Thursday, December 30, 2021

Vince Carter & 3 NBA-bound UNC teammates vs. Frank McGuire's 3 NBA-bound SC Stars

While the favorites in our 2nd tournament of all-time great teams are only 5-5, the top 6 seeds are still alive after a fun simulation of the Carolinas. (In our original All-Time March Madness tournament featuring 96 teams, the favored seed dominated with a 62-33 record through UCLA (Bill Walton) defeating UNC (Michael Jordan) in the title game.)

Al McGuire's older brother Frank pit his 3 future NBA stars with South Carolina against 4 future NBA stars with the UNC program he coached to ACC titles his last 3 years there.

On the day SC actually upset UNC in a football bowl game, they also led 45-43 with 13:50 (23 possessions) to go in our simulation. While Mike Dunleavy (1977-90), Brian Winters (1975-83) and Alex English (1977-91) combined for 38 years in the NBA and Mike Dunleavy Jr. (2003-2017) played 15 more, but PG Kevin Joyce led the actual team (20.4 ppg in 1973) and our game today (26 points).


However our 4-seed of our 30 teams in this tournament, 1998 UNC, rallied with 47 years of future NBA experience in their starting line-up with Vince Carter (1999-2020), Shammond Williams (1999-2007) and the actual star of the team center Antawn Jamison (1999-2014). Jamison averaged 22.2 points for the 1998 Final 4 team scored 28 and grabbed 13 rebounds in this game to rally UNC to a 72-66 win. (Backup Brandon Hayward actually had a long NBA career too.)

The actual team that year rolled easily to the Final 4 as the No.1 team in the AP poll in coach Bill Guthridge rookie season (Frank McGuire actually passed away 4 years before this UNC team) but then was upset in the real 1998 Final 4 by Al McGuire's longtime assistant coach Rick Majerus and Utah.

In our tournament, UNC advances to play the highest scoring, fastest paced team in history. That Loyola-Marymount team upset Kentucky in the opening round 138-116. Their win means that the top 6 seeds are still alive with No. 1 UCLA 1967 (bye), No.2 Duke 2001 (bye), No. 3 Kansas 1997 (beat Calvin Murphy's Niagra 84-68), No. 4 UNC 1998 from this game, No. 5 Michigan State 2000 (beat Rick Berry's Miami 108-104), and No. 6 Houston 1983 (beat Arizona State 79-64).

However, in the other five first round games the favorite is only 1-5. Four 1st round games remain.


 

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