Written by DAVID GLENN
Since the Dean E. Smith Center opened in January 1986, the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team now has played 40 seasons there.
With their Tuesday night victory over Clemson, a program that once infamously went 94 years without ever defeating the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, on any of the Heels’ various home courts, this year’s Carolina squad finished off a perfect 18-0 record at the Smith Center this season.
While that may sound like just an intriguing piece of trivia, or another impressive line in UNC’s history books, Carolina fans can hope that the accomplishment is a sign of more good things to come for the 2026 Heels.
As it turns out, only five previous Carolina teams went unbeaten at the Smith Center, and each of those squads ultimately proved to be varying degrees of sensational when it mattered most in the NCAA Tournament.
Coach Dean Smith’s 1993 team went 12-0 in the building that bears his name before going on to capture the national championship that year. Similarly, coach Roy Williams’ 2005 and 2017 squads, which each finished 15-0 at the Smith Center, also went on to claim the NCAA title.
In the only other previous examples of a UNC team posting a perfect record at the Smith Center for an entire season, the 1987 Tar Heels (under Smith) and the 2011 Tar Heels (under Williams) each advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. Not bad.
Now fifth-year UNC coach Hubert Davis has added his signature to a perfect season on the same court he last played on himself 34 years ago, in 1992.
Several details behind the 2026 Tar Heels’ stellar 18-0 record at the Smith Center make the accomplishment even more impressive.
For starters, their victims included highly regarded Kansas and Louisville teams, as well as Duke, which now is ranked No. 1 nationally. In addition, six of their home wins came without previously injured star guard Seth Trimble, and four more came without currently injured star forward Caleb Wilson.
None of these “fun facts” guarantees success in the Big Dance, of course, but history suggests that Smith Center perfection is a really, really good sign for the Tar Heels.
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Featured image via Todd Melet
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