Tar Heels Will Open NCAA Play Friday Vs. Iona

GAME 34: NCAA FIRST ROUND NOTEBOOK
• North Carolina is the No. 1 seed in the 2019 NCAA Midwest Regional and will play Iona on Friday at 9:20 PM in Columbus, Ohio.
• Carolina is a No. 1 seed for a record 17th time. This is the best four-year stretch (2016-19) based on NCAA Tournament seeds in Carolina Basketball history (1,1,2,1). Previous bests were 1981-84 (2,1,2,1); 1982-85 (1,2,1,2); 2005-08 (1,3,1,1) and 2006-09 (3,1,1,1).
• Carolina is 27-6 overall. The Tar Heels won a share of the ACC regular season title for the ninth time in Roy Williams' 16 seasons and the 32nd time in school history.
• The Tar Heels were the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament and went 1-1, defeating Louisville, 83-70, and falling to Duke, 74-73.
• UNC is playing in its 50th NCAA Tournament. Only Kentucky (58) has more appearances.
• Carolina is 124-46 in NCAA Tournament games. UNC is second in NCAA history in appearances, wins, games and winning percentage (.729).
• Carolina has earned No. 1 seeds in 1979, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2019. The Tar Heels advanced to the Final Four 10 times as a No. 1 seed and won the national championship five times as a No. 1 seed.
• Roy Williams is a No. 1 seed for the 13th time, second most in NCAA Tournament history.
• This is the eighth time in 16 seasons as Carolina's head coach Roy Williams has led the Tar Heels to a No. 1 seed. UNC also was a No. 2 seed twice under Williams. UNC had earned a No. 1 seed five times in the 25 years prior to Williams becoming the head coach.
• Carolina is playing in the NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, for the first time. This is UNC's first game in Columbus since 11-28-2007, a 66-55 win over Ohio State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The game was played in the Schottenstein Center.
• Carolina is playing in the Midwest Regional for the first time since 2012, when it reached the Elite Eight in St. Louis. UNC also played in the Midwest Regional in 1980 and 1990.
• Carolina is No. 3 in the final Associated Press poll. This is UNC's highest finish since 2016, when the Tar Heels also were third. It is UNC's 38th top-10 finish in the 71-year history of the AP poll. It is Roy Williams' 20th top-10 finish (11 at UNC) and 15th top-five (eight at UNC).

CO-REGULAR-SEASON ACC CHAMPS
• Carolina and Virginia earned a share of the 2019 ACC regular-season title with identical 16-2 records, two games ahead of third-place Duke.
• The Tar Heels and Cavaliers both lost in the ACC Tournament semifinals, but both teams also were rewarded with No. 1 seeds.
• Carolina won its 32nd regular-season ACC title, most in league history. Duke is second with 19 and Virginia is third with nine.
• Roy Williams has won nine regular-season ACC titles in 16 years. He has led UNC to more regular-season championships than every other school has won in their program's history except Duke and Virginia.
• Roy Williams has led Carolina (9) and Kansas (9) to 18 regular-season conference titles in 31 years as head coach. That is tied for the third most in college basketball history behind only Adolph Rupp of Kentucky (28) and Phog Allen (24) of Kansas.

JOHNSON, MAYE, WHITE EARN ALL-ACC HONORS
• Cameron Johnson earned a spot on the 2019 All-Atlantic Coast Conference first team, while teammates Luke Maye and Coby White made the second team, giving the Tar Heels three of the top 10 spots on the league's all-star teams.
• Johnson was the fourth-leading vote-getter among the first-team selections, with Maye, a first-team pick in 2018, receiving the sixth-most votes overall and the most among the second-team honorees. Johnson is the 78th first-team All-ACC selection for the Tar Heels, most in league history.
• White received the ninth-most votes for the all-conference teams and also earned a spot on the All-Freshman team. He was chosen by 67 of 70 voters for the All-Freshman team, the second-highest vote-getter behind Duke's Zion Williamson.
• Johnson, Maye and White also were among 10 players on the USBWA's All-District III team.

ROY NAMED USA TODAY COACH OF THE YEAR
• USA Today named Roy Williams its National Coach of the Year.
• This is the ninth season Williams has earned National Coach of the Year honors.
• The previous selections came in: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2017.

ALL-ACC TOURNAMENT
• Cameron Johnson scored 23 points against Duke in the semifinals to earn a spot on the 2019 ACC All-Tournament team.
• Luke Maye and Coby White were second-team All-Tournament selections.
• Maye was a first-team selection in 2018.

WHITE A TISDALE AWARD FINALIST
• Point guard Coby White is one of four finalists for the USBWA's Wayman Tisdale Award, which is presented to the National Freshman of the Year.
• White joins Detroit's Antoine Davis and Duke's RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson as finalists.

