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March Tar Heel History

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March 1, 1957
Lennie Rosenbluth scores 40 points at Duke to cap a perfect 14-0 ACC record. Rosenbluth, the National Player of the Year, sets UNC record averaging 28.0 points for the season.

March 2, 1974
Freshman Walter Davis banks in a 35-footer at the buzzer to send the game to overtime, where the Tar Heels beat Duke, 96-92. Carolina trails the Blue Devils by eight points with 17 seconds to play in regulation, but UNC rallies behind Bobby Jones, who had four points and a steal (Video).

March 2, 2010
Marcus Ginyard registers his first career double-double with 12 points and 12 assists as Carolina beats Miami, 69-62, to become the second school in NCAA history to win its 2,000th game (Video).

March 2, 2019
UNC Baseball coach Mike Fox wins his 900th game at UNC as the Tar Heels beat UMass Lowell, 14-7, at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill.

March 2, 2022
North Carolina softball coach Donna J. Papa records her 1,300th career victory at UNC as the Tar Heels beat Villanova 7-3 in Chapel Hill.

March 2, 2024
RJ Davis becomes the first player in UNC basketball history to compile 1,800 points, 200 three-pointers, 500 rebounds, and 400 assists in a career as the No. 9 Tar Heels beat NC State 79-70 in Chapel Hill.

March 3, 1979
No. 7 Carolina beats No. 5 Duke, 71-63, in ACC Tournament final. Dudley Bradley, the MVP, had 16 points, seven steals and four assists and Mike O’Koren led with 18 points.

March 3, 1984
Playing his final home game, Matt Doherty hits a runner in the lane that ties the game at the end of regulation and the Tar Heels beat Duke in two overtimes, 96-83, to preserve a perfect 14-0 mark in the ACC. Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins, also playing in their Carmichael finales, score 25 apiece and Steve Hale has 13 assists.

March 3, 1996
UNC records its 7th straight win over Duke (84-78) led by Shammond Williams' 26 points and Jeff McInnis' 25 points in Durham

March 3, 2012
Kendall Marshall’s 20 points and 10 assists and double-doubles by Tyler Zeller and John Henson lead UNC to an 88-70 win at Duke to clinch Carolina’s 29th ACC regular-season title.

March 3, 2018
UNC men's lacrosse coach Joe Breschi earns his 200th career coaching win as William Perry's goal with 6.8 seconds to play lifts the 10th-ranked Tar Heels past St. John's 9-8 at Kenan Stadium.

March 4, 1924
Jack Cobb’s 15 points almost single-handedly outscores Alabama in a 26-18 win in the Southern Conference title game. UNC finishes 26-0 and the Helms Foundation later selects Carolina as national champions. Cobb leads all scorers with a single-season school record 353 points.

March 4, 2006
UNC beats No. 1 Duke 83-76 on Senior Night in Durham. The Tar Heels' four freshmen (Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard, Danny Green and Tyler Hansbrough) outscored Duke's four seniors (including first-team All-Americas J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams), 55-51.

March 4, 2007
Duke's Gerald Henderson delivers an elbow to the face of UNC forward Tyler Hansbrough resulting in a bloody broken nose for "Psycho T". Hansbrough left the game but not before scoring 26 points and grabbing 17 rebounds. The No. 8 Tar Heels beat No. 14 Duke, 86-72, to clinch the top seed in the ACC Tournament and complete a season sweep of the Blue Devils.

March 5, 1977
Phil Ford scores 26 and freshman Mike O’Koren adds 21 as Carolina returns the favor from a year before, beating Virginia, 75-69, in the ACC final. Tournament MVP John Kuester handles the ball after Ford fouls out with 5:45 to play and goes 6 for 6 from the line. Ford scores 19 of his 26 in the first half.

March 5, 2011
Legendary "Voice of the Tar Heels" for 40 years, Woody Durham broadcasts his last game in the Smith Center on March 5, 2011 as the Tar Heels beat Duke 81-67.

