UNC basketball looks to add Baylor to list of No. 1 seeds it’s upset in NCAA tournament
North Carolina coach Hubert Davis tells a lot of stories from his experiences as a player and assistant coach at UNC. But as of Friday afternoon, he hadn’t told them one of the tales directly relevant to the task the Tar Heels face Saturday.
This year marks the fifth time Carolina has made the NCAA tournament as an eight seed.
The first time was in the 1990 NCAA Tournament. Davis was a sophomore on a team that upset No. 1 seed Oklahoma, when forward Rick Fox banked in a shot at the buzzer.
The Heels get another crack at knocking off a No. 1 seed when they face Baylor in the second round at 12:10 p.m. in Dickies Arena.
“I remember playing Oklahoma, not only were they the No. 1 seed, they were the No. 1 team in the country playing in Austin, Texas,” Davis said. “And the other thing that I remember is the play where Rick Fox hit the shot, the play was actually for me.”
Davis, who was just 1-for-2 from the floor in 13 minutes in the game, said he didn’t want to be the one to take the shot and coach Dean Smith could tell. As the team broke the huddle, Smith gathered them back and told Fox, who led the Heels with 23 points, to take the shot.
Although Davis didn’t have confidence to take it himself, he did say as a team Carolina wasn’t intimidated by playing the No. 1 seed. Davis said the team bought into Smith’s process of preparing and that would put them in a position to win.
That’s what Davis has tried to pass on to the current roster.
“We bought into that we really believed in that and playing the ACC we were pretty successful,” Davis said. “We felt confident that we could beat anybody in the country. And at that time, it was Oklahoma.”
Carolina didn’t get the chance to meet Baylor as a No. 1 seed last season because No. 9 seed Wisconsin bounced the Heels from the tournament with an 85-62 win.
Junior forward Armando Bacot knew about the Oklahoma game last year when former coach Roy Williams mentioned it before their tournament appearance.
“He was just telling us that it’s been done before and it’s something that can happen,” Bacot said.
It actually has happened twice. In 2000, the Heels rode its upset of No. 1 seed Stanford in the second round all the way to the Final Four as an eight seed.
That team, and coach Bill Guthridge, took its share of criticism during the regular season for underachieving. Jason Capel, who was a starting forward in 2000, said the team bonded over trying to win for him.
“There was no fear, we were very confident in who we could be and what we could do,” said Capel, who is currently an assistant coach at Pittsburgh. “Whether you’re an eight seed, ninth seed or whatever, North Carolina is still across your chest. And so there’s an expectation that, even if no one else has for you, you have. For yourself and for the people that came before you.”
Phil Ford was an assistant coach for Carolina on both of the No. 8 seeds that upset No. 1s. Ford said the common thread in both of those wins was the feeling of confidence the teams had.
Ford said Smith’s teams tended to improve as the season progressed, which is why they weren’t limited to being defined by the body of work that earned them an eight seed. He sees the same thing from the current roster.
“This team has gotten better as the year went on,” Ford said. “As a coach and as a player and as a squad, that’s all you can ask for and that’s what we’ve done.”
And that’s why Carolina has the confidence to beat Baylor.
“Throughout the year, I just have felt us becoming closer together,” Davis said. “And I think that is a huge reason why, us as a team, feel really confident about who we are and what we need to do out there on the floor.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 10:10 PM with the headline "UNC basketball looks to add Baylor to list of No. 1 seeds it’s upset in NCAA tournament."