CHARLOTTE — Kenny Williams had a message for Nassir Little and the rest of his teammates.
As the North Carolina men’s basketball team sat in the locker room following a last-second 74-73 defeat to Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals at the Spectrum Center on Friday night, the senior guard made something clear to Little, at a moment when the first-year forward was thinking back to the last sequence of the game.
Little was reflecting back on his tip-in attempt at the buzzer that was oh-so-close to going in. The basket would have given his team its third win in a season over the No. 3-seeded Blue Devils, a historic achievement that had not been accomplished by UNC since the 1975-1976 season.
That’s when Williams reminded Little that they are playing for something bigger than an ACC Tournament title — they are playing for the ultimate prize. They are playing for a national championship.
“I just told him, ‘We’ve got six more games, don’t hang your head,’” Williams said. “I just said, ‘I’ve won an ACC Tournament Championship, and it has nothing on a national championship, so we can still do that.’”
The words certainly rang true. In the 2016-2017 season, the last time North Carolina won the national championship, the team was the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament and played Duke in the semifinals. Just like this season, the Tar Heels lost that game.
In fact, of the three national championships (2005, 2009, 2017) of the Roy Williams era in Chapel Hill, North Carolina lost in the ACC Tournament semifinals in each of the accompanying years.
Little was certainly frustrated after missing a chance to deliver No. 2 seed UNC (27-6) the victory in Friday's game, however. His dunk with 47 seconds left gave North Carolina the one-point advantage over Duke (29-5) in a back-and-forth affair.
But one possession later, Duke took the lead right back on a putback layup by first-year forward Zion Williamson for his 31st point of the night with 31 seconds remaining. The two heavyweight programs continued to trade blows.
