The 1985–86 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team represented the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

from

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...

during the

1985–86 NCAA Division I men's basketball season Season headlines * The Big South Conference began conference play. It had been founded in 1983, but its members had played as NCAA Division I independent schools, Division I independents until this season. * The ECAC South renamed itself the C ...

. Led by head coach

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball Coach (basketball), head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North C ...

, the Tar Heels completed yet another in a long line of impressive seasons, holding the #1 ranking in the AP poll for 13 consecutive weeks, and reaching the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament before falling to eventual national champion,

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

. On January 18, 1986, #1 North Carolina defeated #3 Duke 95–92 in the first game played at the

Dean Smith Center The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center (commonly known as the Dean Smith Center, Smith Center, or the Dean Dome) is a multi-purpose arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, used primarily as the home for the University of North Carolina at Ch ...

Roster

Schedule and results

, - !colspan=9 , Regular Season , - , - !colspan=9 , ACC Tournament , - , - !colspan=9 , NCAA Tournament , -

Rankings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1985-86 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball seasons

Tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black b ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...