March 5, 2022
Four UNC players score 20-plus points in the same game for the first time in school history as the Tar Heels knock off No. 4 Duke during Coach K's last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, 94-81. Armando Bacot (23), Caleb Love (22), R.J. Davis (21), and Brady Manek (20).

March 6, 2005
Marvin Williams' three point play with 17 seconds left gives Carolina a 75-73 win over Duke as the Tar Heels clinch first in the ACC regular-season standings outright for the first time since 1993. Sean May has a game-high 26 points and 24 rebounds, the most ever by a player in the Smith Center.

March 7, 1936
Trailing 42-30 with less than 10 minutes to play, the Tar Heels go on a 20-3 run to defeat Washington & Lee, 50-45, to win the Southern Conference Tournament. The game was called the greatest comeback in the history of Southern basketball. Andy Bershak, who won All-America honors in football, scored the go-ahead basket and led UNC with 15 points.

March 7, 1981
UNC overcomes a 36-32 halftime deficit by shooting 63 percent in the second half and beats Maryland, 61-60, in the ACC championship game. James Worthy leads with 19. Jimmy Black’s steal and lay-up give Carolina the lead for good. Sam Perkins becomes the second freshman to earn ACC Tournament MVP honors.

March 7, 1982
Leading 44-43 with 7:34 to play, Carolina spreads the floor and beats the Cavaliers, 47-45, for the ACC championship. Matt Doherty makes three of four free throws in the final 28 seconds to secure the win and the ACC title. James Worthy leads UNC with 16 points.

March 7, 2018
Legendary "Voice of the Tar Heels" Woody Durham passes away at the age of 76. Later that evening, Durham's son Wes Durham calls the game to honor his father in UNC's 78-59 win over Syracuse in the second round of the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn.

March 8, 1969
Charles Scott scores 40 points, 29 in the second half, as Carolina beats Duke, 85-74 in the ACC title game. Scott sets the ACC championship game scoring record and wins MVP honors.

March 8, 1975
Phil Ford becomes the first freshman to win ACC Tournament MVP honors after leading Carolina to the title with a 70-66 victory over defending NCAA champion NC State and David Thompson. The Tar Heels beat Wake Forest, 101-100, in overtime in the quarterfinal after trailing by eight points with 50 seconds to play.

March 8, 1998
Antawn Jamison shakes off a leg injury and earns ACC Tournament MVP honors with 22 points and 18 rebounds. The Tar Heels score the last 15 points in an 83-68 win over top-ranked Duke in the ACC Tournament championship.

March 9, 1957
UNC wins first ACC Tournament title with wins over Clemson, Wake Forest and South Carolina. Rosenbluth has 45 in first round over Tigers and hits three-point play to beat Deacs in semifinals. The 45 points stand today as the ACC Tournament single-game record.

March 9, 1968
Larry Miller (21 points) earns his second ACC Tournament MVP in a row as Carolina beats NC State, 87-50, still the largest margin of victory in ACC championship game history.

March 9, 1997
ACC Tournament MVP Shammond Williams scores 24 in the semifinals vs. Wake Forest and 23 in championship vs. NC State as Carolina wins the ACC Tournament for 13th and final time under Dean Smith.

March 9, 2012
Kendall Marshall sets the ACC single-season assist record (311) by handing out 12 assists in an 85-69 win over Maryland in the ACC Tournament. Marshall finishes the season with 351 assists, fourth-most in NCAA history, and wins the Bob Cousy Award as the best point guard in the nation.

March 9, 2018
Joel Berry sets UNC's record for most ACC career wins (60) as the Tar Heels beat Duke 74-69 in the ACC Tournament semifinals in Brooklyn, New York.

March 10, 1991
Tournament MVP Rick Fox scores 25, Hubert Davis adds 17 and King Rice has seven assists and no turnovers as Carolina routs Duke, 96-74, in the ACC championship game. Duke had won both regular-season games.

March 10, 1995
Michael Jordan retires from his brief career as a minor league baseball player with the Birmingham Barons. Jordan played 127 games as a Double-A outfielder in the White Sox’s farm system–with Terry Francona as his manager, hitting .202 with three home runs, 51 walks, 30 steals, and a .556 OPS.

