page_title: North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball
section_title: SoCon years
hierarchical_section_title: North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball / Team history / Early years (1910–1953) / SoCon years
caption_attribution_description: English: Cartwright Carmichael, University of North Carolina basketball player (1921-1924). All-America 1923 and 1924. Helms Athletic Foundation National Champion 1924.
context_page_description: The North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels have won seven men's basketball national championships. North Carolina's six NCAA Tournament Championships are third-most all-time, behind UCLA and Kentucky. UNC has also won 18 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament titles, 32 Atlantic Coast Conference regular season titles, and an Atlantic Coast Conference record 21 outright regular season championships. The program has produced many notable players who went on to play in the NBA, including four of ESPN's top 74 players of all-time: Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Vince Carter, and Bob McAdoo. Many Tar Heel assistant coaches and players have gone on to become head coaches elsewhere.
  From the Tar Heels' first season in 1910–11 through the 2019–20 season, the program has amassed a .736 all-time winning percentage, winning 2,275 games and losing 818 games in 110 seasons. The Tar Heels also have the most consecutive 20-win seasons, with 31 from the 1970–71 season through the 2000–01 season.
context_section_description: In 1921, the school joined the Southern Conference. Overall, the Tar Heels played 32 seasons in the Southern Conference from 1921 to 1953. During that period they won 304 games and lost 111 for a winning percentage of 73.3%. The Tar Heels won the Southern Conference regular season title 9 times and the Southern Conference Tournament 8 times.
  
  In 1924, the Tar Heels moved to the Tin Can for home games. From 1924-1938, UNC would go 130-20 (.867 winning percentage) at the Tin Can. Rudimentarily built of steel, attempts to heat the Tin Can failed, with ice often forming inside: 
  The Tin Can was always freezing [...] they had icicles in the corners. To stay warm the electricians put those big-wattage bulbs under the benches, and we had blankets and wore heavy sweat clothes. Later on they did get central heat in there, but it was never adequate. You couldn't dress there.
  — George Shephard, North Carolina coach 1931-35, University of North Carolina Basketball
  On February 29, 1924, UNC beat Kentucky, 41-20, in the first-ever game of the Kentucky–North Carolina rivalry. The 1923-24 Tar Heels squad went 26–0, and was awarded a national championship by the Helms Athletic Foundation in 1943 and later by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. In North Carolina's first five seasons in the SoCon (from 1921–22 to 1925-26), they went 96-17, won four SoCon regular season championships, and four SoCon tournament championships. Their fast style of play and stingy defense earned these teams the nickname "White Phantoms", used as an alternative nickname for the Tar Heels into the 1940s.
  Cartwright Carmichael was the first Tar Heel to earn first-team All-America honors in any sport in 1923, and was again selected in 1924. Jack Cobb was UNC’s first three-time All-America (1924, 1925, 1926), and was named Helms Foundation Player of the Year in 1926. George Glamack followed suit in 1940 and 1941, being named Helms Foundation Player of the Year also. Both, Cobb and Glamack, are honored with their numbers being retired (Cobb did not have a number).
  In 1939, the Tar Heels relocated their home arena to the Woollen Gymnasium, where they would play until 1965. On March 21, 1946, North Carolina beat NYU, 57-49, for their first win in the NCAA Tournament ever. Later in the 1946 NCAA Tournament, led by Hall of Fame coach Ben Carnevale and All-Americans Hook Dillon and Jim Jordan, UNC advanced to their first ever Final Four. Oklahoma A&M would beat UNC, 43-40, in the championship game. On December 1, 1952, Frank McGuire coached his first game at UNC with a 70-50 win over The Citadel.
caption: Cartwright Carmichael
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