YouTube Gold: UNC-Virginia, 1982

In 1982, things were very different around the ACC. The conference had won just two national championships, UNC’s in 1957 and NC State’s in 1974. Dean Smith still had not won one - that would change in a couple of months - and Mike Krzyzewski, in just his second year, was getting some heat at Duke.

That would change as well.

So would this, and in a big way: some guy named “Mike” Jordan didn’t score in the first half. It’s entirely possible that that never happened again.

Virginia had Ralph Sampson, an incredible talent, but aside from Jordan, UNC had James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty and Jimmy Black.

UNC won this one, 65-60, but Virginia would win the rematch, 74-58.

Some trivia: this game was played in Carmichael, which was far better than the Dean Dome for an electric atmosphere. Virginia had Ralph Sampson and could have had Jordan, who very much wanted to play with Sampson. The mind boggles, but UVA coach Terry Holland for whatever reason didn’t really pursue Jordan. And finally, both Smith and Holland are gone, with both having died of dementia-related conditions. Also, Al McGuire confidently predicts that in six years, Sampson would be the best player in basketball. He was in the right building, but had the wrong player. Amazingly, the UNC announcer calls Jordan Mike too. McGuire calls the arena Carmichael Hall but gets Michael correct.