North Carolina Tar Heels
From Hoopedia
| North Carolina Tar Heels |
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| League: NCAA |
| Conference: ACC |
| Division: NCAA Division I |
| Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
| Home Court: Dean Smith Center |
| Team Colors: Carolina Blue and White |
| Nickname: Tar Heels |
| Mascot: Rameses the Ram |
| Head Coach: Roy Williams |
| NCAA Championships: 4 (1957, 1982, 1993, 2005) |
| Conference Championships: 16 |
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public, coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. They are the 2005 Division I Men's Champions. Also known as The University of North Carolina, Carolina, North Carolina, or simply UNC, the university is the oldest institution in the University of North Carolina System. Although not the first public university to be chartered, it was the first to open to students, and the only public university in America to graduate students in the eighteenth century. Nearly 17,000 undergraduates are enrolled at Chapel Hill.
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UNC participates in the NCAA's Division I and in the Atlantic Coast Conference. UNC was a member of the Southern Conference from the founding of that conference in 1921 through 1953. In 1953, UNC split off from the Southern Conference and became a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The school's sports teams are called the Tar Heels, and the mascot is Rameses the Ram. The name Tar Heel is also often used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the Tar Heel State. Team colors are Carolina blue and white.
The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, usually called simply the Dean Smith Center and popularly referred to as the Dean Dome is a multi-purpose arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is home to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team. The arena opened in 1986. Seating capacity is 21,750, making it the fifth largest arena in college basketball. The largest crowd to see a game in the Dean Dome was on March 6, 2005, when 22,125 saw the Tar Heels defeat Duke.
It is named after former UNC coach Dean Smith, who coached at UNC from 1961 to 1997. David Halberstam's writes in Playing for Keeps, his biography of Michael Jordan, that Smith did not want the arena named after him, but was persuaded by the UNC administration and the arena's backers that fundraising efforts for the facility could fail if they did not use his name.
UNC's most heated rivalries are with Duke, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest. In recent years, the UNC-Duke basketball series has attracted the most attention. UNC also has a lesser rivalry with Virginia.
Men's Basketball
The University of North Carolina's men's basketball program is among the most prominent and successful college basketball programs in the nation. The Tar Heels have won four NCAA National Championships and 16 ACC Championships. The program is most well-known for its famous alumni, such as Michael Jordan, illustrious coaching history, and a fierce rivalry with the Duke University Blue Devils (a team located only eight miles away in Durham, North Carolina). The rivalry is widely regarded as one of the most intense in all of sports.
On January 21, 2006, UNC became only the second college basketball program to reach 1,900 wins in its history. The University of Kentucky and the University of Kansas are the only other schools to reach this mark.
Team History
The University of North Carolina has a long history as one of the winningest college basketball teams in the United States. UNC began playing basketball with its first game against Virginia Christian College, on January 27, 1910, a 42-21 win for UNC. Since then the Tar Heels have amassed an all-time 1,883-689 (.732) record (through the 2005-2006 season). UNC's 1,883 wins is second all time, behind the University of Kentucky's 1,926 wins.
The 1924 Tar Heels squad was awarded the national championship by the Helms Foundation in 1936. The Helms Foundation named its own college basketball champion for each year from 1936 through 1982. The foundation also retroactively awarded championships from 1901 through 1935. While the 1924 team did go undefeated, it did not play a single opponent from north of the Mason-Dixon Line; indeed, intersectional play would not start on a regular basis for more than a decade.
The Tar Heels won their first NCAA Championship under coach Frank McGuire in 1957. The 1957 championship team was led by Lennie Rosenbluth. Hall of fame head coach Dean Smith coached two NCAA Championship teams for UNC, in 1982 and 1993. The 1982 squad was led by James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and a young Michael Jordan. The 1993 team starred Donald Williams, George Lynch and Eric Montross. Roy Williams, the current head coach of the Tar Heels, won his first NCAA Championship and the fourth for the university in 2005. The 2005 squad was led by Raymond Felton, Sean May, and Rashad McCants.
Awards
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National Player of the Year:
ACC Rookie of the Year:
National Coach of the Year:
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ACC Player of the Year:
ACC Coach of the Year:
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