Tar Heels Set To Face UCLA In Las Vegas

GAME 12 NOTEBOOK
• North Carolina will met UCLA on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas.
• Carolina is 6-5 overall. The Tar Heels have lost four consecutive games; to No. 6 Ohio State in the Smith Center, at No. 5 Virginia, to Wofford in Carmichael Arena and at No. 2 Gonzaga.
• This is the first time UNC has lost four straight games since the 2009-10 season (to Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Duke). UNC has not lost five in a row since 2002-03 (the season before Roy Williams became the head coach).
• UNC is 0-4 in December. This is the first time UNC has lost four games in December since 1999-2000 (Michigan State, Cincinnati, Indiana and Louisville). UNC has not lost five times in December since the 1950-51 season.
• Carolina's leading scorer, freshman point guard Cole Anthony, is expected to miss four to six weeks after undergoing an arthroscopic procedure to treat a partially torn meniscus in his right knee on Dec. 16. He did not play in the last two games against Wofford and Gonzaga. He is averaging 19.1 points per game, second among all freshmen in the nation.
• Carolina is unranked this week. That snaps a 106-week stretch in which the Tar Heels were ranked in the AP poll. The last time UNC was unranked was week 16 in 2013-14. The 106-week stretch was the third-longest in Carolina history.
• Gonzaga was UNC's third top-10 opponent in a four-game stretch (No. 6 Ohio State, No. 5 Virginia and No. 2 Gonzaga). It was the first time UNC played three top-10 teams in December since 2009-10, when UNC beat No. 9 Michigan State, lost at No. 5 Kentucky and lost to No. 2 Texas in Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
• Christian Keeling (12) and Jeremiah Francis (11) both scored in double figures for the first time this season at Gonzaga. For Keeling, it was his first time as a Tar Heel, but 88th in college (previous 87 came at Charleston Southern). For Francis, it was his first time scoring double figures in a high school or college game in 1,000 days since he scored 16 against Archbishop Moeller in a 3/24/2017 Ohio high school playoff game. He did play AAU games later that summer, but didn't play his junior or senior season at Pickerington Central HS due to left knee injuries.

UNC-UCLA
• Carolina is 9-3 against the Bruins, including wins in each of the last four games and eight of nine.
• Carolina has the highest winning percentage (.750) against UCLA of any team that has played the Bruins 10 or more times.

Highest Winning Percentage vs. UCLA
(min. 10 games)
.750 by North Carolina (9-3)
.700 by St. John's (7-3)
.625 by Duke (10-6)
.533 by Kentucky (8-7)
.500 by BYU (12-12)
.500 by Indiana (6-6)

• This is the first meeting when both teams are unranked in the AP poll. UNC is 23rd in the current coaches poll.
• The Tar Heels beat the Bruins 94-78 in Las Vegas on 11/23/2018 in the consolation game of the Las Vegas Invitational.
• Roy Williams is 7-2 all-time as a head coach against UCLA, including 3-0 at UNC.
• Carolina has won 14 consecutive games against Pac-12 opponents, including a 78-74 win over Oregon this season in The Bahamas.
• Carolina is 15-1 against Pac-12 opponents in the Roy Williams Era.

LAST TIME THEY MET
UNC 94, UCLA 78 (11/23/2018)
• Cameron Johnson and Luke Maye combined for seven first-half points and 23 in the second half.
• Johnson finished with 14 points, 11 of which he scored in the second half. He scored UNC's first nine points of the second half.
• Freshman Coby White had 19 points and eight assists.
• Carolina committed only six turnovers, including only one in the second half.
• Carolina scored 53 points and shot 53.1 percent on 41 possessions in the second half.
• Carolina tied its season high with 11 three-pointers.
• Brandon Robinson tied his career high with four assists (and had no turnovers) in 14 minutes of action.

STAT TRENDS
• UNC is 6-5. That's UNC's fewest wins through the first 11 games since going 5-6 in 2001-02 (5-7 through 12 games that season).
• The Tar Heels lead the nation in rebounding (45.3), are sixth in rebound margin (+10.8) and ninth in offensive rebounds per game (14.6).
• Carolina scored a season-high 81 points at Gonzaga. It was the first time this season the Tar Heels scored 80 or more points. It was the first time UNC scored less than 80 points in each of the first 10 games since 1949-50.
• Carolina has shot under 50 percent from the floor in the first 11 games. That's the longest stretch to open a season since the 1959-60 team shot 53.6 percent against Duke in the 16th game of the season.
• Carolina shot 45.6 percent at Gonzaga, which matched the team's second-highest percentage in a game this season (with Gardner-Webb in the third game; season-high is .467 against Notre Dame in the opener).
• Eleven straight games is the most consecutive games under 50 percent from the floor since 18 straight in 2009-10 (last 17 games) and 2010-11 (first game).
• Carolina's field goal percentage (.403) is its lowest since the 1957-58 season and its three-point percentage (.295) is its lowest ever.
• Carolina is 10th in the ACC in scoring at 69.4 points per game. Carolina has finished first, first, second and first in the ACC in scoring in the last four seasons.
• In Roy Williams' previous 16 seasons, Carolina has led the ACC in scoring eight times, finished second five times and third three times.
• No Roy Williams-coached team in 16 previous seasons at UNC has averaged less than 74.5 points per game (in 2009-10). The lowest scoring average in 15 seasons at Kansas (1988-2003) was 72.1 in 1998-99. Williams' teams have averaged 80 or more points in 23 of his previous 31 seasons as a head coach.

