Only in Chapel Hill can a five-year layoff between Final Four appearances seem like a long time. Most fans would be satisfied with a trip to the premier event in college basketball, if not all sports, once a decade. However, to a majority of North Carolina Tar Heel fans, the half-decade absence has seemed like centuries spent in limbo.

With UNC’s 88-82 win over Wisconsin on Sunday, the Tar Heel faithfuls have been sprung from Purgatory. It also caps the turnaround for the program.

Three years ago at this time, UNC basketball was in a rut. The unthinkable and unfathomable had occurred. Carolina finished the season 8-20. One of the most storied programs in all of college sports had fallen from grace.

The next season opened with promise, as a trio of freshman, Raymond Felton, Sean May, and Rashad McCants, brought some swagger back to the program.

However, an injury to May and a bratty attitude from McCants kept UNC out of the NCAA Tournament, condemning them to the NIT.

While better than the previous season’s losing record, many prominent UNC athletics boosters simply couldn’t stomach the situation at hand. That led to the firing of third year coach Matt Doherty.

Shortly after his termination, Doherty was replaced by then Kansas coach Roy Williams, a Carolina graduate and former assistant to legendary coach Dean Smith.

In only his second season on the bench in Chapel Hill, Williams has gone a long way towards re-establishing the mystique that was greatly tarnished during Doherty’s tenure.

With many pundits predicting a national championship for UNC, some may still view the season a disappointment if the Tar Heels do not emerge as the last team standing in St. Louis.

Given the insane nature of this year’s tournament, which seemingly climaxed when three of last weekend’s four games in the elite eight went into overtime, nothing is a given.

UNC’s hard fought win over Wisconsin seems mundane and boring compared to the other three games. The Tar Heels only needed the standard forty minutes to earn their trip to the Final Four. The other three entrants needed at least five additional minutes.

On Saturday, the Louisville Cardinals had to fight their way out of a 20-point hole in the first half to earn an overtime victory against the Mountaineers of West Virginia. Likewise, it took a ferocious comeback from the Illinois Fighting Illini to secure their extra frame victory over the Arizona Wildcats.

Other than the common thread of overtime, the two comebacks couldn’t have been more different.

West Virginia played well above themselves during the first half, hitting threes at a torrid pace to open the contest. Louisville cut the lead to 13 at halftime, and watching the game, I got the feeling that the Cardinals would emerge victorious.

Louisville has too much talent, and too good a coach in Rick Pitino. Once West Virginia’s outside shooting came back to earth, it was over for the Cinderella Mountaineers.

West Virginia played valiantly, but in the end they were simply no match for Louisville.

Illinois’ comeback, erasing a 15 point Arizona lead with four minutes to go, was one of the most amazing choke jobs I have ever seen. Arizona coach Lute Olson is notorious for coaching games in the NCAA Tournament with one hand around his throat, against Illinois he raised it to a new art.

That’s not to say that Illinois didn’t stage a valiant comeback, because they did, but it should’ve never happened. Arizona should have won that game.

The last game of the weekend took two overtimes to decide. The Michigan State Spartans’ win over the Kentucky Wildcats was a college basketball game for the ages. This back and forth struggle, topped off by an unbelievable buzzer beater by Wildcats’ guard Patrick Sparks, was a treat to watch.

It was one of those games where the old clich held true. Neither team deserved to lose that game. While I typically don’t buy into that saying, I’ll make an exception in this case.

If we’re lucky, the Final Four will be just as compelling.