March 10, 2022
Armando Bacot records his 24th double-double of the season (10 pts, 11 rebs), breaking Brice Johnson's UNC single-season record of 23, in UNC's 63-43 victory over the Virginia Cavaliers in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals in Brooklyn, NY.

March 11, 1967
Carolina had won the ACC regular-season title for the first time under Dean Smith, then beat Duke for the third time, 82-73, to win Smith’s first ACC Tournament crown. MVP Larry Miller had 32 points and Bob Lewis added 26.

March 11, 2007
Brandan Wright becomes the fifth freshman to win ACC Tournament MVP honors after leading UNC to its first ACC title since 1998. Wright had 20 points in the semifinal and 16 in the championship against NC State.

March 11, 2021
Roy Williams earns career win No. 903 to move him past Bob Knight into 3rd place all-time in Division I career coaching victories in an 81-73 win over Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

March 12, 1989
Steve Bucknall’s three point play with 1:46 left breaks a 66-all tie and Tournament MVP J.R. Reid leads with 14 points as UNC beats Duke, 77-74, in Atlanta to win Carolina’s first ACC championship in seven years. The game is one of the most intense in ACC history. UNC holds Duke to 39 percent shooting, including 3 of 23 from three-point range.

March 12, 1994
An ACC Tournament classic as UNC erases five-point deficit late in regulation and beats Wake Forest, 86-84 in overtime. Dante Calabria sends the game to overtime and Jerry Stackhouse wins it. It is Dean Smith’s 800th win.

March 12, 2011
Harrison Barnes scores 40 points, an ACC Tournament record for freshman, to lead the Tar Heels to a 92-87 overtime win over Clemson in the semifinals.

March 12, 2015
Roy Williams earns career win #747, passing legendary Kansas coach Phog Allen to move into 15th place on the NCAA men's basketball all-time career wins list in a 70-60 win over Louisville at the ACC Tournament quarterfinals at the Greensboro Coliseum.

March 12, 2016
Point guard Joel Berry scores 19 points, leading seventh-ranked UNC past fourth-ranked Virginia, 61-57, to give UNC its first ACC Tournament championship since 2008. Berry is named tournament MVP and the Tar Heels are named the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament's East region.

March 13, 1953
On March 13, 1953, UNC-Chapel Hill students Carl Kasell and Charles Kuralt stepped up to the microphone for WUNC’s inaugural FM broadcast. After getting its start as a student-run AM station in the 1940s, the station made its transition to the FM band with future broadcasting greats Kasell and Kuralt.

March 14, 2003
Three weeks after losing by 40 points at Maryland, Carolina upsets the Terps, 84-72, in ACC quarterfinals behind 25 points from Jawad Williams and 20 points, 10 assists from Raymond Felton.

March 14, 2009
Tyler Hansbrough grabs 11 rebounds to pass Sam Perkins as UNC's all-time career rebounds leader in a 73-70 loss to Florida State in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

March 14, 2015
Brice Johnson scores 20 points in a 90-82 loss to Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament championship game to become UNC's 72nd career 1,000-point scorer.

March 15, 1969
Charles Scott hits the game-winning jumper at the buzzer to beat Lefty Driesell's Davidson Wildcats, 87-85, to win NCAA East Regional and advance to their third consecutive Final Four.

March 15, 1997
Dean Smith earns career victory #877, breaking Adolph Rupp's NCAA Division I record of 876 in a 73-56 win over Colorado in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Winston-Salem, NC

March 16, 1918
"Davie Poplar, Jr." was planted next to the original Davie Poplar on UNC's campus on March 16, 1918. The century-old tulip poplar tree is one of UNC's iconic landmarks and served as a backup plan for the aging Davie Poplar that had stood on campus since before the University opened in 1795.

