East Rutherford, N.J. ? The night Michael Jordan made that shot, Roy Williams and John Thompson III were inside the Superdome, too.

They also have memories from 25 years ago.

North Carolina and Georgetown play today in the East Regional final, with Tyler Hansbrough, Patrick Ewing Jr. and the other players focused squarely on a trip to the Final Four.

For many fans, the matchup means a lot more than the top-seeded Tar Heels’ transitions vs. the second-seeded Hoyas’ patience. It represents a harmonic convergence of history, harkening back to a true thriller in college basketball.

“I think you don’t have to go down the list of great, great finals very long before you get to the ’82 North Carolina-Georgetown game,” Williams said.

In a game that started the legend of MJ and ushered in the era of huge crowds for championship night, Jordan’s jumper from the left side with 17 seconds remaining lifted North Carolina over Georgetown, 63-62, on March 29, 1982.

“I’m very blessed for what that shot did, and my name did change from Mike to Michael,” Jordan said this month. “To sit back and think “what if?” is a scary thought. There are a lot of other options. I could be pumping gas back in Wilmington, N.C.”

Williams, now North Carolina’s coach, was then an assistant to Dean Smith.

“Other than my wife and my mother, I don’t know that anybody knew I was on the bench at that point,” he said. “I had dark black hair, and it was pretty neat.”

Thompson was a high school junior at the time, sitting across from the Georgetown bench where his father was head coach.

“I remember everything about it,” he said. “It’s difficult to handle it because it’s the national championship game.”