Why Is The Sky Carolina Blue?

They have nothing to be ashamed of. So after winning 22 times in the regular season, against just six losses, after soaring to an upset victory in the ACC tournaments while top twenty powers Virginia. Wake Forest and Maryland fell by the wayside, after stopping potent Utah in Salt lake City to win the Western Regional and crunching favored Virginia to earn a sot in the finals, the last game of the 1981 college basketball season, it turns out the University of North Carolina was not the best team in the United States. At least not last night. So what?

They have nothing to be ashamed of, this inexperienced squad chosen to finish fourth in the ACC by the pre-season coaches poll. That's not fourth in the country, but fourth in their conference.

They'll hear the taunts: Chokers. Losers. Can't win the big one. They'll know that in the 21 years since the NCAA title last rested on Chapel Hill, Carolina has gone to the Final Four six times and the finals three times, and come up empty-handed. And they may even read stories that will question Dean Smith as a pressure coach, stories that will call him a top-notch recruiter, but maybe lacking in the skills that, with a game on the line in the final seconds, pushes his squad over the top. It's an easy conclusion to come to.

But they have nothing to be ashamed of. They have nothing to be ashamed of because Jimmy Black and Al Wood and Sam Perkins and the rest of them scrambled and fought and played one hell of a basketball game. On another night, Carolina's shots would have fallen. On another night, Indiana's ballhandling wouldn't have been quite so impeccable, Carolina's defense quite so porous. On another night, the momentum would have belonged to Carolina, and Carolina would have beaten Indiana. On another night, Carolina did beat Indiana, by nine points, but that was in December, that wasn't a big one.

But tell Virginia and Wake Forest and Maryland that the ACC Tournament isn't a big one. Tell Utah and Kansas State and Virginia again that losing early in the NCAA tournament--second or third or semi-final round--doesn't get you just as eliminated as losing on the last Monday night with half the people in the country plus Al McGuire watching. Tell Ralph Sampson that wasn't a big one Carolina won Saturday. Or, tell him he's a choker, and he can't handle the pressure.

Sure, this team is young and it will be back. But don't forget that they were here this year, too. North Carolina was the second-best team in the nation this season, and DePaul. Oregon State, Virginia, Kentucky, LSU and everybody else wasn't. They never even got to the big one.

They have nothing to be ashamed of, those North Carolina Tarheels. Sure, number two hurts, if only because it's so close. But when the season is placed in perspective, alotted its place in Tarheel history next to the great players and great teams, like the championship of 1957, the final-round loss of 1977, next to Billy Cunningham, and Charlie Scott and Walter Davis, and...the list goes on, why this squad won't be number two, they'll be winners.

With a program in shambles following the 1960 point-shaving scandal, a man named Dean Smith took over for the legendary Frank McGuire as Carolina coach. His instructions were simple. Not to be the best. Not to win the most. Simply to play with integrity, hard but fair. To take pride in yourself and your team, to have honor and dignity and courage. Anyone in basketball will tell you Dean Smith has passed these instructions along to his teams. Anyone who has ever seen North Carolina play will tell you his teams listen.

And by living up to the gallant tradition of North Carolina basketball, the 1980-81 Tarheels have nothing to be ashamed of. In the long run, in life, they are winners.