UNC To Host Notre Dame In ACC Home Opener Saturday

GAME 10
• Carolina opens the new year by playing host to Notre Dame on Saturday, January 2, at 4 p.m.
• The teams were originally scheduled to play in Chapel Hill on January 30, but Saturday's game was scheduled on New Year's Eve after both teams had games on the 2nd postponed. UNC was slated to host Syracuse, while the Irish were supposed to play at Pittsburgh. Both games were postponed due to Covid-19 issues at Syracuse and Pitt.
• Carolina is 5-4 overall, 0-2 in the ACC. The Tar Heels have lost four of their last six games, including 72-67 at Georgia Tech on December 30.
• The Tar Heels led, 35-29, at halftime and had a 61-53 lead with under seven minutes to play but made only two of their last nine shots from the floor as the Yellow Jackets ended the game on a 19-6 run. UNC made a season-high eight three-pointers but committed 18 turnovers and allowed Georgia Tech to shoot 61.5 percent from the floor, highest by an opponent this year. More notes from this game may be found on page 10.
• Notre Dame also lost on Wednesday, a 66-57 defeat at home to Virginia. The Irish are 3-5 overall, also 0-2 in the ACC.
• This is UNC's second consecutive game in which both teams had one common opponent – Kentucky. Like Georgia Tech, both UNC and Notre Dame defeated the Wildcats earlier this season. Carolina beat UK on a neutral court in Cleveland, while the Irish beat Kentucky, 64-63, in Lexington.
• KenPom ranks Carolina as the 316th most experienced team in the nation. Six of UNC's 10 rotation players are freshman. Those freshmen have played 50.9 percent of all minutes played (909 of 1800).

SERIES VS. NOTRE DAME
• Carolina leads the series, 25-8, including 7-1 at home.
• Carolina has won seven of the last eight games against Notre Dame.
• The Tar Heels are 9-4 since the Irish joined the ACC in 2013-14.
• UNC is 6-1 vs. the Irish in the Smith Center and 1-0 in Greensboro in a contest designated as a home game.
• Roy Williams is 10-4 against Notre Dame (all while head coach of the Tar Heels).

LAST SEASON VS. THE IRISH
• The teams split a pair of games, each winning on their respective home courts.
• Carolina beat the Irish, 76-65, on 11/6/19, in the season opener for both teams as freshman Cole Anthony scored 34 points, most ever by an ACC freshman in his college debut.
• Anthony scored 23 points in the second half to help UNC overcome a five-point deficit.
• Garrison Brooks was the only other Tar Heel in double figures with 10 (and nine rebounds, three blocks), Andrew Platek scored eight, Armando Bacot had eight rebouds and Leaky Black added five assists.
• Carolina shot 31.3 percent from the floor in the first half and 64.3 percent (18 of 28) in the second.
• Carolina made 10 of 20 from three-point range and out-rebounded the Irish, 51-31.
• At Notre Dame on 2/17/20, Nate Laszewski made a three-pointer with 2.4 seconds to play to lift the Irish to a 77-76 win.
• Carolina led 64-49 with 8:15 to play. The 15-point lead was UNC's largest in a loss last season.
• It was the second consecutive game (and third time in four games) Carolina lost on a basket with less than three seconds to play.
• After the Irish scored the first two points of the second half to lead by five, the Tar Heels went on a 31-13 run.
• The Irish out-scored UNC, 28-12, over the final 8:14.
• Anthony (23) and Garrison Brooks (22) combined for 45 points.

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 705-292 in 997 regular-season ACC games. The 997 games and 705 wins are the most in ACC history.
• The Tar Heels have started 0-2 in ACC play six times – 1980, 1997, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2021. UNC was 0-3 in league play in 1997 and 2014.

NOTABLE
Balanced Scoring
• Armando Bacot, who has led UNC in scoring in each of the last four games, is also Carolina's leading scorer for the season at 12.2 points per game. Garrison Brooks is second at 11.2 and freshmen guards Caleb Love and RJ Davis are third and fourth at 10.8 and 9.6 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. Nine games is the deepest into a season in the Roy Williams era that no Tar Heel has scored at least 20 points. The previous high number of games into a season was four in in 2010-11 (Tyler Zeller scored 20 points vs. Vanderbilt in UNC's fourth game).
• Carolina has scored 80 points (at Iowa) one time this season. In 18 seaons under Roy Williams UNC has scored 80 or more points 346 times in 628 games (55.1 percent).

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.

Better First Half in Atlanta
• Carolina had three different 11-point leads in the first half at Georgia Tech, never trailed in the opening 20 minutes and had a 35-29 lead at the half. Those 11-point leads marked the second time in nine games UNC led by double figures in the opening half.
• Georgia Tech did not take the lead until 11:24 remained in the game.
• Conversely, UNC has trailed by 10 or more points in the first half six times (wins over UNLV, NC Central and Kentucky, losses to Texas, at Iowa and at NC State).
• 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.
• 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 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 17 points in the first half, but the Tar Heels have outscored the opponents by 59 points in the second half.
• 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 (8.0), Garrison Brooks (7.8) and Day'Ron Sharpe (7.2). Leaky Black is fourth at 6.3 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 44.4 rebounds per game, including 15.6 on the offensive end of the court. UNC is seventh nationally in offensive rebounding and eighth in total rebounds per game.
• The school record for offensive rebounds per game is 15.8 in 2016-17.
• Carolina is averaging 18.4 second-chance points per game. UNC scored a season-low seven second-chance points at Georgia Tech.
• 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 12.4 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 15.9 and 13.6, respectively.
• Bacot is second in the ACC in offensive rebounding (3.2) and fifth in total rebounds per game (8.0). Brooks and Sharpe are tied for third in offensive rebounds (3.0).
• Carolina is fourth nationally in offensive rebound percentage, grabbing 40.7 percent of its own missed shots.

Shooting
• Sophomore forward Armando Bacot leads the team in field goal percentage at 72.7 percent. Bacot would easily lead the ACC, but he makes 4.4 field goals per game, shy of the minimum (5.0)required to be recogized in the league statistics. He has made 5.8 per game over the last four contests, when he made 23 of 32 shots from the floor.
• Bacot has shot 50 percent or better from the floor in all nine games (better than 50 percent in eight of nine), something he did in 16 of 32 games last season.
• UNC made a season-high eight three-pointers at Georgia Tech (first time five players made a three). The Tar Heels are averaging 4.3 three-pointers per game.
• Carolina has been out-scored by a combined 81 points from the three-point line in its four losses this season. Texas, Iowa, NC State and Georgia Tech combined to make 44 threes (11.0 per game), while the Tar Heels made 17 in those games (eight at Tech).

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 1,092 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 890-257, including 472-156 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 (.612), the third-most ACC road wins all-time (90) and the sixth-highest winning percentage in ACC regular-season games (.692).

AP Poll
• Carolina's loss to NC State resulted in the Tar Heels dropping to 28th in the AP poll.
• UNC is unranked 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); Justin Jackson (Oklahoma City); Cameron Johnson (Phoenix); Nassir Little (Portland); Theo Pinson (New York); Coby White (Chicago).

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Players Mentioned

Cole Anthony

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

RJ Davis

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Caleb Love

Luke Maye

Andrew Platek

Day'Ron Sharpe

Coby White