The 2021-22 college basketball season among best ever for UNC, Duke and NC State
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The power of ACC basketball
UNC’s win over Duke, and NCAA tournament championship appearance, along with the NC State women’s Elite 8 run, capped a historic and memorable season — one of the Triangle’s best ever. ACC basketball had it rough this year, but these appearances played a part in renewing faith in it. Here’s a closer look at how the league turned a “down year” into something spectacular halfway through March.
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North Carolina won the big one, sending Duke home, ending Mike Krzyzewski’s career — and word has it Chapel Hill was still standing Sunday morning.
For the Tar Heels, there was still the Big One to be played: the national championship game Monday against Kansas.
The Tar Heels’ 81-77 win over Duke, which gave Hubert Davis a chance at a title in his first year as head coach, helped cap off what has been one of the best, memorable and most historic college basketball seasons ever in the Triangle.
Best ever? It might not quite fit that label but surely one of the best.
The case for 2021-22
We all knew it might be, didn’t we? From the moment Krzyzewski announced he would retire after this season, making his 42nd season his last ride, there was that feel to it, that anticipation.
Think of all that unfolded.
UNC had early struggles — Davis even saying after a loss to Wake Forest that the Demon Deacons had better players — an honest but deep cut from the coach. But here the Tar Heels were, at their best, in the national title game, where they lost to Kansas, 72-69.
“Our belief all year was that we could get to this point,” UNC’s Armando Bacot said Saturday.
Coach K did a masterful job of coaching, again, with the Blue Devils. Losing his last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, to North Carolina, stung greatly but the Blue Devils finished first in the ACC in the regular season. Losing to Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament final stung again, but the Blue Devils were better and won bigger games in the NCAA tournament.
UNC and Duke had never faced off in an NCAA tournament of Final Four, a basketball anomaly. Came close, but never had the ultimate showdown. Now they have, and the Tar Heels are 1-0 after winning their battle of New Orleans.
It was a season unlike any other, its stories to be told and retold. The N.C. State men missed out, hitting a low point this season.
But the Wolfpack women’s team had Pack fans cheering a third consecutive ACC championship and a talented, seasoned team that appeared capable of winning it all.
Losing to UConn in the regional final, in Connecticut, before a mostly UConn crowd, ended their hopes and left some Wolfpack fans bitter about the NCAA, again. But the double-overtime game, the Pack with the ball and a chance to win at the end of regulation, then hitting a 3-pointer to force the second OT, was a thriller and a boost for women’s basketball.
“What a legacy they have now ... with all the effort and heart you could ask for,” Wolfpack coach Wes Moore said of his team.
UNC’s women’s team reached the round of 16 in the Greensboro Region. Top-seeded South Carolina was waiting, but the Tar Heels made a game of it before losing and left Greensboro believing better things lie ahead in the coming years.
How does the season compare to others?
The case for 1997-98
In 1997-98, Dean Smith announced just before the season he was ending his Hall of Fame career at UNC. Unlike Krzyzewski, Smith simply walked away, turning the program over to longtime assistant Bill Guthridge.
Duke was Duke and neither the Tar Heels nor Blue Devils was ranked lower than fourth all season in the AP poll. UNC, ranked No. 1, reached the Final Four in San Antonio and Duke could have been there, too, had the Blue Devils not had a 17-point second-half lead evaporate and lose to Kentucky in the regional finals.
There would be no national title for UNC. A loss to Utah in the 1998 semifinals ended the Tar Heels’ season, but UNC was 34-4.
In women’s basketball, the late Kay Yow led N.C. State to the 1998 Final Four, beating Old Dominion and UConn to get there. UNC lost to powerhouse Tennessee and Duke to Arkansas in regional finals. It could have been a Triangle threesome at the Final Four in Kansas City.
What about in the 80s?
But it’s all subjective. UNC won the 1982 national title, Smith’s first, and N.C. State did so as well in 1983 with the late Jim Valvano. Had UNC not been upset by Georgia in a regional final in ‘83, the Tar Heels would have played the Pack in the Final Four and the buildup to that version of basketball Armageddon a close match to this past week in New Orleans.
How about 1986? Duke reached the national title game, N.C. State the Elite Eight and UNC was ranked No. 1 much of the season, just ahead of Duke. It was Smith, Valvano and Krzyzewski at their best.
Or the early 90s?
Then there was 1991, when the Blue Devils and Tar Heels both made it to the Final Four for the first time. Roy Williams and Kansas ended UNC’s season in the semifinals, preventing a Duke-Carolina national championship game, as the Blue Devils won their first title under Coach K.
Williams’ first national championship ended a special season. It came in 2005 at UNC, after the Tar Heels and N.C. State both reached the Sweet 16 in the Syracuse Regional, Wisconsin beating the Pack to prevent a State-Carolina matchup in the Carrier Dome.
Duke, also a No. 1 seed, was ousted by Michigan State in their regional. Had the Blue Devils advanced it would have been Duke-Carolina in the Final Four semifinals in St. Louis, but it was not to be.
The Duke and UNC women both lost in 2005 regional finals and N.C. State made another NCAA trip. Overall, it was a very good basketball season.
Williams and Tar Heels won it all again in 2009 and Coach K and the Blue Devils in 2010. The Blue Devils won in 2015 and the Tar Heels in 2017. During that time, N.C. State made Sweet 16 appearances in 2012 and 2015, upsetting No. 1 seed Villanova in 2015.
It’s hard to pick and choose. But 2021-22 ranks up there, high-arcing like a Caleb Love 3-pointer.
“It’s been a joy,” Krzyzewski said Saturday, speaking about his final season but also summing up a special season for the Triangle. “It’s been a heckuva year.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
