Carolina Welcomes Wake Forest To Smith Center On Wednesday Night

Wednesday, January 20

Chapel Hill

7 PM

North Carolina

Wake Forest

Photo by: Maggie Hobson

Carolina Welcomes Wake Forest To Smith Center On Wednesday Night

January 18, 2021 | Men's Basketball

UNC Notes

GAME 14
• The Tar Heels open a two-game homestand when they play host to Wake Forest on Wednesday, January 20, at 7 p.m.
• Carolina is 8-5 overall, 3-3 in the ACC.
• RJ Davis was the ACC Freshman of the Week for his play against Syracuse and Florida State. He averaged 14.0 points, was 9 of 17 from the floor, 4 of 9 from three, 6 for 6 from the free throw line, and had four assists, three steals and only one turnover in the two games.
• Davis is the second Tar Heel to earn ACC Freshman of the Week honors this season. Day'Ron Sharpe won the award following the Georgia Tech and Notre Dame games.
• Davis and Sharpe mark the first time multiple Tar Heels have won ACC Freshman of the Week honors in the same season since 2011, when Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall each won the award three times and Reggie Bullock won it once.
• Florida State defeated UNC, 82-75, in Tallahassee on Jan. 16. That snapped a three-game UNC win streak in league play.
• Three freshmen guards scored in double figures (RJ Davis 16, Kerwin Walton 14 and Caleb Love 11) and Anthony Harris scored five points and had three assists in his season debut in the loss to Florida State.
• Walton made four of UNC's season-high 10 three-pointers vs. FSU. It marked the first time since November 2018 the Tar Heels lost a game when making 10 or more threes.
• Florida State was 26 for 27 from the free throw line, the third-highest percentage (.963) ever by a Tar Heel opponent.
• Wake Forest has lost five consecutive conference games and is 3-5 overall, 0-5 in the ACC. The Deacons lost, 64-60, to Virginia Tech at home on Jan. 17.
• This is the only scheduled regular-season game between UNC and Wake Forest.
• Carolina is 4-0 at home this season, with non-conference wins over Charleston and NC Central and league victories over Notre Dame and Syracuse.
• Carolina leads the nation in offensive rebounds per game (16.4) and offensive rebound percentage (.418) and is averaging 18.0 second-chance points per game.
• Carolina's six ACC games have been decided by three, five, one, two, six and seven points.
• In its six ACC games, UNC has scored 432 points and allowed 438.
• Carolina has been outscored by 20 points in the first half and has outscored its opponents by 67 in the second.
• The Tar Heels have made 40 three-pointers in the last five games (8.0) after freshman Kerwin Walton was inserted into the starting lineup. UNC made 31 threes in its first eight games (3.9 per).

SERIES VS. WAKE FOREST
• Carolina leads 162-67, including 78-18 in Chapel Hill.
• The Tar Heels have won six straight against the Demon Deacons at home and are 23-5 all-time in the Smith Center.
• Carolina has won one in a row and seven of the last eight overall.
• Roy Williams is 18-7 against Wake Forest (16-6 at UNC, 2-1 at Kansas).
• The 162 wins against Wake Forest are the most by Carolina against an opponent.

LAST SEASON VS. THE DEMON DEACONS
• The teams split a pair of games last season, each winning on its home court.
• Wake Forest won, 74-57, in Winston-Salem on 2/11/20.
• The Deacons led by 18 at the half and 26 with 16:41 to play, which was UNC's largest deficit in any regular-season game last season.
• UNC cut the deficit to nine with 2:37 remaining and had a three-point attempt to make it six, but missed and Wake Forest scored the game's final eight points.
• Cole Anthony and Christian Keeling led UNC with 15 points. Anthony had a season-high seven turnovers.
• Carolina made a season-low one three-pointer in 16 attempts.
• On Senior Night in Chapel Hill, Carolina shot 50.8 percent from the floor in winning its third straight ACC game, its longest conference win streak last season.
• Carolina shot 64.3 percent from the floor in the second half, which equaled its best percentage in any half all season, and scored 58 points in the second half, the most in any half in 2019-20.
• Unlike the game in Winston-Salem when UNC was 1 for 16 from three-point range, Carolina made 10 of 17 threes for a season-best percentage of .588.
• Carolina committed a season-low seven turnovers (one in the second half).
• Anthony led UNC with 28 points and seven assists and Brooks scored 25, his third straight game with at least 25 points.
• Senior guard Brandon Robinson made five threes and scored 18 points.

