North Carolina Tar Heels: the Roy Williams Formula (Sort Of)

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Mar 4, 2017; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams cuts down the net after winning the ACC regular season championship. The Tar Heels defeated the Blue Devils 90-83 at Dean E. Smith Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /

Win the ACC Regular Season

Self-explanatory perhaps, but winning the ACC Regular Season Title usually means fending off the other teams in America’s best basketball conference. The 2005 team lost only to Chris Paul in three overtimes and Duke in Cameron in the league. This was when the league had put Georgia Tech in the national final the year before and Maryland had won the title back in 2002.

North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball /

North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball

The 2009 team lost three games, against Boston College (hi, Jared Dudley), Wake Forest with the wave of good young players, and Maryland in overtime. The league included a Duke team that would win the title the next year and a Clemson team that was ranked tenth when they played the Tar Heels.

2017 lost a few games, but still hung on the ACC Regular Season title by two games over the second place team.

Lose the Second Game of the ACC Tournament

Here too is a similarity. The 2005 team lost to Georgia Tech. The 2009 team lost to Florida State. The 2017 team lost to Duke.

My guess is that losing in the ACC Tournament refocuses a team on what they need to do in the NCAAs. You get slightly more time to rest and you have seen how easily it could all end. By comparison, the 2008 and 2016 teams both won their ACC Tournaments but got tripped up in the Final Four or later.

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