UNC Football Catch-All Thread 2024 Season | End of Mack Brown 2.0, Bowl in Boston Dec 28

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2016 was brutal because our loss came on a last-second shot, but thinking back our 1984 NCAA Tourney loss was probably the worst for me. I was only in high school, but even then I could tell that Jordan was a special player, and Sam Perkins may be my all-time favorite UNC player, and watching that team play was special. Kenny Smith was having a fantastic freshman year until that f*#@ LSU player made that ridiculously hard foul that broke his wrist, and he just wasn't the same for the rest of the season. That loss to Indiana was brutal - I hated Bobby Knight even then - and knowing that I'd never see Perkins play for UNC again and likely Jordan as well (and he did leave for the NBA draft, as he should have) was crushing.

An underrated tough loss came in 1987 - Kenny Smith's final season, JR Reid had a great freshman year, and that was a great team nearly all year long - and they were upset in the Elite Eight by Syracuse, Boeheim the nose-picker, and freaking Rony Seikaly.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
2016 was brutal because our loss came on a last-second shot, but thinking back our 1984 NCAA Tourney loss was probably the worst for me. I was only in high school, but even then I could tell that Jordan was a special player, and Sam Perkins may be my all-time favorite UNC player, and watching that team play was special. Kenny Smith was having a fantastic freshman year until that f*#@ LSU player made that ridiculously hard foul that broke his wrist, and he just wasn't the same for the rest of the season. That loss to Indiana was brutal - I hated Bobby Knight even then - and knowing that I'd never see Perkins play for UNC again and likely Jordan as well (and he did leave for the NBA draft, as he should have) was crushing.

An underrated tough loss came in 1987 - Kenny Smith's final season, JR Reid had a great freshman year, and that was a great team nearly all year long - and they were upset in the Elite Eight by Syracuse, Boeheim the nose-picker, and freaking Rony Seikaly.
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So unfortunate that Lebo fell ill right before the game. I think we would've won if he had been healthy.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
An underrated tough loss came in 1987 - Kenny Smith's final season, JR Reid had a great freshman year, and that was a great team nearly all year long - and they were upset in the Elite Eight by Syracuse, Boeheim the nose-picker, and freaking Rony Seikaly.
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Agree on this one. My junior year at Carolina. I thought we'd be in the FF every year I was there, but we never made it. JR was a monster his freshman year. The loss in 98 was the worst to me b/c we damn well would've beaten UK in the finals, which would've given all time bragging rights on par with the wins over Duke in 22. Plus it was the first post-Dean season, winning a championship would've vindicated his "I wanted to leave with the cupboard full" retirement rationale, so a championship that year would've extra special on several levels.

Plus we were the best team that year, I thought, by a pretty good margin, although that has certainly been true in other non-championship years (certainly that's one of the reasons many folks rank 84 as the worst tourny loss, but it was also true in 87 and frankly many other years).

Bottom line is you don't get many opportunities to take out your biggest rival for all time greatest college hoops program in the national championship game and that's exactly the opportunity we had in 98 and we would've accomplished it for all time bragging rights. Championships come and go, it's always painful losing in the FF or championship game, but the stakes were higher in 98 than just a championship.

Every Carolina fan (and I suspect player) knows the 2017 championship was made all the sweeter by daggering UK in the Elite 8 to get to the FF. You have to be a Carolina, UK, Kansas or Duke fan to understand that level of extra sweetness to particular tourny wins. Well, maybe not to understand it, but to really feel it. That's what 1998 should've been. Alas...
 
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