In 1982, things were very different around the ACC. The conference had won just two national championships, UNC’s in 1957 and NC State’s in 1974. Dean Smith still had not won one - that would change in a couple of months - and Mike Krzyzewski, in just his second year, was getting some heat at Duke.
That would change as well.
So would this, and in a big way: some guy named “Mike” Jordan didn’t score in the first half. It’s entirely possible that that never happened again.
Virginia had Ralph Sampson, an incredible talent, but aside from Jordan, UNC had James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Matt Doherty and Jimmy Black.