UNC, ACC retain Final Four mojo
Coach Williams cuts down the net after the NCAA Elite Eight game at the FedExForum in Memphis, TN, Sunday March 29, 2009. Heels beat Sooners 72 to 60 to move on to the Final Four in Detroit. Photo by Todd Melet
Apr 1, 2009
Thanks to Roy Williams and his Tar Heels, while the ACC suffered another collective meltdown in NCAA competition, it did not lose its Final Four mojo.
UNC is the only ACC team to reach the Final Four in the past five seasons, single-handedly extending the conference’s record as the most persistent participant in the NCAA semifinals. The ACC has now placed 20 teams in the Final Four since 1990. Sixteen of those squads came from North Carolina and next-door neighbor Duke, more than any entire conference. Except the ACC, of course.
Duke and UNC captured five national championships since 1990. The Blue Devils won in 1991, 1992, and 2001, and the Tar Heels in 1993 and 2005. That total matches the high for any league other than the ACC. Maryland won in 2002, giving the ACC six champions in the past 18 seasons.
The SEC has five modern titles -- two by Florida, two by Kentucky, and one by Arkansas -- but no team in the Final Four for the second consecutive year.
LEAGUELY SPEAKING
Final Four Appearances, Titles By League Since 1990
League Total 2000-09 1990-99 Titles
ACC 20 9 11 6
Big East 7 5 2 3
Big 10 14 8 6 1
Big 12 9 6 3 1
Pac-10 8 4 4 2
SEC 12 4 8 5
North Carolina’s appearance in the 2009 Final Four will be its fourth during the decade, its ninth trip over the past two decades. That’s more than any other school in the country over that period. That’s equal to the number of berths earned since 1990 by the entire Big 12. That’s more than the total entrants from the Pac-10 (8) or the Big East (7) over those 20 years.
The Final Four appearance for Carolina is its 18th, most by any school in history. (UCLA’s trip in 1980 was vacated due to NCAA rules violations involving program sugar daddy Sam Gilbert, leaving it with 17 recognized Final Four slots.)
Over the 35 years since 1975, when the NCAA tournament began inviting multiple entrants from the same league, the ACC has provided 30 Final Four teams. That easily surpasses any other conference if you count teams that competed in a league at the time they reached the Final Four.
The Big East, which has two Final Four entrants this year, added Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette in 2006. Those schools came aboard with 16 Final Four appearances between them.
Having a pair of teams in the Final Four is less rare than it seems. This is eighth time just since 2000 that a league placed two teams in the national semifinals. Three of those seven most recent pairs produced the champion – the Big 10 in 2000 (Michigan State), the ACC in 2001 (Duke), and the SEC in 2006 (Florida).
This is the second season in a row the Tar Heels reached the Final Four, and only the seventh time an ACC squad appeared in two or more consecutive Final Fours.
Nationally, 11 programs have sent teams to the national semifinals for at least three straight years, including UNC from 1967 through 1969 under Dean Smith, Roy Williams’ mentor. John Wooden set the standard by taking UCLA to the Final Four for 10 straight seasons (1967-76), emerging with eight titles in that stretch.
The Bruins were the most recent program to make a trio of consecutive Final Four appearances, from 2006 through 2008 under coach Ben Howland.
HAPPY HABIT
Best Runs in Final Four By ACC Program
Streak School Years During Streak
5 Duke 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992*
3 North Carolina 1967, 1968, 1969
2 Duke 1963, 1964
2 North Carolina 1981, 1982
2 North Carolina 1997, 1998
2 Maryland 2001, 2002
2 North Carolina 2008, 2009
* Tied for second-longest in NCAA history with Cincinnati (1959-63)
This year’s Final Four appearance by the Tar Heels is the seventh for Williams, who used the royal “we” to lump together his teams at Kansas (4) and UNC (3) in his postgame comments after defeating Oklahoma on Sunday. The Jayhawks made consecutive visits in 2002 and 2003. That means Williams has taken five squads to the Final Four in eight seasons, a stunning run that roughly approximates the seven trips in nine seasons by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski from 1986 through 1994.
In fact, only Krzyzewski (10), North Carolina’s Smith (11), and UCLA’s Wooden (12) have taken squads to the Final Four more frequently than Ol’ Roy.