March 16, 1968
Fourth-ranked Tar Heels beat No. 8 Davidson behind regional MVP Rusty Clark to advance to Final Four. Clark has 22 points and 17 rebounds in regional final. Tar Heels beat Ohio State in Final Four, but fall to Lew Alcindor and UCLA, 78-55, for national title in Los Angeles Sports Arena.

March 16, 2012
Kendall Marshall records an ACC-record 16th game with 10+ assists in a 77-58 win over Vermont in the NCAA Tournament

March 16, 2024
RJ Davis passes Justin Jackson for most three-pointers in a single season in UNC history with 106 in the Tar Heels' 84-76 loss to NC State in the ACC Tournament championship game in Washington, DC.

March 17, 1967
Fourth-ranked Carolina beats No. 5 Princeton for Dean Smith’s first NCAA Tournament win. Bob Lewis earns regional MVP honors as UNC beats Boston College the next day to advance to the Final Four, where they lose to Dayton in the national semifinal.

March 17, 1977
Phil Ford hyper-extends his right elbow, but scores 29 points, including the winning free throw with two seconds left in 79-77 win over Notre Dame (on St. Patrick’s Day) in the NCAA East Regional semifinal.

March 17, 1990
Rick Fox banks in the game winner as time expires and eighth-seeded Carolina beats No. 1 ranked and top-seed Oklahoma, 79-77, in the NCAA second round.

March 17, 2016
Roy Williams wins his 66th NCAA Tournament game in an 83-67 win over Florida Gulf Coast, passing his mentor, legendary UNC coach Dean Smith, for second in all-time tournament wins.

March 17, 2022
Armando Bacot sets the single-season UNC rebounding record in UNC's 95-63 win over Marquette in the NCAA Tournament round of 64 in Fort Worth, Texas. His 10 rebounds gave him 422 on season to surpass Brice Johnson's record of 416 set in 2015-16.

March 17, 2023
One day after winning the one-meter at the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, becoming the first Tar Heel diver to win a national title, Aranza Vazquez made it a springboard sweep by claiming the three-meter national title.

March 18, 1972
Second-ranked Carolina beats No. 3 Penn, 73-59, to advance to the Final Four. Dennis Wuycik (18), Bob McAdoo (17) and George Karl (16) lead Carolina past the Quakers. McAdoo declares for the NBA after his junior year, his only year as a Tar Heel, and was selected No. 1 in the NBA Draft.

March 18, 1995
Michael Jordan announces he's coming back to basketball after taking 17 months off to pursue a career in baseball. He played for the Birmingham Barons and Scottsdale Scorpions, but never made it to the majors. Jordan returned to the Bulls in 1995 wearing No. 45 and led them to three straight NBA titles (1996-1998).

March 18, 1995
UNC's T.J. Jaworsky wins his 3rd NCAA Division I wrestling title in Iowa City, becoming the ACC's first 3-time national champion and being named ACC Wrestler of Year.

March 18, 2011
Tyler Zeller scores 32 points, John Henson has 28 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks and Harrison Barnes adds 24 points as UNC beats Long Island, 102-87, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Henson is the first Tar Heel to ever have at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in an NCAA Tournament game.

March 18, 2012
UNC's NCAA title hopes are dashed as Kendall Marshall suffers a broken wrist in an 87-73 win over Creighton in the NCAA Tournament

March 19, 1977
Walter Davis, playing with a broken finger on his shooting hand, scores 21 points as fifth-ranked UNC beats No. 13 Kentucky, 79-72, in College Park, Maryland to reach the Final Four. The Tar Heels run the 4-Corners offense almost the entire second half to compensate for the absence of two injured starters, Phil Ford and Tommy LaGarde.

March 19, 1988
Carolina shoots a school record 79.0 percent from the floor (49 of 62) in 123-97 rout over Loyola Marymount in the NCAA Tournament second round. Ranzino Smith makes 11 of 14 shots en route to 27 points. Carolina has 26 turnovers, 20 more than Loyola, and wins by 26.

March 19, 2000
Joseph Forte scores 17 points and Ed Cota has 10 assists to lead No. 8 seed Carolina to a 60-53 win over top seed Stanford in the NCAA second round.

