/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70703873/usa_today_18011139.0.jpg)
The No. 8 North Carolina Tar Heels toppled rival No. 1 Duke Blue Devils in the national semifinals on Saturday and will now face the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks in the national championship game on Monday. The team went from being squarely on the bubble in late January to on the cusp of claiming a national championship in the first year of the Hubert Davis era.
We’ll go over how the Tar Heels got to this point and their history in the national championship game.
How North Carolina made the 2022 National Championship Game
First Round: Defeated No. 9 Marquette 95-63
Second Round: Defeated No. 1 Baylor 93-86 (OT)
Sweet 16: Defeated No. 4 UCLA 73-66
Elite Eight: Defeated No. 15 Saint Peter’s 69-49
Final Four: Defeated No. 1 Duke 81-77
When did North Carolina last appear in the national championship game?
UNC’s last national championship game appearance was 2017, where it defeated Gonzaga 71-65 to win the program’s sixth national championship. Joel Berry II led the Tar Heels with 22 points and six assists.
How many times has North Carolina appeared in the National Championship?
This will be North Carolina’s 12th appearance in the national championship game of the NCAA Tournament. They are 6-5 in those efforts, winning in 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, and 2017. The Tar Heels’ five losses came in 1946, 1968, 1977, 1981, and 2016.