Best teams to never win a championship (last 50 years)

Sorry about that - yet more proof that my memory is going on me. I was sure he missed the whole season. Although some Googling reveals that he returned for the last two regular season games and played some with a cast on his hand (I can't tell if it was still on in the NCAA tournament), so his injury certainly didn't help things.

They still never should have lost to Indiana.

 

Indeed, that was one of the more baffling upsets in history. That UNC team was just an astonishing collection of talent and experience--the final college seasons for Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty, and also Brad Daugherty, Kenny Smith, Joe Wolf, etc.---if they'd finished the deal they'd absolutely be in the greatest ever conversation just for that amazing roster.

But instead they somehow managed to lose to what was probably the least athletic team Knight ever had, a group starting 5 slow ass white guys whose best player (alford) was a freshman. Go figure.

 

Michael Jordan's stat line for that game (http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?replayId=1324): 26 Min., 6-14 FG, 1-2 FT, 1 Reb, 1 Asst., 13 points. That is really hard to believe, in retrospect.

This is in no way a defense of his long history of sociopathic behavior, but that he could take that collection of talent and make it to the Final 8 (they probably should have beaten Virginia and Olden Polynice there) is as good an explanation as any of how Bobby Knight could get away with acting the way he did for that long.