An answer for Jeff Taylor – sorta

After the Carolina Tarheels trailed the Kansas Jayhawks as much as 28 points in the final four playoff game the ‘heels eventually lost on Saturday, Jeff Taylor over at The John Locke Foundation’s Meck Deck blog wondered:

That was beyond ugly. Reminded me nothing so much as one of those college bowl beatdowns where you think the two teams are evenly matched and one comes out with their hair on fire and the other…? From the introductions on the Heels seemed subdued, distracted even. Don’t know what caused that, but I’d love to know if a #1 seed ever trailed by 28 points in NCAA game.

While I don’t believe there’s been another #1 seed that has trailed by that many points in a NCAA tourney game, there has been a #3 seed that made it to the final game, only to be dealt the largest margin of loss in NCAA basketball championship game history: My beloved Blue Devils, who lost by 30 points to the #1 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels in 1990.

As painful as that was, the following year the revenge-minded Devils traded baskets with the Runnin’ Rebs in the Final Four, and and defeated eventual Charlotte Hornet Larry Johnson and his teammates 79-77. The victory was an oh so awesome redemption.

And then there was this sweet moment year after that:

Sigh … those were the days.

Also in that same post, Jeff references an opinion piece penned by WaPo columnist John Feinstein about Tarheels coach Roy Williams in which Feinstein writes that most Carolina fans “fall into the same right wing political category as Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski.” Like Jeff, I wonder where in the world Feinstein got that information, or if he’s just blowing smoke, as my anecdotal evidence tells me just the opposite about his assertion.

BTW, how many Tarheel basketball fans are upset with their coach for his show of support for the Jayhawks last night? Williams, of course, coached for 15 seasons at Kansas, but is also an alum of UNC-CH. If the responses here are any indication, most of the fans didn’t have an issue with it.