Carolina Reaches 2000 Wins

With their win last night over the U, North Carolina became the 2nd team in the history of college basketball to reach 2000 wins. This season as a whole may have been a HUGE disappointment, but this milestone goes beyond one bad season. As if the heels needed to add more to their resume as one of the greatest programs in college sports. Kentucky reached the 2000 mark earlier this season, but Sports Jesus did his homework. Kentucky has had a basketball program for 7 more years than Carolina. Boom. Duke has 1852 wins in 4 more seasons than the Tar Heels. UNC's overall winning percentage is like .730. UK and Duke are sitting at a JV .690. In the spirit of this extremely rare and dominant milestone, I've decided to collaborate with some of my Tar Heel friends to compile a top five list of the greatest moments in the history of Carolina basketball so enjoy.

5. Wayne's World
In 2008 Wayne Ellington hit a shot that broke every Clemson fan's heart. Now there have been plenty of awesome buzzer beaters in Carolina basketball history, but I chose this one because it was at Clemson, in overtime, we were down 1, and the reactions were priceless. I also love this play because you know as soon as David Potter missed that steal, every single Clemson fan alive or dead said "Ohhhh fuck." You also have to love the whole Carolina bench hunched over locking arms in anticipation of the shot. College basketball at its finest. The funny part about the video is Roy Williams' reaction. You know he wanted jump up and down screaming then point at Oliver Purnell and say, "maybe next year chump," but he kept it classy and did the classic single clap, then he turned to Holliday for a low profile fist pound. Awesome.


4. The Celebration

In the 2008 ACC tournament, Tyler Hansbrough hit a game winner against Virginia Tech. I love this play because it was just so classic Tyler. He seeked out that rebound like fucking mad man as always then he stuck a dagger in Seth Greenberg's heart. What people don't realize about this shot is the fact that he got fouled. Hard. The video quality isn't great so you can't see it very well, but #10 karate chopped the shit out of Tyler's right arm when he went up for the shot. You can't even notice because he's like 50 times stronger than that guy, but if it were anyone else they wouldn't have even gotten the shot up. Now a game winning 15 footer when the game was tied may not seem like a top 5 moment in Carolina basketball history, but the 3 seconds following the shot puts this moment securely at the number 4 spot. Have you ever seen a more raw and just flat out victorious celebration? I guarantee you he has no recollection of what he did. A highstepping, maniac punching the air is what you get when a crazy person gets a rush of adrenaline. What if people were in his path? The headline would have read "Five Dead and Two Wounded as Crazed Maniac Reacts to Game Winning Shot"


3. Marvelous Marvin

Back in 2005, Marvin Williams hit a ridiculous game winner against Duke. This shot alone is in the top 5, but it made number 3 because Carolina was down 9 with 3 minutes to play. Also, for a freshmen to hit this shot, get fouled, then step up to the stripe like he fucking owned the place and nail the free throw is incredible. This shot is near and dear to my heart because I was there. My hearing hasn't been the same since. I think I high fived 15 people sitting near me. I was so close to jumping off the second level and rushing the court before the game was over.
Just look at the crowd and the team when that shot goes in.



2. Not So Fab 5

The 1993 national championship game between Carolina and Michigan will live forever as one of the most famous endings to a game in basketball history. Both teams had been battling all game, but with 18 seconds left on the clock, Chris Webber was possessed by the aliens from Space Jam causing him to make 3 and a half critical basketball errors in about 10 seconds. First, he clearly walked. I mean come on ref. It was one of the most obvious walks I've ever seen. Second, he decides to take it up the court himself instead of giving it to a guard. Third (this is the half) he may have walked again right before he called time out. Maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt because he fucked up so bad. Just kidding, yeah he walked. Ref! Finally, he made the most famous mistake in the history of college basketball. Down 2 with only seconds left, Webber decides he wants to call a time out to talk it over and draw up a last second play. Uhhh, Chris. Basketball 101 dude. You're not aloud to call time out when you don't have any left. It's an automatic tech. Long story short, C-Webb blew it worse than Bill Buckner in game 6 of the 86' World Series, and Carolina won the championship.



1. Jordan.

In the 1982 national championship game, freshmen Michael Jordan hit the game winning shot against Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas. There's not much else to say about that. What were the chances of him missing that shot? What are the chances of me dunking? I'm talking about beyond mega millions odds.

PS, I wonder who was on suicide watch in Fred Brown's room that night. His face is in the dictionary under the word oops.




Well there you have it. The longest post in blogging history.