CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Roy Williams -- and the horse he rode on -- overcame ambivalence and hubris about the ACC Tournament before galloping away to crush Clemson's dream.

Playing inside a swirling mass of noise generated by a packed coliseum of North Carolina fans, the top-ranked Tar Heels beat Clemson 86-81 Sunday. Thus, another chapter was written to a tale that never changes. No school has won more tournament titles than UNC. Clemson has never won.

Williams drove his team hard in a basketball stampede that left the Tigers gasping for air and Williams hallucinating about being John Wayne's sidekick. He gets like that this time of year. After his team's gritty win, the third in three days, he took his annual jabs at the media, the NCAA selection process, the subject of home-court advantage and the ACC tournament itself.

Then he backed off and admitted he loved it.

This tournament does that to sane men, tests their will and forces them to use their imagination, expose their emotions and suspend reason over four days in March. Dean Smith fought with it, too, in his last years as a coach. Smith was among those here this week to watch Carolina win its 17th ACC title, one more than Duke.

That was, ultimately, why this was an important week for Carolina. That the championship came down to the Tar Heels and Clemson made it more interesting, if not more fun. No, the ACC Tournament's not what it used to be. But for one week, it doesn't matter.

For one week, the 12 conference schools rekindled a tradition that goes back to 1954, a week that produces heroes unique to this event -- Wally Walker, Bill Kretzer, Kevin Joyce, Harvey Hale. The games are a season unto themselves, and in some cases, a career.

ACC Tournament week always seems like a long time, and now that the conference has expanded it has become a marathon event. Williams said no one remembers last year's championship, at least not compared to UNC's loss to Georgetown two weeks later. But that's not entirely true. What they don't remember is last Thursday.

This year's tournament will be remembered for its return to Charlotte and Clemson's return to the final after its only previous ACC final in 1962. Charlotte isn't currently scheduled for another ACC tournament. The city's performance this week should get it back in the rotation. Running an event this size isn't easy.

The storms this week that blew the Southeastern Conference tournament slap out of one Atlanta building and into another -- an ACC arena at that -- came through here a day later. Winds and rain worked through crevices of the three-year-old coliseum and sent front-row patrons and conference towel boys into service. The dripping rain proved to be no more than a nuisance, the disaster was averted, and the tournament moved seamlessly into Sunday.

The question was raised later, just what would've happened had the ACC been forced to move its games on a moment's notice. The prevailing sentiment was that we could've picked up the entire show and moved it to Greensboro in about three hours, fans and all, and been finished in time to watch Bon Jovi and Daughtry.

Charlotte was a good fit, though, much better than previous trips outside North Carolina. The city was host to the CIAA two weeks ago and will host the NCAA East Region final two weeks hence. That's the tournament Williams is looking forward to. He simply endured this one.

He thought he had this one won when he released his team from a timeout with 7:46 to play. The players came out laughing and joking. Williams was smiling, too. Carolina was up 72-59, and the Coliseum was loud and confident. Clemson then scored the next eight points.

"I love westerns," he said. "John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, those kind of guys are pretty doggone aggressive. Somebody asked me one time "If you could live in another lifetime,' that would've been the period I would've chosen. I'd have tried to be John Wayne's sidekick. But I do like that approach to basketball."

He got his team's attention again and attacked back. In the end, he really did want to win this tournament for a second straight year. And a couple of hours later, he was awarded with a top seed for the other tournament. That was after someone asked him why he just wanted to be a sidekick, and Williams mumbled something about winning and losing.

By then, he was just confused. ACC tournament week is hard on everybody, but it's apparently hardest on Roy Williams.