Tar Heels To Meet Seminoles In ACC Semis Friday Night

Friday, March 12

Greensboro, N.C.

8:30 PM

North Carolina

Florida State

Day'Ron Sharpe

Photo by: Maggie Hobson

March 12, 2021 | Men's Basketball

Watch Live Stats UNC Notes ACC Tournament Central

GAME 28: ACC TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL
• No. 6 seed Carolina plays No. 2 Florida State tonight at 8:30 p.m. in the semifinals of the 2021 ACC Tournament.
• The winner advances to Saturday's championship game vs. Georgia Tech.
• The Tar Heels are 18-9 overall, winning three in a row and 13 of 18 since New Year's.
• Carolina tied for fifth place in the ACC standings with a 10-6 record (.625) in league play.
• The Tar Heels are 26th in the country in KenPom and 33rd nationally in the NCAA's NET, with a strength of schedule ranked No. 33 in the country (third most difficult in the ACC).
• Carolina has 11 combined wins in Quadrants 1 and 2, the most among ACC teams. UNC's three Quadrant I wins are tied for second in the ACC behind Virginia's five.
• Carolina is one of 12 teams nationally that have at least 11 combined Q1 and Q2 wins (one of only five non-Big Ten teams with Gonzaga, Alabama, Creighton and Oklahoma State).
• Carolina advanced to the semifinals with a 101-59 second-round win over Notre Dame and an 81-73 quarterfinal win over 22nd-ranked Virginia Tech.
• Freshman guard RJ Davis came off the bench to score 14 of his team-high 19 points in the second half and Armando Bacot had 17 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks against the Hokies.
• Carolina trailed by three at the half, but scored 15 second-chance points in the second half in the win over the Hokies. UNC improved to 6-8 this season when trailing at the half.
• The win over Virginia Tech was the 903rd for Roy Williams, which moved him ahead of Bob Knight for third all-time in wins by a Division I head coach.
• The 42-point win over the Irish was Carolina's largest ever in ACC Tournament play. UNC became the first team to score 100 points in a regulation-length ACC Tournament game since 1999.
• Carolina outscored the Irish, 37-2, over 11:38 of the second half, which included runs of 15-0 and 22-0.
• Three Tar Heels (Armando Bacot, Walker Kessler and Day'Ron Sharpe) had double-doubles, the first time UNC accomplished that in an ACC Tourney game since 1963.
• Kessler set the UNC freshman record, UNC ACC Tournament record and ACC Tournament freshman record with eight blocks.
• Freshmen combined for 70 points, the most ever by UNC freshmen in an ACC Tournament game.

ACC TOURNAMENT
• Carolina is second all-time in ACC Tournament championships (18) and wins (104) and has played in the finals a record 35 times.
• Carolina's most recent title came in 2016 in Washington, D.C.
• The Tar Heels are 104-48 in the ACC Tournament, including 35-16 in the semifinals.
• UNC's 35 wins are the most by any team in the semifinals.
• UNC is 5-1 as a No. 6 seed. The Tar Heels reached the finals of the 2018 Tournament in their only other time as a six seed.
• Carolina is 5-2 against Florida State. This is the first time the teams have met in the ACC Tournament since UNC defeated the Seminoles in the 2013 quarterfinals in Greensboro.
• Roy Williams is 29-14 as Carolina's head coach in the ACC Tournament. He has led UNC to titles in 2007, 2008 and 2016, and eight appearances in the finals in 17 previous seasons.

TAR HEELS IN GREENSBORO
• Carolina is 127-38 all-time in Greensboro.
• That includes a 31-12 record at the renovated Greensboro Coliseum (from 1995 to present) and a 119-34 in all games played in the Greensboro Coliseum.
• Carolina is 42-19 in the ACC Tournament in the Greensboro Coliseum
• The Tar Heels have won eight ACC Tournaments in Greensboro (1967, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1982, 1997 and 1998).

