Lucas: For Posterity

By Adam Lucas

GREENSBORO—Someday, we're going to have to look this up.

Wednesday's 101-59 win over Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament will be the answer to plenty of future, "When is the last time this ever happened?" questions. So for the sake of history, here's a quick refresher on exactly how Carolina put up so many different video game numbers against an Irish team that was fresh off a buzzer-beater over Wake Forest last night.

Carolina set a program record for largest margin of victory in an ACC Tournament game, eclipsing a 37-point beating of NC State in 1968.

You couldn't see this coming. The Tar Heels were playing without Garrison Brooks, and were facing an Irish team intent on scoring from the three-point line. But Notre Dame made just seven of 26 three-point shots.

The Tar Heels also put together a mind-boggling 37-2 run in the second half, and wrapped in that blitzkrieg was a 22-0 run.

Mike Brey's teams don't apply much defensive pressure, so the recently turnover-prone Tar Heels committed just 11 miscues. That steadiness with the ball enabled Carolina to shoot 50.6 percent from the field.

Stackhouse and Wallace never had one of their teams score 101 points in an ACC Tournament game. Jamison and Carter never did it. Johnson and White couldn't do it. Nope, it was Armando Bacot and Walker Kessler, just as we all expected.

The Tar Heels have now had their biggest ACC Tournament loss (last year against Syracuse) and biggest ACC Tournament win in their last two ACC Tournament games. Sports are weird.

Armando Bacot, Walker Kessler and Day'Ron Sharpe were the first trio of Tar Heels with double-doubles in an ACC Tournament game since Billy Cunningham, Yogi Poteet and Charlie Shaffer did it in 1963.

Think of all the great combinations Carolina has had in the past nearly 60 years. Not Davis, Ford and Kupchak. Not Jordan, Perkins and Worthy. Not Hansbrough, Lawson and Ellington. None of them had put together the type of all-around performance the three post Tar Heels did on Wednesday. Bacot had 20 points and 13 rebounds (in 24 minutes), Sharpe added 14 and 10 (in 19 minutes), and Kessler posted 16 and 12 (in 21 minutes).

Their relentlessness near the basket enabled Carolina to rebound over 60 percent of its missed field goals.

"I feel like me and Day'Ron are the two best offensive rebounders in the country," Bacot said.

Pretty close. According to Ken Pomeroy's statistics, Sharpe's 19.4% offensive rebound percentage does indeed lead the country. Bacot is 27^th nationally at 14.4%. And don't forget about Kessler, whose 19.6% mark would actually lead the nation if he'd played enough minutes to qualify for the rankings.

There was a very real moment in the second half when it appeared Kessler and Sharpe might get triple-doubles in the same game. Sharpe's passing continues to be remarkable for a big man. He tied for the game high with six assists.

Even playing roughly half of the second half (he logged 11 minutes in the final half), here are the most startling of Kessler's second half stats: Notre Dame, six made field goals. When the Irish released a shot in the second half, there was almost an equal chance it would be made, or that it would be blocked by Kessler. You want to talk about impacting the game? Notre Dame attempted 16 field goals when Kessler was on the court in the second half. Ten of them were either blocked or rebounded by Kessler.

There was one stretch in the second half when it was almost disappointing when Notre Dame actually managed to get the ball to the rim (and that's without taking into account the first half goaltend on Kessler, which was a little dubious and easily could have been his ninth block). He was, essentially, one block away from a triple-double. As a freshman!

Carolina's very short triple-double history goes like this:

Over 110 years with just two triple-doubles.

Both of those triple-doubles came in a two-week span in 2000.

And the Tar Heels almost had two freshmen pull the trick in one game against the Irish.

Don't ever try to explain sports.

Here's the best way to sum up the night: Carolina, a team that has struggled at times this year, put up one of the program's best offensive games in the history of the ACC Tournament, nearly had two players post triple-doubles—one of whom was coming off the bench—and as a reward, will face a Virginia Tech team tomorrow that has played two games in the past month. It will be Carolina's first ACC Tournament game ever against an opponent the Tar Heels did not face during the regular season.

History will remember this one. It just won't quite be able to believe it.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Garrison Brooks

Walker Kessler

Day'Ron Sharpe

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