For many basketball fans, Michael Jordan is the best player ever.
Across 15 NBA seasons with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, Jordan was a six-time champion, six-time Finals MVP, five-time regular-season MVP, 14-time All-Star, 10-time All-NBA first team, one-time All-NBA second team and nine-time NBA All-Defensive first team, among other impressive achievements.
But before all of those professional accomplishments and subsequent claims that he is the Greatest Of All Time, Jordan was a college basketball star for legendary head coach Dean Smith and North Carolina. And when he wore the Carolina Blue, the two-time All-American and ACC Player of the Year faced off with Ohio State once, a Sweet 16 battle in the 1983 NCAA Tournament.
The No. 3-seeded Buckeyes, led by head coach Eldon Miller and future NBA players Granville Waiters, Tony Campbell and Clinton Smith, as well as current Ohio State men's basketball radio color commentator Ron Stokes, advanced to the Sweet 16 after defeating No. 6 Syracuse, 79-74. As the defending national champions, the No. 2-seeded Tar Heels beat No. 10 James Madison, 68-49.
That set the showdown between Ohio State and North Carolina in the East Regional semifinal, which can be watched below:
In now well-known MJ fashion, Jordan scored a game-high 17 points in the contest. However, he collected nearly half of his points from the free-throw line, where he made 7-of-9 attempts, and was only marginally effective from the field, connecting on 5-of-15 shots in 36 minutes of action.
Still, Jordan's efforts when combined with those of forwards Sam Perkins (15 points, six rebounds) and Brad Daugherty (eight points, six rebounds) – both of whom had successful careers in the NBA in addition to Jordan – were enough to bounce Ohio State from the Big Dance, 64-51, despite 14 points from Joe Concheck, 13 from Campbell and 10 from Troy Taylor for the Buckeyes.
Jordan's Tar Heels would fall to Georgia in the following round, ending Jordan's sophomore season at North Carolina. One week later, Jim Valvano and North Carolina State would cap off one of the most historic runs in NCAA Tournament history when the Wolfpack defeated Houston 54-52 in the national title game.
