Tar Heels Visit Georgia Tech On Wednesday Night

GAME 9
• Carolina travels to Atlanta to resume its season after the Christmas break where the Tar Heels play at Georgia Tech on Wednesday, December 30.
• Tipoff is 8 p.m. on the Regional Sports Network, which includes Fox Sports South in North Carolina.
• UNC is 5-3 overall, 0-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tar Heels lost, 79-76, at NC State on December 22.
• The Yellow Jackets are 4-3, 0-1. They last played on December 20, a 97-69 win over Delaware State.
• The teams have one common opponent this season. UNC beat Kentucky, 75-63, in Cleveland on December 19; Tech beat the Wildcats, 79-62, in Atlanta on December 6.
• KenPom ranks Carolina as the 312th most experienced team in the nation. Six of UNC's 10 rotation players are freshman. Those freshmen have played 50.4 percent of all minutes played (806 of 1600).
• The Tar Heels are 17th in the nation in defensive efficiency and 38th in offensive.

SERIES VS. GEORGIA TECH
• Carolina is 69-26 against Georgia Tech, including 22-14 in Atlanta (16-12 in McCamish Pavilion/Alexander Memorial Coliseum).
• UNC has won four of its last five games at McCamish Pavilion, including a 77-54 win on 1/19/19.
• The Tar Heels have won nine of the last 11 games against the Yellow Jackets.
• Roy Williams is 16-10 as a head coach vs. Georgia Tech, including 15-10 as head coach of the Tar Heels.

LAST SEASON IN CHAPEL HILL
• Carolina missed its first 15 shots from the floor in Georgia Tech's 96-83 win at the Smith Center on 1/4/20. Garrison Brooks made UNC's first field goal with 6:50 to play in the first half.
• Brooks scored a career-high 35 points and made a career-best 17 of 18 from the free throw line. His free throw percentage of .944 was the second best in a game in UNC history for players with 18 or more attempts.
• The Yellow Jackets led 47-27 at halftime, UNC's largest deficit at the half in Smith Center history.
• Tech's 96 points were the most it scored against UNC since Carolina's 107-100 win in double overtime in Atlanta in 1998 and equaled the most Tech scored in Chapel Hill (1994).
• The 13-point margin was Tech's largest win in Chapel Hill (previous was 92-83 in overtime on 2/10/1996).
• Tech shot 59.0 percent from the floor, scored 58 points in the paint and 21 points off turnovers.
• Carolina shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half, when it scored 56 points (in winning the half by seven).
• Carolina missed 18 shots in the first half (16 field goal attempts and two free throws) but did not score a second-chance point. The Tar Heels did score 19 second-chance points in the second half (UNC missed 22 shots in the second half).

TAR HEELS IN ACC PLAY
• This is the 68th season of competition in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tar Heels have won the ACC regular-season title a record 32 times, including nine times in the previous 17 seasons under Roy Williams (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2019).
• Williams has the third-most regular-season championships in ACC history behind Dean Smith (17 in 36 seasons) and Mike Krzyzewski (12 in 40 seasons).
• Carolina is 705-291 in regular-season ACC games. The 705 wins are the most in ACC history.
• This is the second time in three seasons UNC opens conference play with a pair of road games.
• The Tar Heels have only started 0-2 in ACC play five times – 1980, 1997, 2009, 2013 and 2014.

NOTABLE
• Carolina was scheduled to play at home just twice in the first nine games. That's the first time UNC was scheduled to play only two home games in its first nine games since the 2007-08 season. The Tar Heels played six consecutive neutral site or away games in November-December that season.
• UNC was scheduled to play Syracuse in Chapel Hill on 1/2/21, but that game was postponed as the Orange is unable to play due to Covid-19.

Balanced Scoring
• Armando Bacot, who has led UNC in scoring in each of the last three games, is also Carolina's leading scorer for the season at 12.0 points per game. Garrison Brooks is second at 11.5 and freshmen guards Caleb Love and RJ Davis are third and fourth at 11.1 and 10.1 points, respectively.
• The last time a Tar Heel led the team in scoring with less than 13 points a game was 1947-48, when Bob Paxton averaged 12.2 points.
• No Tar Heel has scored 20 points in a game this season. Bacot's 19 points against NC Central are the season high. Eight games is the deepest into a season in the Roy Williams era that no Tar Heel has scored at least 20 points. In 2010-11, Tyler Zeller scored 20 points vs. Vanderbilt in UNC's fourth game.

Freshmen Point Guards
• Carolina has started a freshman point guard to begin each of the last three seasons (Coby White in 2018-19, Cole Anthony in 2019-20 and Caleb Love in 2020-21).
• Freshmen point guards are nothing new under Roy Williams. This is the eighth time in Williams' 18 seasons at UNC a freshman has started at the point for at least a majority of the season: Bobby Frasor in 2005-06, Ty Lawson in 2006-07, Kendall Marshall in 2010-11, Marcus Paige in 2012-13, Nate Britt in 2013-14, Coby White in 2018-19, Cole Anthony in 2019-20.

