March 4, 2005
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Tip-off
The North Carolina women's basketball team opens play in the 2005 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament on Saturday with a noon game at the Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum. The Tar Heels will take on ninth-seeded Miami, a 60-58 winner over No. 8 Georgia Tech on Friday.
UNC is the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament for the first time since 1997. Carolina has won five previous titles, the most recent in 1998.
The Tar Heels are 24-3 on the season and finished the ACC schedule 12-2 after a 77-68 win at Duke on Sunday. Carolina is ranked fourth in this week's Associated Press poll and third in the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll. Miami (13-15) is not ranked.
On the air
UNC's game against Miami will be televised by the Regional Sports Networks (Comcast, Fox Sports South, Sunshine Network). Beth Mowins will provide the play-by-play and Debbie Antonelli will add color commentary.
Saturday's game also will air on the Tar Heel Radio Network, which includes 12 stations. WCHL-AM 1360 in Chapel Hill is the flagship. Jones Angell is the Tar Heels' play-by-play announcer.
Live stats are available on the UNC website, www.TarHeelBlue.com.
UNC at a glance
2004-05 record 24-3 (12-2 ACC)
Current rankings 4th A.P., 3rd ESPN/USA Today
Head coach Sylvia Hatchell
Career record 678-265 (30th season)
Record at UNC 406-185 (19th season)
Briefly ...
The Tar Heels are playing in the ACC Tournament as a No. 1 seed for the first time since 1997 and the third time overall. For more ACC Tournament notes, see page 3.
UNC leads the series with Miami 4-2 after winning this year's first meeting 83-52 on Jan. 17 in Chapel Hill.
Four Carolina players received ACC honors this week. Senior Nikita Bell was selected as the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Sophomore Ivory Latta was named first-team All-ACC, freshman Erlana Larkins second team and sophomore Camille Little third team. Larkins also was picked for the All-Freshman team.
UNC's current ranking of No. 3 is its highest of the season in the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll. The Tar Heels have been as high as No. 2 in the Associated Press poll and currently rank fourth. Carolina has been out of the top 10 this season just once in the AP poll (12th on Jan. 24) and once in the coaches' poll (12th in the preseason rankings).
Ivory Latta has been named one of 10 finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award and one of 30 midseason candidates for the Naismith Award.
Sylvia Hatchell has been selected as one of 20 finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award. With UNC men's coach Roy Williams also a finalist for the award, Carolina is one of three schools (Duke and Boston College are the others) with both its men's and women's coaches included among the award's finalists.
Carolina has already equalled the number of wins from last season, when the Tar Heels finished 24-7. One more win would give the Tar Heels their eighth 25-win season in school history and third in the last four years.
UNC finished the regular season with a 17-game homecourt winning streak, tied for seventh-longest in the NCAA. The Tar Heels will host NCAA Tournament first and second round games at the Dean E. Smith Center on March 20 and 22.
Senior guard Jennifer Nelms, also a member of the UNC track and field team, finished 13th in the triple jump at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships, held Feb. 17-19 in Chapel Hill.
Carolina's win over Virginia Tech on Feb. 11 gave the Tar Heels their 17th 20-win season in school history and their 12th in the last 14 years.
UNC's win over Clemson on Feb. 4 was Sylvia Hatchell's 400th at Carolina. Hatchell, in her 19th season at North Carolina and her 30th as a head coach, was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame last June.
Noting the numbers
UNC leads the nation in steals with 14.7 per game, a full 1.4 steals ahead of second-place Arkansas (13.3).
With 396 steals in 27 games this season, the Tar Heels already have more than they did in all of 2003-04 (323 in 31 games). The school record is 454 steals by the 1994 NCAA Championship team in 35 games (12.97 per game).
Erlana Larkins and Ivory Latta are on track to set single-season school records in field goal percentage and free throw percentage, respectively. Larkins is shooting .633 from the field, ahead of the UNC record of .623 (Kathy Crawford, 1983). Latta is hitting .908 percent of her free throws, significantly higher than the UNC record, .863 (Nikki Teasley in 2002).