WILLIAMS FASTEST TO 900 WINS; PASSES BOB KNIGHT FOR THIRD ALL-TIME
• Roy Williams is 903-262 in 33 seasons as a head coach. Williams became the fourth Division I coach to win 900 games when the Tar Heels defeated Florida State on February 27. He joined Naismith Hall of Famers Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Bob Knight to win 900 games as a Division I head coaches.
• Jim Calhoun, head coach at D-III's St. Joseph, has won 917 games, including 873 as a Division I head coach.
• West Virginia's Bob Huggins has 899 wins, 828 of which have come as a D-I head coach.

MOST WINS AS DIVISION I HEAD COACH
1170 Mike Krzyzewski
980 Jim Boeheim
903 Roy Williams
902 Bob Knight
879 Dean Smith

• Williams was eighth-fastest in games played to 200 wins, tied for the third-fastest to 300, fourth fastest to 400, fastest to 500 and 600, third fastest to 700, second fastest to 800 behind Adolph Rupp and fastest to 900.
• Williams won his 900th in 1,161 games. He reached 900 in fewer games and seasons than any coach in history (Krzyzewski won his 900th in his 36th season and 1,183rd game).
• Williams is 98-33 (.748) in March as head coach of the Tar Heels.

FIVE TAR HEELS EARN ACC HONORS
• Sophomore forward/center Armando Bacot was selected to the All-ACC third team.
• Four freshmen also earned ACC honors.
• Day'Ron Sharpe and Caleb Love were selected to the ACC All-Freshman team, the first time multiple Tar Heels made the freshman team since Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall in 2011.
• Freshmen RJ Davis and Kerwin Walton earned spots on the Academic All-ACC team. They are the sixth and seventh UNC freshmen to make the Academic All-ACC team with Henrik Rodl, Tyler Zeller, Marcus Paige, Luke Maye and Nassir Little.

10 ACC WINS AGAIN
• Carolina went 10-6 in ACC play.
• This is the 15th time in 18 seasons under Roy Williams the Tar Heels have won at least 10 regular-season ACC games (and the 44th time in ACC history).
• That is the second-most seasons with at least 10 wins in the Roy Williams era (Duke 16, UNC 15, Virginia 10, Florida State 8, NC State and Virginia Tech 6).

TOP HALF OF THE LEAGUE
• Carolina finished tied for fifth in the ACC with a 10-6 record despite playing more road games (9) than home games (7) and playing arguably the most challenging schedule in the league.
• That was Carolina's 62nd finish in the top half of the league in 68 ACC seasons.
• Among the 10 teams with a .500 or better record in league play, only UNC, Duke, NC State and Virginia played nine ACC road games.
• Carolina was one of three teams in the ACC with a winning record (with Clemson and Georgia Tech) that played 12 games against the top 10 teams in the ACC standings. UNC and Clemson were the only teams that played just four games against the bottom five teams in the standings.
• UNC and Virginia also played the most away games (7) against the top 10 teams in the ACC standings.

HOME SUCCESS
• Carolina went 10-1 at home this season, including 7-0 in ACC play.
• This is the first time UNC went undefeated at home in ACC play since going 8-0 in 2016-17.
• This is the sixth time UNC went undefeated in ACC play in the Smith Center (1986-87, 1992-93, 2004-05, 2010-11, 2016-17 and 2020-21).
• Covid-19 resulted in the cancellation of four ACC games for the Tar Heels, three of which were scheduled for the Smith Center. They included January 12 vs. Clemson (which Syracuse replaced), February 8 vs. Miami, February 16 vs. Virginia Tech and February 23 at Boston College.
• Between the January 23 game vs. NC State and February 17 game vs. Northeastern, Carolina played four consecutive ACC games on the road. That was the first time UNC played four straight true ACC road games in one season since 1964-65.
• 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.

UNC-FLORIDA STATE
• Carolina is 51-15 against the Seminoles, including 41-14 since FSU joined the ACC in 1991-92.
• The teams split a pair of games during the regular season, each winning at home.
• Florida State won by seven in Tallahassee on January 16 and led by 12 at halftime in Chapel Hill on February 27, but the Tar Heels outscored the Seminoles by 20 points in the second half (49-29) and won, 78-70.
• Florida State made 26 of 27 free throws in its win (.963); the Tar Heels went 27 of 30 (.900) in their win in Chapel Hill.
• This is the third time in four games (and the only three times in series history) the Tar Heels are unranked and playing a ranked FSU team. Last season, the eighth-ranked Seminoles beat UNC, 65-59, in Tallahassee. On February 27, Carolina beat No. 11 Florida State, 78-70, in Chapel Hill.
• Roy Williams is 22-8 against the Seminoles (21-8 at UNC, 1-0 at Kansas).