Another First-Half Deficit
• NC State led UNC, 46-29, with 3:56 to play in the first half in the Wolfpack's 79-76 win on December 22. It was the sixth time in the first eight games the Tar Heels dug a double-digit deficit in the first half. The game in Raleigh was the first of those six in which UNC did not later take the lead, although the Tar Heels closed to within a point.
• UNC is 3-3 in those six games in which it trails by 10 or more points in the first half (wins over UNLV, NC Central and Kentucky, losses to Texas, at Iowa and at NC State).
• Carolina ended the first half on a 13-3 run, pulled within a point at 63-62 with 8:38 to play, fell behind again by 13, cut that lead to two with 10 seconds to play and had two three-point chances in the final seconds that could have tied the game.
• The 17-point deficit was the largest UNC faced in its first eight games this season.
• UNC is 2-3 this season in five games it has trailed at halftime.
• The opponents have out-scored UNC by a combined 23 points in the first half, but the Tar Heels have outscored the opponents by 73 points in the second half (9.1 per game).
• In addition to the 17-point deficit at NC State:
– Kentucky led UNC, 38-34, at the half before the Tar Heels outscored the 'Cats by 16 in the second half.
– UNLV led 13-0, but the Tar Heels took their first lead with 3:24 to play in the half and led by seven at the break.
– UNC trailed both the Longhorns and Hawkeyes by 16 in the first half. Against Texas, Carolina went ahead for the first time with 2:35 remaining in the game. At Iowa, the Tar Heels grabbed one-point leads with 9:52 and 9:30 to play in the game. Iowa went on a 16-2 run after UNC took its first lead to pull away.
– NC Central led 19-8 before the Tar Heels closed the half on a 22-9 run to lead by two at intermission.
– Kentucky also led 19-8. Carolina took a 29-27 lead on an RJ Davis three-pointer, but the Cats outscored UNC 11-5 over the final four minutes of the half to lead 38-34 at the break. Kentucky extended that lead to six with 13:15 to play. UNC then held UK without a field goal for 9:11 to take a six-point lead.

Rebounding
• Three Tar Heels are averaging at least seven rebounds per game – Armando Bacot (8.4), Garrison Brooks (7.4) and Day'Ron Sharpe (7.3). Leaky Black is fourth at 6.8 per game.
• UNC has never had a season when four players averaged 7.0 rebounds per game. The last time even three players did that was 1969-70 (9.4 by Lee Dedmon, 8.6 by Charlie Scott and 7.5 by Dennis Wuycik).
• The Tar Heels are averaging 45.4 rebounds per game, including 16.3 on the offensive end of the court. UNC is third nationally in offensive rebounding and sixth in total rebounds per game.
• The school record for offensive rebounds per game is 15.8 in 2016-17.
• Carolina is averaging 19.9 second-chance points per game.
• This is the seventh consecutive season UNC is averaging at least 40 rebounds per game (the 14th time in Roy Williams' 18 seasons as UNC's head coach).
• Kentucky is the only team to out-rebound the Tar Heels this season (42-38). UNC's rebound margin of plus 12.5 per game is on pace to top the previous school record of +12.3 in 2016-17.
• Carolina has finished first, first, first and second in the nation in rebounds per game in the last four seasons and in the top 10 nationally in rebound margin in each of the last six seasons.
• Sharpe and Bacot and lead UNC in rebounds per 40 minutes at 16.1 and 14.2, respectively.
• Bacot is second in the ACC in offensive rebounding (3.63) and fourth in total rebounds per game (8.4). Brooks and Sharpe are tied for third in offensive rebounds (3.0).
• Carolina is third nationally in offensive rebound percentage, grabbing 41.8 percent of its own missed shots. Nationally, Sharpe and Bacot are 17th and 34th respectively in offensive rebound percentage.

Shooting
• Sophomore forward Armando Bacot leads the team in field goal percentage at 74.5 percent. Bacot would easily lead the ACC, but makes 4.4 field goals per game, shy of the minimum (5.0)required to be recogized in the league statistics. He has made 6.0 per game over the last three contests, when he made 18 of 24 shots from the floor.
• Bacot has shot 50 percent or better from the floor in all eight games (better than 50 percent in seven of eight), something he did in 16 of 32 games last season.
• Carolina shot 51.5 percent from the floor in the first half at NC State. The Tar Heels have shot better than 50 percent from the floor in at least one half in each of the last four games (and in four of the last seven halves after making 50 percent in just one of the first nine halves this season).
• The Tar Heels have made a combined nine three-pointers in the last three games (two vs. NC Central, five vs. Kentucky and two at NC State) and 31 in eight games this season.
• UNC is averaging 3.88 three-pointers per game, which would be the second-lowest figure in school history (the 1982-83 team averaged 3.67).
• Carolina has made a combined nine three-pointers in its three losses this season. Texas, Iowa and NC State combined to make 34 threes (11.3 per game).

