The latest documentary about UNC basketball premiered after the Tar Heels’ game against Wake Forest on Jan. 10.
Produced by Raycom Sports in partnership with ESPN, “We’re No. 1! 1993 North Carolina Tar Heels” is a one-hour show detailing the Tar Heels’ ride to the national championship in the 1992-93 season under head coach Dean Smith. It will also be available via streaming on the Watch ESPN app and other services.
A mix of archival footage, home videos, photographs, game broadcasts and interviews gives fans an inside look at UNC’s second title-winning season under Smith. It includes interviews with George Lynch, Brian Reese, Derrick Phelps, Donald Williams and current UNC assistant coach Pat Sullivan, among others. The late Eric Montross, who died in 2023 after a lengthy battle with cancer, is represented by his children, Andrew and Sarah.
Here are some observations about the documentary.
Eric Montross at center of UNC basketball documentary about 1993 team
The “Montross Cam” felt like the perfect way to open and close the documentary. Given the massive presence of Eric Montross as a player and more for UNC basketball, his absence is felt throughout the one-hour show. But his teammates, coaches and others around the program do a great job of keeping him at the center of the story with home videos, old recordings and highlights of the Tar Heels’ 7-foot center.
As Montross says in an old recording featured in the documentary: “Those memories, those emotions, they’re easy to get back to.” Travis Stephenson, a teammate and friend of Montross, says “Eric passing changed some stuff permanently for a lot of people, including me. Cause he was invincible, right? He was Superman.”
A crowd of players and coaches are shown at Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery, chopping it up about that season, but they couldn’t ignore the weight of the void left by the late Montross, Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge. “They’re all still right here. They’re just so present in our lives as we try to do better,” Stephenson said.
Woody Durham, Mick Mixon take fans back in time
Woody Durham, the radio voice of the Tar Heels during four of their six NCAA championship seasons, is a consistent presence in the 1993 documentary, along with radio teammate Mick Mixon. Of course, Durham’s final call of the 1993 national championship is among the lasting moments: “It’s over! The Tar Heels have won the national championship!”
But his best call of the season may have been after UNC’s 21-point comeback against Florida State at the Smith Center: “I’d like a rosé and maybe some cheddar.” That was in reference to Sam Cassell’s quote about UNC’s “wine-and-cheese crowd” after the Seminoles’ win at the Smith Center in 1991. Mixon’s insight also helps move along the documentary as it goes through key moments the 1992-93 season.
Reminder of Dean Smith elite coaching
It’s easy for some to forget just how influential Dean Smith was as a coach and beyond during his time as the leader of UNC basketball. But following the breakthrough 1982 title, it took 11 seasons for Smith to get the Tar Heels back to the mountaintop of the sport. UNC’s 1993 squad was aware of the noise surrounding that drought, with Pat Sullivan noting pundits were pointing out that maybe “time and the game had passed Coach Smith by.” Sullivan and George Lynch, along with their teammates, embraced that pressure to “win for Coach Smith” and they got it done.
The documentary also does a good job highlighting Smith’s in-game adjustments and ability to keep his team level-headed and locked in on what’s in front of them. Kevin Salvadori and Lynch said Smith was “the biggest difference” at times and “if it was a close game, we were gonna win” because of Smith. That proved true time and again, particularly against Michigan’s “Fab Five” in the title game.
George Lynch, Donald Williams underrated greatness for UNC
There’s a practice story about George Lynch going rogue with double-teams and Dean Smith saying, “Guys, we’re gonna give George a little more freedom.” That freedom paid off in the national championship when Lynch’s pressure and double team with Derrick Phelps led to the infamous timeout call from Michigan’s Chris Webber.
“Man for man, they were more talented,” Lynch said of Michigan. But Lynch added that he felt the Tar Heels were the better team, along with advantages in coaching and intangibles. As Mixon says in the documentary, Lynch was the “toughness engine” for the Tar Heels. He was also the team MVP in 1993.
Donald Williams, the Tar Heels’ sharpshooter during that run, might be the most underrated Most Outstanding Player of a Final Four. No player since has scored at least 25 points in back-to-back Final Four games. Following his stellar shooting showing against the Wolverines, Williams said, “I didn’t know what happened in the locker room. I just knew I was trying to get to Bourbon Street.”
Rodd Baxley covers North Carolina Tar Heels athletics for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley. Got questions regarding UNC? Send them to [email protected].