WILLIAMS NO. 5 IN ALL-TIME WINS
• The win over Oregon was Carolina head coach Roy Williams' 877th, moving him ahead of Kentucky's Adolph Rupp for fifth place in wins by a Division I head coach. Fellow Naismith Hall of Famer Dean Smith, under whom Williams spent 10 years as an assistant coach, is fourth with 879.
• Roy Williams has won 459 games as UNC's head coach, fourth most at an ACC school. He is three wins from passing Gary Williams, who won 461 games at Maryland.

Most Wins by a Division I Head Coach
1141 Mike Krzyzewski
951 Jim Boeheim
902 Bob Knight
879 Dean Smith
877 Roy Williams
876 Adolph Rupp

Most Wins as ACC Head Coach, All Games
1069 Mike Krzyzewski Duke
879 Dean Smith North Carolina
461 Gary Williams Maryland
459 Roy Williams North Carolina
354 Bobby Cremins Georgia Tech

KENPOM NOTABLES
• This season Ken Pomeroy began tracking 'minutes continuity,' which determines what percentage of a team's minutes are played by the same player from last season to this season. The national average is approximately 50 percent.
• Carolina is 325th in minutes continuity at 24.6 percent.
• Carolina has played the 11th most difficult schedule in the country. UNC has already played against (current AP rankings) No. 6 Ohio State, No. 11 Oregon, No. 11 Virginia, No. 14 Michigan and No. 2 Gonzaga in the next game. Fourth-ranked Louisville and No. 5 Duke are among UNC's conference foes.
• Carolina is 300th in effective field goal percentage at .448. That is UNC's lowest since KenPom began tracking stats in 2001-02. The previous low was .480 in 2009-10. UNC has been above 50 percent in each of the last five seasons.
• Carolina is 291st in two-point percentage (.450), 285th in 3FG percentage (.295) and 313th in free throw percentage (.638).
• Carolina is No. 17 nationally in offensive rebound percentage. The Tar Heels grab 36.3 percent of their own misses.

MEDIA POLLING
• Coming off three straight losses, Carolina fell out of the top 25 in this week's Associated Press poll. UNC had been ranked in the top 10 in each of the first five weeks of the 2019-20 AP poll.
• This is the first time in 107 polls that the Tar Heels are not ranked in the AP poll.
• The last time UNC was not in the AP top 25 was the 16th week in the 2013-14 season.
• UNC has finished the season in the top 10 in each of the last four seasons (3 in 2015-16, 5 in 2016-17, 10 in 2017-18 and 3 in 2018-19).
• Carolina has been ranked in 922 AP polls, the most rankings of any school in the country.
• Carolina has finished in the Top 10 of the AP poll 38 times, including 27 of the previous 39 years.

AP POLL STREAKS
• Carolina's 106-week streak of being ranked in the AP poll was the third longest in UNC history and the sixth longest in ACC history.
• UNC's longest streaks include:
172 weeks from 11/1/90 to 1/18/2000;
171 weeks from 12/5/72 to 12/14/82;
106 weeks from 2/24/14 to 12/16/2019;
87 weeks from 11/27/84 to 12/5/90

HEADING HOME
• Carolina's players and staff will head to the respective homes for the Christmas break following the game versus UCLA. The Tar Heels are off until Dec. 30 when they play host to Yale.
• The Yale game is the final one of the calendar year and the first of four consecutive home games for UNC, its longest homestand of the season.
• After Yale, UNC plays host to ACC foes Georgia Tech (Jan. 4), Pittsburgh (Jan. 8) and Clemson (Jan. 11).

2019 SIGNEES
• R.J. Davis, a 5-11 guard from White Plains, N.Y.
• Donovan "Puff" Johnson, a 6-7 forward from Moon Township, Pa.
• Walker Kessler, a 7-0 forward from Newnan, Ga.
• Caleb Love, a 6-3 guard from St. Louis, Mo.
• Day'Ron Sharpe, a 6-10 forward from Greenville, N.C.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cole Anthony

Jeremiah Francis

Cameron Johnson

Christian Keeling

Luke Maye

Brandon Robinson

Coby White

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University of North Carolina Athletics