University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Head To Clemson In Search Of First ACC Road Win
January 30, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2004
Carolina will be looking for its first Atlantic Coast Conference road win of the 2003-04 season when it visits Clemson on Saturday at noon in Littlejohn Coliseum. The game will be televised regionally by Raycom/Jefferson-Pilot.
The Tar Heels, ranked No. 12 by the Associated Press and No. 15 by the coaches, are 13-4, 3-3 in the ACC this season. The Tar Heels are ranked No. 7 in the nation in the latest RPI rankings and have played the nation's fourth-toughest schedule.
Carolina evened its '03-'04 ACC record with a 68-66 home win over NC State on Wednesday night. Unranked Clemson is 8-10, 1-6 in the ACC, good for ninth place in the conference. The Tigers lost at No. 14/16 Georgia Tech, 76-69, on Tuesday night.
Following Saturday's game, Carolina will host Duke on Thursday, Feb. 5, in the Smith Center. The contest will mark the halfway point of ACC play for the Tar Heels this season.
TAR HEEL NOTES & TRENDS
Individual Player Notes
* Rashad McCants leads the ACC by averaging 18.5 points per game overall and 20.3 ppg in conference games this season.
* McCants has scored 25 or more points five times this season and 11 times in 52 career games.
* Raymond Felton, Jawad Williams, McCants and Sean May all rank in the top 10 in the ACC in free throw percentage.
* Williams scored seven points vs. NC State, giving him 1,006 for his career. He is the 54th Tar Heel in history to reach the 1,000-point mark.
* Raymond Felton leads the ACC and is third in the nation in assists with 7.94 per game.
* A career 38 percent shooter entering the season, Jackie Manuel is shooting 58.0 percent this year (51 of 88) to rank second on the team.
* Manuel's dunk over Julius Hodge on Wednesday night was the No. 4 play on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 list for the day.
* May is second in the ACC with 9.9 rebounds per game and fifth with 16.1 points per game.
* McCants has scored in double-figures in 49 of his 52 career games. In his career, Carolina is 21-6 when McCants scores 17 or more points.
Team Notes
* Carolina is averaging 91.0 ppg in ACC games this season, leading the next-highest scoring team in ACC games (Wake Forest) by 10.0 ppg.
* Carolina hit 16 of 20 free throws (.800) vs. NC State on Wednesday.
* UNC has scored 100 points four times this season - the rest of the ACC has done so a combined three times. Carolina had scored 100 points just four times in the previous six seasons.
* Four different Tar Heels have scored 25 or more points in a game this season (McCants five times, May twice, Williams once, Felton once).
* Carolina has forced at least 20 turnovers in six of the last seven games and has caused 12 20-plus turnover games by opponents this year. During the entire 2002-03 season, the Heels caused seven 20-plus turnover games.
* In Tuesday's NCAA statistics, Carolina was second in the nation in scoring (88.4 points per game) after averaging 72.1 ppg last season.