NOTABLE
• KenPom ranks Carolina as the 327th-most experienced team in the nation (out of 342 teams). Six of UNC's 10 rotation players are freshmen. Those freshmen have played 50.2 percent of all minutes played (1,306 of 2,600).
• Freshmen have made 29 starts this season, including 11 by Caleb Love and 10 by RJ Davis. That's the third most in the country behind Kentucky and Kansas State.
• Freshman Kerwin Walton has started the last five games.
• UNC started the same five players in the first eight games, then featured a different group of starters in four of the last five contests.
• 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 and Caleb Love in 2020-21.

• Armando Bacot leads UNC in scoring at 11.2 points per game. The last time a Tar Heel led the team in scoring with less than 12 points a game was 1946-47 (Jim Hamilton 11.4 ppg).
• Bacot and Garrison Brooks (10.8) are averaging in double figures. The last time only two Tar Heels averaged 10 or more points was 2009-10.
• Six different Tar Heels have led UNC in scoring in the first 13 games. Bacot has led a team-high four times. Garrison Brooks had 16 points vs. Syracuse, his third high-point game of the season. RJ Davis and Caleb Love have led twice, and Leaky Black and Day'Ron Sharpe have each led one game.
• A different Tar Heel has led UNC in scoring in each of the last five games (Bacot at Georgia Tech, Sharpe vs. Notre Dame, Black at Miami, Brooks vs. Syracuse and Davis at Florida State).
• Black's 16 points at Miami on January 5 were a career high and marked the first time in his career he led UNC in scoring.
• Davis led UNC at Florida State with 16 points, the same amount he scored on Nov. 30 in Asheville against UNLV when he was Carolina's top scorer.
• Bacot leads Carolina in scoring (10.8 ppg) and in Carolina's six ACC games. Sharpe is second at 10.7 and leads in rebounding with 8.3 per ACC game.
• Carolina has scored 80 or more points twice this season (81 vs. Syracuse and 80 at Iowa). In 18 seasons under Roy Williams UNC has scored 80 or more points 347 times in 632 games (54.9 percent).
• Carolina is 308-39 under Williams when it scores at least 80 points.

• Williams has 893 wins in 33 seasons as a head coach. He is seven wins shy of 900 and 10 from surpassing Bob Knight for the third-most wins by a Division I head coach.

• Carolina has led at the half five times in the first 13 games (4-1 when it leads; 3-4 when it trails at the half, including wins over Stanford, Kentucky and Notre Dame).
• The Syracuse game was the first time the score was tied at the half.

• The Tar Heels are averaging 43.9 rebounds per game, including 16.4 offensive. UNC leads the nation in offensive rebounds, is second in total rebounds and third in rebound margin (12.1).
• The school record for offensive rebounds per game is 15.8 in 2016-17.
• 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 (by four) and Florida State (by one) are the only teams to outrebound the Tar Heels this season. UNC's rebound margin of +12.1 per game is on pace for the second highest in school history (the record is +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.
• Carolina is averaging 18.0 second-chance points per game with a season-high 30 vs. Charleston, low of seven at Georgia Tech and 20 or more four times. The 18.0 points are the most second-chance points UNC has averaged in the last 10 seasons (17.6 in 2016-17 was the previous high in the last decade).

UNC's SECOND-CHANCE POINTS
LAST 10 SEASONS
2020-21 18.0
2019-20 13.3
2018-19 15.3
2017-18 15.1
2016-17 17.6
2015-16 14.4
2014-15 14.2
2013-14 13.7
2012-13 13.8
2011-12 15.3

• Carolina has never committed more turnovers than it had assists in 17 previous seasons under Roy Williams. The closest margin was in 2009-10 when UNC had 552 assists and 512 turnovers. Through 13 games this season, UNC has 186 assists and 200 turnovers. However, in the last six games, all in ACC play, the Tar Heels have 97 assists and 90 turnovers.
• Carolina had more assists than turnovers in three of its first nine games this season, but has done that in three of the last four games.
• Three Tar Heels have more assists than turnovers (Leaky Black 31/19, Kerwin Walton 24/15 and RJ Davis 30/26).
• The Tar Heels are 4-2 this season when they have more assists than turnovers.
• In 18 seasons under Roy Williams, the Tar Heels have won 81.4 percent of its games when they have fewer turnovers than their opponents.