Brooks the 78th Tar Heel to Score 1,000
• Garrison Brooks scored his 1,000th career point in the win over UNLV on November 30. He is the 78th player to score 1,000 points as a Tar Heel and the first to do so since Luke Maye, who reached that figure in 2018-19.
• The LaFayette, Ala., native has 1,083 points, 69th most by a Tar Heel. He passed Jerry Stackhouse (1,080) at NC State. Next up among four-year players is Dante Calabria (1,098).
• He led the ACC in scoring in conference play last season with 18.8 points per game.
• Carolina holds the NCAA record with 78 1,000-point scorers. Louisville is second with 69.

Most 1,000-POINT SCORERS
North Carolina 78
Louisville 69
Villanova 68
Duke 67
Notre Dame 64

Four-Year Starters
• Garrison Brooks is the 20th Tar Heel to start regularly in four different seasons, the first since Kennedy Meeks (2013-17) and the fourth to do so in the Roy Williams era (with Tyler Hansbrough from 2005-09, Marcus Paige from 2012-16 and Meeks).
• Only 13 Tar Heels have started for most of four seasons since freshmen became eligible to play in 1972-73 (Walter Davis, Phil Ford, Mike O'Koren, Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty, Kenny Smith, Jeff Lebo, Ademola Okulaja, Jason Capel, Kris Lang, Hansbrough, Paige and Meeks).

Roy's 48th Season in Coaching
• The 2020-21 season is Roy Williams' 18th as head coach of the Tar Heels, 33rd as a collegiate head coach (15 years at Kansas), 43rd in college coaching (10 years as an assistant to Dean Smith at UNC) and 48th in coaching (five years at Owen High School in Asheville).
• Williams has an all-time head coaching record in college of 890-256, including 472-155 at Carolina.
• He has the fourth-most wins by a Division I head coach behind Mike Krzyzewski (1,160), Jim Boeheim (970) and Bob Knight (902). He needs 10 wins for 900 and 13 to pass Knight.
• Williams is the only coach to win 400 games at two schools (470 at UNC, 418 at Kansas).
• Williams has the third-most regular-season ACC wins all-time (202), the third-highest winning percentage in ACC road games all-time (.616), the third-most ACC road wins all-time (90) and the fifth-highest winning percentage in ACC regular-season games (.694).

AP Poll
• Carolina's loss to NC State resulted in the Tar Heels dropping to 28th in the AP poll.
• UNC is out of the top 25 for the first time this season.
• UNC has been ranked 928 times in the AP poll, more than any other school in college basketball history (Kentucky is second with 920).
• The Tar Heels have been ranked at some point in 64 of 73 seasons in the AP poll.

2020 Signees
• D'Marco Dunn, a 6-5 guard from Tucson, Ariz., and Dontrez Styles, a 6-7 wing from Kinston, N.C., signed National Letters of Intent to play for the Tar Heels.
• Dunn moved in 2019 to Fayetteville, N.C., where he plays at Westover High School for Coach George Stackhouse. He led Westover to a 30-0 record and conference title. Westover was named co-state champions by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association after the playoffs were canceled due to the pandemic.
• Dunn was an all-state selection in 2020 and was named PAC 9 Conference, Cumberland County and District Player of the Year. He previously attended Marana High School in Tucson for two years before moving to Fayetteville.
• Styles played for Coach Perry Tyndall at Kinston High School. He averaged 19.7 points and 11 rebounds as a junior when he led Kinston to a 26-4 record.
• A four-time honor roll student, Styles was the 2019-20 Eastern Conference Player of the Year, a three-time all-conference selection, all-state honoree and an all-tournament pick at the John Wall Holiday Invitational.

2020-21 NBA Tar Heels
Cole Anthony (Orlando); Harrison Barnes (Sacramento); Tony Bradley (Philadelphia); Reggie Bullock (New York); Ed Davis (Minnesota); Wayne Ellington (Detroit); Danny Green (Philadelphia); John Henson (Detroit); Justin Jackson (Oklahoma City); Cameron Johnson (Phoenix); Nassir Little (Portland); Theo Pinson (New York); Coby White (Chicago).

Jamison to Enter College Hall of Fame
• Antawn Jamison will become the 12th Tar Heel player or coach enshrined in the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame. He will join coaches Ben Carnevale, Frank McGuire, Dean Smith, Larry Brown (who played at UNC) and Roy Williams, and players Billy Cunningham, Bob McAdoo, James Worthy, Phil Ford, Charlie Scott and Sam Perkins.
• The Class of 2021 includes Jamison, the late Len Bias of Maryland, UCLA's David Greenwood, Bradley's Hersey Hawkins, Ohio State's Jim Jackson, Kansas's Paul Pierce (coached by Roy Williams) and coaches Rick Byrd and Tom Penders.
• Jamison was the 1998 National Player of the Year and first ACC player to earn first-team All-ACC honors as a freshman, sophomore and junior. He was the third player in ACC history to be named ACC Player of the Year, ACC Tournament MVP, NCAA Regional MVP and National Player of the Year in the same season (1997-98).

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Players Mentioned

Cole Anthony

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

RJ Davis

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Caleb Love

Luke Maye

Day'Ron Sharpe

Coby White