March 19, 2009
Tyler Hansbrough sinks a free throw in the first half of the NCAA Tournament first round win over Radford, giving him 2,770 points and breaking J.J. Redick’s (Duke) ACC scoring mark. He passed Larry Bird in the national semifinal win over Villanova and finished with 2,872 points, 12th in NCAA history.

March 19, 2022
No. 8 seed UNC gives up a 25-point lead and survives in overtime to defeat No. 1 seed and defending national champion Baylor, 93-86, in Fort Worth, Texas in the NCAA Tournament round of 32. R.J. Davis scored 30 points and Brady Manek scored 26 before being ejected for a dubious Flagrant-2 foul with 10 minutes remaining.

March 20, 2011
Freshman point guard Kendall Marshall hands out 14 assists as Carolina beats Washington, 86-83, to advance to the Sweet 16. The 14 assists are the most ever by a Tar Heel in the NCAA Tournament.

March 20, 2022
Brian Kalbas becomes just the fourth Division I women's tennis coach to win 700 career dual matches as his No. 1-ranked Tar Heels down Boston College, 6-1, in Chapel Hill.

March 21, 1946
57-49 win over NYU in Madison Square Garden is Carolina’s first in the NCAA Tournament. Five days later, Oklahoma A&M beats UNC, 43-40, in NCAA championship game. “Hook” Dillon scores 16 for Tar Heels in title game.

March 21, 1972
Boshamer Stadium, home of the UNC baseball team, opens in 1972 and replaces the multi-use venue Emerson Field. It is named for Cary C. Boshamer (class of 1917), a textile industrialist from Gastonia whose donation made the new stadium possible.

March 21, 1987
No. 2 ranked Carolina is upset by No. 10 Syracuse, 79-75, in the NCAA East Regional final. Rony Seikaly leads the Orange with 26 points. Kenny Smith has 25 points and seven assists in his final game as a Tar Heel.

March 21, 2015
Marcus Paige scores 20 of his team-high 22 points in the second half as UNC beats Arkansas 87-78 in Jacksonville, Florida to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. With the win, Roy Williams secures his 65th NCAA Tournament victory, tying Dean Smith for second-most all-time. It is also career win #750 for Williams.

March 22, 1957
Pete Brennan sends national semifinal vs. Michigan State into second overtime with four seconds left and UNC wins, 74-70 in triple overtime. Lennie Rosenbluth (31) and Bob Cunningham (19) lead the Tar Heels.

March 22, 2013
P.J. Hairston scores a game-high 23 points and UNC defeats Villanova, 78-71, in the NCAA Tournament round of 64. It’s the 23rd straight NCAA Tournament that a Roy Williams-coached team has advanced past their opening game. The win is also the 700th of Williams’s career.

March 23, 1957
No. 1 Carolina beats No. 2 Kansas, 54-53, in another triple overtime classic. Tommy Kearns jumps center against 7-0 All-America center Wilt Chamberlain. Lennie Rosenbluth scores 20, but fouls out in regulation. UNC center Joe Quigg hits the winning free throws with six seconds left in the third OT and Carolina caps perfect 32-0 season as national champions.

March 23, 1997
Shammond Williams scores 22 and Vince Carter adds 18 as Carolina beats Louisville, 97-74, to send Dean Smith to his 11th Final Four. Smith would coach his final game, a 66-58 loss to Arizona, in Indianapolis on March 29, 1997.

March 23, 2008
Tyler Hansbrough breaks Christian Laettner’s ACC record for career free throws against Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament second round in Raleigh. Hansbrough set the UNC record on Feb. 3 at Florida State.

March 24, 1991
NCAA East Regional MVP Rick Fox and Hubert Davis each score 19 points as Carolina holds off Temple, 75-72, to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 1982.

March 25, 1995
No. 4 Carolina beats No. 2 Kentucky, 74-61, in Birmingham to advance to Final Four. Regional MVP Jerry Stackhouse has 18 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks.

