2008–09 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball | |
---|---|
ACC Regular Season Champions
|
|
Conference | Atlantic Coast Conference |
Ranking | |
Coaches | No. 1 |
AP | No. 2 |
2008–09 record | 34–4 (13–3 ACC) |
Head coach | Roy Williams |
Assistant coach | Joe Holladay |
Assistant coach | Steve Robinson |
Assistant coach | Jerod Haase |
Home arena | Dean Smith Center |
2008–09 ACC men's basketball standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team | W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
#2 North Carolina | 13 | – | 3 | .813 | 34 | – | 4 | .895 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
#6 Duke† | 11 | – | 5 | .688 | 30 | – | 7 | .811 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
#12 Wake Forest | 11 | – | 5 | .688 | 24 | – | 7 | .774 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
#16 Florida State | 10 | – | 6 | .625 | 25 | – | 10 | .714 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
#24 Clemson | 9 | – | 7 | .563 | 23 | – | 9 | .719 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Boston College | 9 | – | 7 | .563 | 22 | – | 12 | .647 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Maryland | 7 | – | 9 | .438 | 21 | – | 14 | .600 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Virginia Tech | 7 | – | 9 | .438 | 19 | – | 15 | .559 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Miami (FL) | 7 | – | 9 | .438 | 19 | – | 13 | .594 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
North Carolina State | 6 | – | 10 | .375 | 16 | – | 14 | .533 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Virginia | 4 | – | 12 | .250 | 10 | – | 18 | .357 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Georgia Tech | 2 | – | 14 | .125 | 12 | – | 19 | .387 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
† ACC Tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll |
The 2008–09 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Head Coach was Roy Williams. The team played its home games in the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team won the 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, the fifth NCAA national title in school history.
The Tar Heels were a trendy pick to win the National Championship that year, primarily because Wayne Ellington, Danny Green and Ty Lawson decided to withdraw from the 2008 NBA Draft, and consensus national Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough never declared for that draft. In addition, the players had been embarrassed in the previous season's Final Four by Kansas, and they were motivated to atone for that poor performance. In the preseason ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll the Tar Heels were ranked #1. They were the first unanimous preseason #1 ranking in the history of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. UNC also received the first unanimous preseason #1 ranking in the history of the Associated Press Poll.
Sources:
The Tar Heels rolled through the nonconference schedule, along the way winning the Maui Invitational for the third time. They sputtered out of the gate to start ACC play, dropping their first two conference games to Boston College and Wake Forest. However, they recovered to reel off 10 straight conference wins, including a 101–87 thrashing of rival Duke. Their only relatively close games during this stretch came against the ACC's two Florida teams—most notably against Florida State, in which they escaped with a Ty Lawson buzzer-beater.