Tar Heels To Host Louisville Saturday Night

Saturday, February 20

Chapel Hill

6 PM

North Carolina

Louisville

Armando Bacot

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

February 19, 2021 | Men's Basketball

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GAME 21
• Carolina returns to Atlantic Coast Conference play when the Tar Heels host Louisville on Saturday at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
• UNC defeated Northeastern, 82-62, on Wednesday. Three freshmen – Day'Ron Sharpe (15), Kerwin Walton (14) and Walker Kessler (10) – scored in double figures, another freshman, Caleb Love, had nine assists, and senior Garrison Brooks had a season-high 13 rebounds to lead UNC to its sixth non-conference win in eight tries this season.
• Kessler became the 10th Tar Heel to score in double figures this season. Bacot has scored 10 or more points a team-best 13 times followed by Brooks (12), RJ Davis (10), Love (10) and Sharpe (9).
• Three Tar Heels have scored 20 or more this season – Love with 25 at Duke and 20 vs. Wake Forest, Sharpe with 25 vs. Notre Dame and Bacot with 21 at Pittsburgh.
• The Northeastern game was Carolina's first at home after four consecutive ACC road games. The Tar Heels went 25 days between home games (January 23-February 17).
• Carolina is 13-7 overall, 7-5 in the ACC.
• Louisville is 11-4 overall, 6-3 in the ACC. The Cardinals have not played since defeating Georgia Tech, 74-58, on February 1. Their subsequent scheduled games at Syracuse and Virginia and at home against Pittsburgh and Syracuse were postponed due to Covid safety protocols.
• Carolina is 7-0 at home this season – 4-0 in league play and 3-0 against non-conference foes.
• The Tar Heels' five ACC losses, all on the road, have come against teams that are 28-6 at home this season (82.4 percent). That's better than the winning percentage for ACC home teams which is 67.8 percent (59-28).
• Roy Williams has won 898 games in 33 seasons as a college head coach. He is two victories shy of 900 and five from surpassing Bob Knight for the third-most wins by a Division I head coach.
• Williams has won 480 games in 18 seasons as Carolina's head coach. That includes 209 ACC regular-season wins and 93 ACC road wins. He is No. 3 all-time among ACC head coaches in wins, regular-season ACC wins and ACC road victories.

THE LOUISVILLE SERIES
• Carolina is 15-7 all-time against the Cardinals, including 6-4 since UL joined the ACC in 2014-15.
• Carolina is 3-1 at home (all four games have been played in the Smith Center).
• Louisville trounced the Tar Heels, 83-62, on 1/12//2019, in the previous meeting in the Smith Center. That was Carolina's largest home loss since 2002. Less than a month later UNC returned the favor with a 10-point victory at Louisville.
• Roy Williams is 9-5 against Louisville (8-4 as head coach of the Tar Heels).

LAST YEAR VS. THE CARDS
FEB. 22, 2020 – @LOUISVILLE 72, UNC 55
• The Tar Heels played without Garrison Brooks (illness) and Justin Pierce (sprained left ankle).
• It was the first game Brooks missed in three seasons. He had played in 99 consecutive games and made 62 straight starts.
• The starting lineup was the ninth different one last season.
• Minus Brooks, who was leading UNC in rebounding, Carolina grabbed a season-low 29 rebounds and was outrebounded by nine (38-29).
• Cole Anthony had 18 points but was the only Tar Heel to score in double figures.
• Armando Bacot had seven points and nine rebounds.
• Andrew Platek made two three-pointers and scored nine points.