March 25, 2012
Tyler Zeller scores 12 points in a 67-80 loss to Kansas in the Elite 8, finishing his UNC career with 1,501 points.

March 26, 1977
Mike O’Koren scores 31 as Tar Heels edge No. 4 UNLV, 84-83, in the national semifinal. Carolina loses a second-half lead and the championship two days later to Al McGuire’s Marquette Warriors, 67-59.

March 26, 2000
Wins over Tennessee and Tulsa send Bill Guthridge to his second Final Four in three years as head coach. Freshman Joe Forte scores 28 in a 59-55 regional final win over Tulsa. Guthridge retires in June 2000 with a three-year record of 80-28.

March 26, 2017
Luke Maye nails a 20-foot jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining to give UNC a 75-73 win over Kentucky in the NCAA South Regional finals in Memphis, Tennessee. Maye finished with 17 points off the bench and was named the South Region MVP while consensus All-American Justin Jackson finished with 19 points and Kennedy Meeks grabbed a career high 17 rebounds.

March 27, 1971
Bill Chamberlain scores 34 points and has 10 rebounds as UNC beats Georgia Tech, 84-66, to win the NIT. The Tar Heels also beat Julius Erving and Massachusetts in the first round, Providence and Duke (in the semifinal), all in Madison Square Garden.

March 27, 1982
Sam Perkins scores 25 points and grabs 10 rebounds. Michael Jordan drops in 18 as UNC beats Houston, 68-63, in the Final Four semifinal in New Orleans.

March 27, 2005
Sean May earns Syracuse Regional MVP honors with 29 points and 12 rebounds in an 88-82 win over Wisconsin that sends Roy Williams to the Final Four for the first time as UNC's head coach. Rashad McCants hits a go-ahead three-pointer late and blocks a Badger three-point attempt to preserve the win.

March 27, 2016
Brice Johnson has 25 points and 12 rebounds, becoming the East Region MVP after the Tar Heels beat Notre Dame 88-74 to advance to their NCAA record 19th Final Four. Johnson ties Tyler Hansbrough's UNC single-season record with 399 rebounds and records his UNC single-season record 23rd double-double in the process.

March 27, 2018
North Carolina baseball coach Mike Fox gets career win No. 1,400 as the Tar Heels beat UNC-Charlotte 14-2 at BB&T Ballpark in uptown Charlotte.

March 28, 1981
Senior forward Al Wood torches Virginia for 39 points in the Final Four. Wood sets a national semifinal scoring record. Sam Perkins holds National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson to three field goals and 11 points.

March 28, 1993
Cincinnati’s Nick Van Exel scores 21 first-half points and the Bearcats lead Carolina by as many as 15 in the first half. Then Derrick Phelps clamps down on Van Exel and East Regional MVP George Lynch scores 21 and grabs 14 rebounds in a 75-68 overtime win to send Carolina to the Final Four.

March 29, 1982
Final Four MVP James Worthy scores a game-high 28 points and Michael Jordan hits the game-winning shot from the left wing with 17 seconds to play as Carolina beats Georgetown, 63-62, in one of the Final Four’s greatest championship games ever played. Worthy makes 13 of 17 shots from the floor and has three steals, including one at the end of the game that seals the victory. Jordan scores 16, and the win gives Dean Smith his first of two NCAA championships.

March 29, 2008
Tyler Hansbrough has 28 points and 13 rebounds and is named East Regional MVP as UNC beats Louisville to reach its 17th NCAA Final Four.

March 29, 2009
Ty Lawson, the 2009 Bob Cousy Award winner, scores 21 points and earns South Regional MVP honors as No. 1 seed UNC beats No. 2 seed Oklahoma, 72-60, in Memphis, Tenn., to send the Tar Heels to their record 18th Final Four.

March 30, 1981
Isiah Thomas has 23 points to lead Indiana past UNC, 63-50, in the NCAA championship game in Philadelphia. Al Wood leads Carolina with 18 points. The game tips off less than eight hours after an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. The game is almost postponed due to the events in Washington, D.C.


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