MAYE A TWO-TIME ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA
• Luke Maye earned his second consecutive Academic All-America award.
• Maye was named to the Academic All-America second team. He is the fourth Tar Heel men's basketball player to earn Academic All-America honors in multiple seasons with Tom LaGarde (1975, 1976), Tyler Zeller (2011, 2012) and Marcus Paige (2014, 2015, 2016).
• Maye majors in business administration in the nationally-renowned Kenan-Flagler Business School.

MAYE, LITTLE EARN ACADEMIC ALL-ACC HONORS
• Senior forward Luke Maye is the 2019 winner of the Skip Prosser Award, given by the ACC to the league's top scholar-athlete in men's basketball.
• Maye also won the Prosser Award in 2018. Tar Heels have won the award six times in the last nine years.
• Freshman forward Nassir Little joined Maye on the 2019 Academic All-ACC team. Little is the fifth UNC freshman to earn a spot on the Academic All-ACC team.
• Maye is the fourth Tar Heel to earn Academic All-ACC honors four times.

MAYE, WILLIAMS CLIMBING IN ALL-TIME WINS
• Carolina has won 119 games in the last four seasons (including 2018-19). That is the fourth-most wins in any four-year span in UNC Basketball history. The only classes with more are 2009 (124), 2008 (123) and 2010 (121).
• Luke Maye has played in 108 wins in his career.
• Kenny Williams has played in 100 victories.

MAYE'S WINS IN ACC PLAY
• Luke Maye played in 59 wins in ACC regular season and ACC Tournament play. That is tied with Nate Britt and Isaiah Hicks for for the most ACC wins by a Tar Heel. They played at Carolina from 2013-17, capping their careers with the national championship.
• Maye played in 52 ACC regular-season wins and seven ACC Tournament victories.

WHITE A FIVE-TIME ROOKIE WINNER
• Coby White was the second-leading vote-getter on the ACC All-Freshman team (behind only Zion Williamson) and won Freshman of the Week honors five times, including the last two weeks and four times in league play. White is the 25th Tar Heel to win ACC Freshman of the Week multiple times. His five awards equal the fourth most by any UNC freshman.

SERIES NOTES
• Carolina is 3-1 against Iona, its opponent in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
• Carolina is 2-0 vs. the Gaels in Chapel Hill and 1-1 in New York's Madison Square Garden.
• The teams last played on 11-18-2007 in the Smith Center in the Las Vegas Invitational. The No. 1-ranked Tar Heels won, 107-72, behind 27 points from Tyler Hansbrough, 15 from Danny Green and 13 points and nine assists by Ty Lawson.
• Iona's head coach, Tim Cluess, was Danny Green's high school coach at St. Mary's High School in Manhassett, N.Y.
• Carolina and Utah State have never played.
• Carolina is 2-0 against Washington.
• The Tar Heels beat the Huskies on 12-29-1972 in Honolulu in the Rainbow Classic and 3-20-2011 in Charlotte in the second round of the NCAA East Regional.
• The Huskies led the 2011 NCAA Tournament game by a point at the half, but Carolina won, 86-83 behind Tyler Zeller's 23 points, Harrison Barnes 22 points, John Henson's 10 rebounds and four blocks and Kendall Marshall's 13 points and 14 assists (most ever by a Tar Heel in an NCAA Tournament game).
• Terrence Ross led four Huskies in double figures with 19 points; Isaiah Thomas scored a dozen and had eight assists.

AP POLL NOTES
• Carolina is No. 3 in the final 2018-19 AP poll, which was released on March 18.
• It is Carolina's 38th top-10 finish, 25th top-five finish and 12th top-three finish in the AP poll.
• Carolina has finished in the top 10 in 38 seasons and out of the top 10 in just 33 seasons.
• Carolina has finished in the top 10 in 27 of the last 39 years. UNC has finished the season ranked in the AP poll 51 times.
• It is Roy Williams' 20th top-10 finish in 31 years as a head coach (11 in 16 seasons at Carolina) and 12th top-five (eight at UNC).
• Carolina has been ranked in the AP poll 916 times, more than any other school in college basketball history.
• This is Carolina's eighth consecutive week in the top 10.
• UNC reached as high as No. 3 in the AP poll this season. It was the highest ranking in the AP poll since week four in 2016-17 (also No. 3).
• This is the 100th consecutive AP poll in which the Tar Heels are ranked, dating back to mid-conference play in the 2013-14 season.
• UNC began the year No. 8 in the preseason AP poll. It was the 13th time in 16 seasons under Roy Williams UNC was ranked in the preseason Top 10.
• This season is the 56th time in 71 seasons the Tar Heels have been ranked in the top 10 in at least one week of the poll.

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Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Luke Maye

Coby White

Kenny Williams