University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels vs. Yellow Jackets in ACC Quarterfinals
March 10, 2004 | Men's Basketball
March 10, 2004
Fifth-seeded North Carolina (18-9, 8-8 ACC), winner of four of its last six games, will play fourth-seeded Georgia Tech (22-8, 9-7 ACC) in the quarterfinals of the 2004 ACC Tournament on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN2 and regionally by Raycom/Jefferson-Pilot.
The winner of Friday's game will advance to Saturday's semifinals to face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between top-seeded Duke and the winner of Thursday's game between No. 8 seed Virginia and No. 9 seed Clemson.
In this week's national polls, Carolina is ranked No. 16 by the Associated Press and No. 19 by the coaches. Georgia Tech is ranked No. 14 and No. 18, respectively, in the same polls.
Carolina is coming off a 70-65 loss at Duke last Saturday night. The Tar Heels have gone 10-8 in the 2004 calendar year after starting the 2003-04 season 8-1.
The Yellow Jackets are coming off a 63-60 home win over Florida State last Saturday.
Friday's quarterfinal round game against Georgia Tech will be Carolina's 110th in ACC Tournament history. No other team has played that many Tournament games. Duke is second with 108 games prior to this year's event.
The Tar Heels are 75-34 in ACC Tournament play.
Carolina in the ACC Tournament
The Tar Heels are the winningest team in Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament history, winning the title a record 15 times. UNC has played in the championship game 27 times in 50 years. Duke is second with 14 Tournament championships and 24 title-game appearances.
Carolina won ACC Tournament championships in 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1997 and 1998.
The Tar Heels have played in the ACC Tournament finals in nine of the last 13 years and 12 of the last 17 seasons. Should Carolina not reach Sunday's championship game, it would be the first time since 1960-66 the Tar Heels missed the title game in at least three straight seasons.
Carolina has won more ACC Tournament games than any other school. The Tar Heels have an all-time record of 75-34 in Tournament play. Duke is second with 72 wins, followed by N.C. State (55), Wake Forest (39), Maryland (37), Virginia (27), Georgia Tech (16), Clemson (13) and Florida State (5).
15 ACC Titles
Carolina has won 15 ACC Tournament championships, more than any other school. Duke is second with 14 titles and NC State is third with 10. Wake Forest has four titles, Georgia Tech has three, Maryland two, Virginia and South Carolina have one apiece.
Dean Smith won a record 13 ACC Tournament titles. Frank McGuire (1957) and Bill Guthridge (1998) also led Carolina to ACC titles.
Carolina in Greensboro
Carolina is 101-26 all-time in Greensboro and has won 11 of its last 12 games in the Greensboro Coliseum. UNC's only loss in its last 12 games in the Greensboro Coliseum came last season to Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
Carolina has an all-time record of 31-11 in ACC Tournament games played in Greensboro. UNC has won eight ACC championships in Greensboro - in 1967, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1997 and 1998.
The Tar Heels won the 1997 & 1998 ACC Tournaments here and defeated Michigan State and Connecticut in the NCAA East Regionals in this building on the way to the 1998 NCAA Final Four. Earlier this season, Carolina beat No. 11 Illinois, 88-81, in Greensboro in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge.
The Tar Heels have won seven of their last eight ACC Tournament games in Greensboro, winning back-to-back titles in 1997 & '98.
Carolina in Last Year's ACC Tournament
The seventh-seeded Tar Heels, who suffered their worst ACC loss ever (96-56) at Maryland three weeks earlier, hit 11 three-pointers and upset the second-seeded Maryland 84-72 in the ACC Tournament quarterfinal on March 14, 2003.
After losing to Maryland by 40 in February and winning in the ACC Tournament by 12, the Tar Heels made a 52-point swing - the largest such swing in UNC history.
Jawad Williams (25 points) and Melvin Scott (19) set then career scoring highs for Carolina. Raymond Felton posted his second straight double-double with 20 points and 10 assists. Rashad McCants had his second career double-double with 12 points and a season-high 11 rebounds.
The win was UNC's eighth in a row over Maryland in ACC Tournament play, a streak dating to 1987. UNC shot 53.2 percent for the game and topped 50 percent in each half of action. Carolina tallied 21 assists on 25 field goals in the game.
In the 2003 ACC Tournament semifinals, Duke shot 60.6 percent and hit eight of 11 first-half three-pointers, leading 54-33 at the break and cruising the rest of the way to a 75-63 win on March 15. Raymond Felton led Carolina with 18 points, hitting three three-pointers and dishing out five assists. The game marked the return to the lineup of freshman Sean May, out for over two months with a broken bone in his right foot. May had four points, three rebounds and two blocks in 10 minutes of action. Daniel Ewing, who was later named ACC Tournament MVP, led all scorers with 19 points for Duke.
