The 1992âÂÂ93 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 1992-93 NCAA Division I men's basketball season as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 34âÂÂ4 overall, won the ACC regular season title with a 14âÂÂ2 record and won the 1993 national championship. They were coached by Dean Smith, who won his second national championship in his thirty-second season as head coach of the Tar Heels. They played their home games at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The 1992âÂÂ93 team was led by George Lynch, Eric Montross, Brian Reese, Donald Williams, and Derrick Phelps. The Tar Heels started out with an 8âÂÂ0 record and were ranked #5 in the country when they met #6 Michigan in the semi-finals of the Rainbow Classic. The Wolverines, led by the Fab Five in their sophomore season, won 79âÂÂ78 to on a last-second shot. North Carolina bounced back with nine straight wins before losing back-to-back road games against unranked Wake Forest and #5 Duke. After seven more straight wins, the Tar Heels were ranked #1 heading into the last week of the regular season (their first #1 ranking since the start of the 1987âÂÂ88 season). North Carolina beat #14 Wake Forest and #6 Duke to close out the regular season and clinch the top seed in the ACC tournament. North Carolina reached the tournament final, but the Tar heels, shorthanded due to an injury to point guard Derrick Phelps, lost 77âÂÂ75 to Georgia Tech. Nonetheless, North Carolina was awarded the top seed in the East Regional of the NCAA tournament, defeating #16-seed East Carolina (85âÂÂ65), #8-seed Rhode Island (112âÂÂ67), #4-seed Arkansas (80âÂÂ74), and #2-seed Cincinnati (75âÂÂ68) to reach the final four in New Orleans.
In the national semi-finals, Smith's Tar Heels defeated his alma mater Kansas (coached by future North Carolina head coach Roy Williams) 78âÂÂ68, setting up a rematch with the #3-ranked Michigan Wolverines in the finals.
The national title game was a see-saw battle throughout but is best remembered for Chris Webber's time out call with seconds left when Michigan had none remaining. The Wolverines were assessed a technical foul, and North Carolina subsequently won the game 77âÂÂ71, giving Smith his second national championship.
|- !colspan=9| ACC tournament
|- !colspan=9| NCAA tournament
Kevin Salvadori, Matt Wenstrom and Derrick Phelps also went on to play in the NBA, but were undrafted.