Hoyas-Heels rematch rekindles memories
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – In the photo, a black-and-white relic hanging in Matt Doherty’s office, four men linger in a Louisiana Superdome holding area.
North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, cigarette in hand, stares at the floor. Two seated players, James Worthy and Jimmy Black, do likewise. Tar Heels sports information director Rick Brewer checks his watch.
It appears to depict the solemn epilogue to a crushing loss. Then you look closer. The frayed remains of a net, around Worthy’s neck, provide the only evidence the Tar Heels had won the 1982 NCAA tournament 63-62 against Georgetown in what remains one of the greatest championship games of all time.
“Just the reflection, the wear and tear, the postbattle decompression that they were going through – it was really kind of telling,” said Doherty, then a North Carolina player, now the head coach at Southern Methodist after short tenures at Notre Dame, North Carolina and Florida Atlantic.
It has been 25 years since a North Carolina freshman referred to as Mike Jordan hit an iconic go-ahead jumper, a quarter-century since Georgetown’s Fred Brown fatefully passed to Worthy on the next possession.
It happens that the Hoyas and Tar Heels meet again today in the NCAA tournament’s East Region final, dredging up memories that are simultaneously rich and basically irrelevant.
“When you’re talking about most memorable national championship games, you don’t go very far before you get to that one, so I agree that it has a meaning,” said North Carolina coach Roy Williams, an assistant in ‘82. “But most of my guys think Michael (Jordan) invented the game.”
Nothing and everything has changed since. On the one hand, Patrick Ewing, a freshman in ‘82 and father of the current Hoyas forward, lingered Friday night and half-jokingly implored the current team to exact some revenge.
On the other hand, Georgetown’s warmups bear the Jordan brand logo.
“That is kind of funny,” Hoyas junior Jeff Green said. “It is weird, he’s the guy who beat Georgetown in ‘82, and we’re wearing his gear.”
Actually, North Carolina and Georgetown met in the NCAA tournament before this go-round, with the Tar Heels winning a regional semifinal in 1995.
Still, the names, timing and stakes make the story line too enticing to dismiss. There is Williams, then a lieutenant, now the Tar Heels’ chief. John Thompson III was a 16-year-old son of the Georgetown coach in ‘82; he now has directed the Hoyas to their first Elite Eight in 11 years.
The 25-year anniversary, with a Final Four berth on the line, shadows cast by names such as Jordan, Ewing, Worthy, Perkins, Floyd – it’s all agreeable fluff.
“I know from where I sit – I don’t know whether Carolina people agree with it – I think our programs are almost like cousins,” Thompson III said. “There’s a lot of connections, going back to Pop’s relationship with Coach Smith.
“But at the end of the day, both teams are going to go out there and – whether there’s a connection, an affinity for each other – we’re going to try to win.”
“We’re both pretty successful teams right now,” said Hoyas forward Patrick Ewing, Jr., the son of the three-time All-American. “But that was 25 years ago. There’s not really that much you can say is the same.”