WITH THE BALL
• Carolina scored 82 points in beating Northeastern by 20. It was the fifth time in the last nine games UNC scored 80 or more points. The Tar Heels scored 80 only one time (at Iowa) in their first 11 games.
• Carolina has scored 50 (at Clemson), 91 (at Duke) and 48 (at Virginia) in its last three ACC games.
• The Tar Heels were 13 for 16 from the free throw line vs. Northeastern for a season-high percentage of .813. It was the ninth time in 20 games this season UNC shot 70 percent or better from the line. That followed an unprecedented five-game stretch in which the Tar Heels shot 51.7 percent on 45 of 87 shooting from the stripe.
• In the five games prior to Wednesday, UNC's perimeter players took only 34 of the 87 attempts from the line. Against the Huskies, perimeter players RJ Davis (4 for 4), Caleb Love (2 for 2) and Kerwin Walton (1 for 1) made all seven of their free throw attempts.
• UNC has registered a points per possession of .90 or better five times this season – all in the last eight games (except .69 at Clemson and .68 Virginia and just missing at .89 against Northeastern).
• UNC has shot 50 percent or better from the floor in six of the last 13 halves (accomplished that five times in the first 27 halves).
• UNC has shot 50 percent or better from the floor in three of the last five ACC games (.544 vs. NC State, .525 at Pittsburgh and .531 at Duke). Those were the first three times this season UNC has shot 50 percent.
• Carolina is 3-0 this season and 217-9 in 18 seasons under Roy Williams when it shoots 50 percent from the floor.

SCHEDULING ANOMALIES
• Carolina played each of its last four conference games on the road. That was the first time UNC played four straight true ACC road games in one season since 1964-65, when Carolina played at South Carolina, Maryland, Wake Forest and Duke.
• Covid-19 has resulted in the postponement of three ACC games for the Tar Heels, all scheduled for the Smith Center. They include January 12 vs. Clemson (which Syracuse replaced), February 8 vs. Miami and February 16 vs. Virginia Tech.
• Carolina has played only seven of its 20 games at home this season, which ties Boston College for the fewest of any school in the ACC (nine schools have played 10 or more).
• Before the season began Carolina had five non-conference games canceled as the NCAA limited schedules to 27 games. Those included home games against UNC Asheville, UNCW and Loyola (Md.) and games at Hawai'i and Monmouth.

FRESHMEN FOCUS
• KenPom ranks Carolina the 324th-most experienced team in the nation (out of 342 teams). Seven of UNC's 11 rotation players are freshmen. Those freshmen have played 51.5 percent of all minutes played (2,059 of 4,000).
• Freshmen have made 43 starts this season, including 18 by Caleb Love, 12 by Kerwin Walton and 10 by RJ Davis. That's the fifth most in the country behind Kentucky, Washington State, Kansas State and Duke.
• Carolina has started the same lineup in each of the last nine games (Love, Walton, Black, Brooks and Bacot).
• UNC has used five different starting lineups this season.
• Freshmen are second (Love), fourth (Sharpe), fifth (Davis) and sixth (Walton) in scoring for the Tar Heels. This is the first time three freshmen are among UNC's top five scorers since 2006-07, when Brandan Wright, Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson were second, third and fourth, respectively.
• Freshmen (including red-shirt freshman Anthony Harris) have scored 54.5 percent of Carolina's points this season. That's the second-highest percentage in any season at UNC. The 2002-03 team included Rashad McCants, Sean May, Raymond Felton and David Noel. In the first nine games that season, before May broke his foot, the freshmen accounted for 62 percent of the team's scoring.

HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF SCORING BY UNC FRESHMEN
.584 in 2002-03
.545 in 2020-21
.502 in 2006-07
.501 in 2005-06
.372 in 1995-96

• 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.
• Caleb Love (Wake Forest and NC State/Clemson and Duke), RJ Davis (Syracuse and Florida State) and Day'Ron Sharpe (Notre Dame) have combined to win ACC Freshman of the Week honors four times this season. This is the first time three Tar Heels have won the award in the same season since Harrison Barnes, Kendall Marshall and Reggie Bullock combined to win seven times in 2010-11.

THREES
• Carolina has made seven or more three-pointers six times this season with a season-high 10 at Florida State and Duke. UNC is 4-2 when it makes seven or more.
• UNC was 10 of 15 at Duke, a percentage of .667 that was the highest ever by UNC against Duke (except for the 1983 game in Cameron when the ACC experimented with a three-point line at 17 feet, nine inches).
• It tied the seventh-highest three-point percentage in any game by UNC in which the Tar Heels made 10 or more threes.
• The Tar Heels are shooting 3 1.0 percent from three-point range this season, which is on pace to be the second lowest in school history.