With 69 three-pointers this season, Ivory Latta is already tied for the fourth-best year in school history. She shares the spot with Stephanie Lawrence (now Stephanie Yelton, the head coach at Charleston Southern), who hit 69 in 33 games in 1995. In third is Nikki Teasley with 77 in 2002.
Ivory Latta needs one three-pointer to move into a tie for the 10th best season total in ACC history. Tenth place is currently held by Clemson's Amy Geren, who hit 70 three-pointers in 1998.
With 300 career steals, Nikita Bell ranks 12th in ACC history and fourth in school history. She is nine steals away from moving into a tie for 11th in the ACC.
Four UNC players rank among the ACC's top 15 in field goal percentage. Erlana Larkins is first (.633), La'Tangela Atkinson is sixth (.511), Nikita Bell is 13th (.459) and Camille Little is 14th (.459). LaToya Pringle is shooting .656 from the field but does not have the minimum 3.0 makes per game to be ranked.
The Tar Heels also have four players ranked in the top 15 in steals, led by Nikita Bell in second with 3.1 per game.
Ivory Latta leads the team in minutes played with 33.6 per game (36.8 vs. ACC teams) and has played 40 minutes or more six times this season. No other Tar Heel averages more than 28.7 (Camille Little) minutes per game, but 10 players average double-digit minutes for the season.
Tar Heel trends
Ivory Latta is shooting .531 (17-32) from three-point range over the last five games - including a 4-for-4 night against Virginia on Feb. 24 - and averaging 3.4 threes per game over that span. Her season percentage is now .381, the seventh-best season average in school history.
LaToya Pringle has made 10 of her last 11 field goal attempts.
Senior Nikita Bell is putting together a strong finish to her college career. Over the last five games, she is averaging 14.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.4 steals per game while shooting .484 from the field. She had a career-high nine steals in UNC's last outing, the season-ending win over Duke.
Noting the Tar Heels in ACC Tournament Play
UNC has played in nine of the last 11 ACC Championship games and has reached 12 title games overall.
The Tar Heels have won a total of five ACC championships (1984, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998), tied with Duke for second. Maryland has won the most titles with eight.
UNC has won 38 ACC Tournament games, more than any other league team. Maryland is second with 36 wins.
The Tar Heels are playing in the ACC Tournament as a No. 1 seed for the first time since 1997 and the third time overall. Carolina is 4-1 as the top seed - UNC was 1-1 in 1982 and 3-0 to claim the crown in 1997.
UNC's record of 38-22 (.633) in tournament play is second best in the ACC to Maryland's record of 36-19 (.655).
The Tar Heels are 26-14 in ACC Tournament play under coach Sylvia Hatchell, who has directed the squad since the 1986-87 season.
Carolina holds a winning record in tournament play against every conference school except for Maryland (1-5) and NC State (5-6).
La'Tangela Atkinson, Ivory Latta, Camille Little and Leah Metcalf all have earned ACC All-Tournament honors during their careers. Latta and Little were on the first team in 2004, and Atkinson and Metcalf were on the second team in 2003.
UNC leads all schools with a total of 39 All-ACC Tournament selections, 31 on the first team and eight on the second. Next is Maryland with 32 total selections.
The series against Miami
UNC will open play in the ACC Tournament Saturday against ninth-seeded Miami, which beat eighth-seeded Georgia Tech Friday on a last-second layup by Tamara James. Carolina leads the Hurricanes 4-2 in a series that dates back to the 1980-81 season. Prior to this year's game, an 83-52 win in Chapel Hill on Jan. 17, the teams had not met since the 1991-92 season. That year the teams staged their only previous postseason meeting, when the host Hurricanes beat UNC 86-72 in an NCAA Tournament second round game on March 21, 1992.
