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North Carolina Tar Heels: Top Five Dean Smith Teams (w/ video)

By Daniel Tran

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1. 1981-82

There can be no other choice than the 1982-83 Tar Heel team to be the best team that Dean Smith has ever coached. When you have two of the greatest players of all time on your team, it is going to get some recognition.

Let’s start with the players. Sophomore Sam Perkins was having a great year on his way to a consensus Second-team All-American selection averaging 14.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Then there was a skinny, 6’6 shooting guard named Michael Jordan that was showing a knack of making buckets as a freshman, and then there was campus big shot James Worthy who would be selected to the All-American First-team averaging 15.6 points and 6.3 rebounds.

They might not have been the best offensive team that Dean Smith has ever coached, but they could sure explode when needed. Ranked second in SRS at 20.17 and third in strength of schedule in the country, North Carolina rode a stingy defense that only gave up 55.4 points per game to 32 wins and a win percentage of 94.1 percent; a career-best for Smith.

They never fell past No. 2 in the national ranking and entered the NCAA tournament as regular season ACC Champions, ACC Tournament Champions, and a No. 1 seed. They reached the Final Four, where they beat a tough Houston team to earn the right face Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas in the National Championship game.

By now, Smith had a reputation for making it deep in the tournament, but never sealing the deal with a National Championship. However, thanks to a 28-point game from Worthy and a game winning shot by Michael Jordan, Smith would get his first National Championship Title of his career.

Next: Busting Brackets Podcast February 9, 2014

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