LOWEST THREE-POINT FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE
.304 in 2019-20 (181 of 595)
.310 in 2020-21 (104 of 336)
.327 in 2015-16 (224 of 685)
.328 in 2010-11 (190 of 580)
.329 in 2009-10 (176 of 535)

• UNC has made 40 percent or better in five games this season and is 2-3 in those games, all of which have come on the road (wins at Miami and Duke; losses at Iowa, Georgia Tech and Florida State).
• Carolina has been outscored 210-102 from the three-point line in its seven losses this season.
• The opponents have averaged 10.0 threes in the seven losses and shot 43.2 percent from beyond the arc (UNC has made 4.9 per game and shot 29.6 percent in the losses).

REBOUNDING
• Carolina outrebounded Northeastern, 48-33, including a 17-8 edge on the offensive glass.
• That was the 12th time UNC has grabbed 40 or more rebounds in a game this season.
• UNC has more offensive rebounds in 19 of 20 games this season (tied with Wake Forest).
• Carolina leads the nation in rebound margin (+11.0), is second in offensive rebounds (15.1 per game) and third in total rebounds per game (42.8 rpg) behind Buffalo and Coastal Carolina.
• Carolina is second to Houston in offensive rebound percentage. The Cougars grab 40.2 percent of their misses, while the Tar Heels grab 39.5 percent of theirs.
• Carolina is averaging 16.5 second-chance points with a season-high 30 vs. Charleston, low of seven at Georgia Tech and 20 or more four times. The 16.5 points are the second-most second-chance points UNC has averaged in the last 10 seasons (17.6 in 2016-17).
• Over the last three ACC games, UNC has 34 second-chance points (11.3 per game). That includes only six at Clemson and 13 at Virginia.
• 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).
• UNC's rebound margin of +11.0 per game is on pace to tie the second highest in school history (the record is +12.3 in 2016-17).

HIGHEST REBOUNDING MARGIN PER GAME
12.3 in 2016-17
11.0 in 2020-21
11.0 in 2007-08
10.8 in 1956-57
10.4 in 2018-19
10.4 in 2011-12

• 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.
• Three Tar Heels are averaging at least seven rebounds a game (7.8 by Day'Ron Sharpe , 7.6 by Armando Bacot and 7.4 by Garrison Brooks). This is the first time three Tar Heels averaged 7.0 or more rebounds since 1969-70 (Lee Dedmon, Charlie Scott and Dennis Wuycik).

TAKE CARE OF THE BALL
• 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 (plus 40).
• Through 20 games the Tar Heels have 303 assists and 289 turnovers (plus 14).
• In ACC play, the Tar Heels have 194 assists and 169 turnovers.
• Carolina had more assists than turnovers in only three of its first nine games this season, but it has more assists than turnovers in nine of the last 11 games.
• The Tar Heels are 9-3 this season when they have more assists than turnovers (including 6-2 in ACC games).
• Five Tar Heels have more assists than turnovers (Leaky Black 52/24, Kerwin Walton 36/23, RJ Davis 43/34, Anthony Harris 7/4 and Caleb Love 72/64).
• In 18 seasons under Roy Williams, the Tar Heels have won 81.6 percent of its games when they have fewer turnovers than their opponents.

BROOKS CANDIDATE FOR SR. CLASS AWARD
• Garrison Brooks is one of 30 men's basketball players under consideration for the 2021 Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
• Brooks made his 100th start as a Tar Heel against Northeastern.
• The Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
• The candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists in late February, and those names will be placed on the official ballot.
• The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the NCAA Final Four.
• Tyler Hansbrough won the award in 2009.

CLOSE LOSSES
• Carolina has either led in the final 10 minutes, including two times when UNC led inside the final 3:30, or trailed by one possession in five of its seven losses season:
– took a 65-63 lead over Texas with 2:35 to play on a Garrison Brooks basket, but lost, 69-67, on a last-second shot;
– took a 68-67 lead at Iowa with 9:30 to play, but lost, 93-80;
– rallied from 17 down to within two at NC State with 10 seconds to play and had two three-point attempts in the final seconds that could have tied the game in a 79-76 loss;
– led Georgia Tech by six at the half, by eight with 6:36 to play and 65-64 with 3:25 remaining, but lost, 72-67;
– trailed Florida State, 74-73, with 2:22 to play in the Seminoles' 82-75 win in Tallahassee.