Season: 2002-2003
Record: 19-16 overall, 6-10 ACC(6th place tie)
ACC Tournament: Beat Maryland in the quarterfinals, lost to Duke in the semifinals.
NIT: Beat DePaul and Wyoming; Lost to Georgetown
Roster: Raymond Felton, Damion Grant, Jonathan Holmes, Will Johnson, Jackie Manuel, Sean May, Rashad McCants, Phillip McLamb, Jonathan Miller, David Noel, Damien Price, Byron Sanders, Melvin Scott, Jawad Williams.
Source: UNC Media Guide
Yeah, it was pretty obvious that the two teams which did not make the NCAA Tournament would be at the bottom of this countdown.
Following the shock of 8-20, UNC opened the next season with a glimmer of young hope. A highly touted freshman class joined Jackie Manuel, Jawad Williams and Melvin Scott in what was seen as the beginning of the rise from the ashes. Adam Boone and Brian Morrison had transferred from the program in what was later seen as a sign of trouble under Matt Doherty. Jason Capel and Kris Lang, carrying much of the blame from fans for the 8-20 debacle had graduated leaving a team in place that many assumed would restore UNC to glory. And they were correct, it just would take two years and a coaching change to get there.
Unlike the traumatic experience which was the 2002 season, 2003 had some actual highlights. UNC won the preseason NIT and beat #2 Kansas coached by the man who would be running the program a year later. It also included beating Duke in Chapel Hill to end the season which was marred by Doherty almost coming to blows with Chris Collins in front of the Duke bench. Not that many would have minded seeing Collins laid out, it was also another sign of the times under Doherty leading to eventual player revolt and Dick Baddour cutting his losses and asking Doherty to please go away.
As much as this season will be remembered more for what happened after it ended than during, there stands a great “what if” in the form of Sean May’s broken ankle. Roy himself has said that had May not broken his ankle prior to ACC play then Doherty holds onto his job because it is assumed UNC would have gotten back to the NCAA Tournament and winning cures a multitude of ills, including criticisms that the coach was a screaming banshee. I am not so sure that would have been the case. While UNC did win the NIT to start the season, they also dropped games Illinois and Kentucky followed by an inexplicable loss to Iona. The team was young and largely inconsistent with the personality conflicts between coach and player becoming more of an issue the longer the season went on.
If May continued to play it is possible UNC ends up 9-7 instead of 6-10 in the ACC securing some kind of NCAA berth. Then again I am convinced the off the court circus was going to explode anyway, May’s bad break leading to the 19-16 season merely precipitated it sooner rather than later. As it turned out, Roy came in at just the right time and two years later all was right with the world in Chapel Hill.
Countdown So Far:
#27. 2002
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Personally, I found this season more disappointing than the 8-20 season. In the 8-20 season, we didn’t have any good players (with the loss of Forte/Curry/Peppers), so the expectations were low in my book. When McCants/Felton/May came in, I got excited again, but we obviously had no inside game when May got hurt.
I believe THF is right about Doherty being forced out. The truth is, Doh lost 2 teams in 3 years, because the 2000-01 team fell apart at the end of that season. When it happened again at the end of 02-03, UNC had seen enough.
Thanks for doing this. A minor quibble. I think Sean May broke his metatarsal, which I think means basically his foot. Indeed, I think one of the reasons that him and his family were upset with Doherty was that he felt that he was pressured to return for Round 2 of the ACC tourney against Duke.
I agree completely with your ranking of this team but let’s not forget how incredible that Kansas win seemed at the time. It really marked our return back to prominence as we really crushed a good team. Of course, that true return was not to come until Doherty was finally let go, but still it seemed things were on the mend.
As a matter of fact if I were to rank our top non-conference regular season wins during the years that you are going by, I’d go:
1) 2002-3 Kansas
2) 1988-89 Syracuse (Tip off classic with out JR Reid and revenge for the year before)
3) 1981-82 Kentucky (1 vs. 2)
4) 2005-2006 Kentucky, a young team blows out Kentucky in Rupp.
5) 2003-2004 UConn (beat the eventual national champ and #1 team)
Probably too shaded to recent years, might also consider James Madison 89-90, Kentucky 90-91, and Arizona in 07-08.
That is also a lot of pressure for such a young team. Three freshman and four sophomores saddled with the expectations of restoring the UNC legacy? Tough task in 2003 but in 2005 not a problem.
One thing I really did not touch on is how much 2003 really fed into making 2005 possible. These guys were motivated to overcome one of the worst periods in UNC history and it really made them battle tested.
Ed is right. It was his metatarsal (3rd, I believe).
I went to Chapel Hill to see the first two games that year (Davidson/Iona) the Heels played and I remember what a stud McCants was. He was exciting to watch and he only a Freshman.
One more thought about that season. Though it was obviously a drag to play in the NIT, the crowds for those games were amazing. It was general admission and it the G’town and Wyoming games were among the loudest non-Duke crowds I have ever heard there.
IIRC, UNC beat at least 4 top-10 teams that season: Kansas, Duke, UMd, and UConn. That’s indicative of a turnaround, if you ask me. Personally, I think the fix was in long before the ‘Heels didn’t make the NCAAT, and Doherty was already a dead man walking by mid-season. Dean never wanted Doherty for a job he was ultimately not ready for–which only helped to fulfill the prophecy that he wasn’t ready for it, even though Doherty had to coach Guthridge’s poor recruiting classes–and was probably working Roy–who didn’t like the new AD at Kansas anyway–to ride in on his white horse. (Hope my freshman comp prof never reads that last sentence.)
The seasons between Dean leaving and Roy returning are difficult for me to make peace with, not because back-to-back teams missed the NCAAT and broke every streak save Clemson in Chapel Hill, but because they showed how dysfunctional the “Carolina Family” could be.