williams' assistant, then was picked to take over the Tar Heels when the Hall of Fame coach retired last spring.ĭavis ruefully remembers playing against Williams and the Jayhawks in the 1991 national semifinals, when he went 9 of 16 from the field and scored 25 points in a losing effort. So is his North Carolina counterpart, Hubert Davis, who also played for Smith in the late 1980s and early '90s. "So I'm very proud to be a part of this game," Self said. It turned out to be Larry Brown, who two decades earlier had played for Smith and the Tar Heels before embarking on his own coaching career as an assistant in Chapel Hill. He was just an eager young college student trying to make a buck as a camp counselor at Kansas in the early 1980s when he caught the eyes of the Jayhawks' coach. "But to play a Carolina program that's intertwined with Kansas history, in large part because Coach Smith played at Kansas and won a national championship in '52 and then he goes on and is thought to be as good a basketball coach that's ever coached the sport over a period of time - I think that's special. "Both teams are as blue as you can get when you talk about bluebloods," said Kansas coach Bill Self, whose Jayhawks are chasing a third national championship. On and on it goes, the ties binding two of college basketball's bluebloods forming a rich tapestry over time, and another layer to come Monday night when the schools square off for the national championship at the Superdome. And one of his disciples, that dadgum Roy Williams, would not only lead the Jayhawks to four Final Fours but the Tar Heels to three titles of his own. Smith would become a Tar Heels' legend during his tenure in Chapel Hill, leading North Carolina to a pair of national championships. He eventually took over as head coach at Kansas where one of his players, a young man named Dean Smith, helped deliver him a national championship before beginning his own coaching career at North Carolina. One of the assistant coaches and disciples of Naismith was Forrest "Phog" Allen. Naismith himself founded the basketball program at the University of Kansas, becoming its first ever head coach. The story of basketball begins with its invention by James Naismith who reportedly tacked up peach baskets at created the game at a YMCA in Massachusetts. In fact, you can't really tell the story of basketball without Kansas and North Carolina. Steve Fisher accomplished that task at Michigan in the 1988-89 season. Coach Hubert Davis is looking to be the second coach to ever win a men's basketball national title in their first year as a head coach. ![]() In addition, Williams' hand-picked protégé-who played basketball under Dean Smith-is now at the helm of the UNC basketball program. In 2003, Williams returned to his own alma mater and led the Tar Heels back to basketball dominance with five Final Fours and three national championships. Williams made his name as an assistant coach under Dean Smith at UNC, but he then went out on his own as head coach at Smith's alma mater: the University of Kansas. WATCH: Coach K arrives back in Durham and heads into retirement after tough loss to UNC The Heels were an 8 seed that just weeks before the tournament were not even assured a berth into the big dance.īut now-after beating their archrival twice, last year's defending champions and this year's biggest Cinderella story-North Carolina can nearly taste its seventh national championship.įor all that was made this year of Coach Mike Krzyzewski's retirement tour, the championship game is a sort of retirement party for Roy Williams, who retired as UNC head coach on April 1, 2021. ![]() UNC came into the NCAA tournament with few expectations. The North Carolina Tar Heels and first year head coach Hubert Davis look to continue their hot streak and win one more big game.
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