FEBRUARY 27
@UNC 78, FLORIDA STATE 70
• It was the first time in UNC history all four Tar Heels to score in double figures were freshmen (Walker Kessler 20, Kerwin Walton 13, RJ Davis 12, Caleb Love 12).
• Carolina trailed by 16 (23-39) with 2:17 to play in the first half. It was the largest deficit overcome to win since trailing Miami by 19 in a 61-59 victory in the 2011 ACC Tournament.
• UNC trailed 41-29 at the half. It was UNC's largest comeback from a halftime deficit at the Smith Center since Feb. 15, 2006. Georgia Tech led UNC by 13 at the half (55-42), but UNC won, 82-75.
• Carolina shot 25 percent from the floor in the first half and 50 percent in the second.
• Carolina scored 29 first-half points on 50 possessions, a points per possession of .58. That was the second lowest in a half this season (.47 in the first half at Virginia). In the second half, UNC scored 49 points on 46 possessions (1.07 PPP).
• Carolina made a season-high 27 free throws and shot a season-high 90 percent from the line.
• Carolina committed 21 turnovers. That was one of four times this season UNC won despite 20 or more turnovers (24 vs. Stanford, 20 at Miami, 21 vs. FSU and 21 vs. Duke).
• UNC had lost its previous 10 games against AP-ranked opponents.
• Kessler had season and game highs in points (20), rebounds (8), offensive rebounds (5), blocks (4) and field goals (9).
• Carolina won despite its four leading scorers this season entering the game combining for just six field goals.

JANUARY 16
@FLORIDA STATE 82, UNC 75
• The Seminoles went 11 for 11 from the foul line in the first half and made 26 of 27 for the game. That was the third-best percentage (.963) ever in a game against UNC by an opponent with 20 or more attempts.
• Carolina made 10 of 24 (.417) three-pointers, which equals the most made threes in a game this season.
• It was the first time RJ Davis (16), Caleb Love (11) and Kerwin Walton (14) scored in double figures in the same game.
• FSU outrebounded UNC by one (30-29). That was one of only two times this season UNC lost the rebounding battle (also vs. Kentucky).
• Carolina's 16 defensive rebounds and 29 total rebounds are season lows.
• The Tar Heels fell behind by double figures in the first half, but regained the lead later in the half at 37-35.
• Carolina scored 20 points off FSU turnovers; FSU scored 22 points off UNC turnovers and 18 fastbreak points.
• Carolina scored only 22 points in the paint, third lowest this season.
• Anthony Harris played for the first time this season and was a plus-10 in 8:29 of action. He had five points and tied for the team lead in assists with three.

SCORING/SHOOTING
• The Tar Heels are averaging 84.2 points over their last seven games and 91.0 over the last three.
• Carolina scored a season-high 101 points in its win over Notre Dame and 81 last evening against Virginia Tech. Those were the eighth and ninth times in the last 16 games UNC scored 80 or more points, something it did only one time (in a 13-point loss at Iowa) in its first 11 games.
• Carolina's 101 points vs. Notre Dame were its most in an ACC Tournament game since 1993 and the first time any team hit 100 in regulation in the ACC Tournament since 1999.
• Carolina scored 91 points in both wins over Duke. That marked the first time UNC scored 90 or more points twice in the same season against Duke since 1983.
• Sophomore Armando Bacot leads the team in scoring at 12.2 points per game. The last time UNC's leading scorer averaged less than 13 points was 1947-48 (12.2 by Box Paxton).
• Carolina has had 10 different players score in double figures (Baylor is the only Power 5 team that has more with 11), but no player has done so in more than 17 games. Armando Bacot leads with 18 double-figure games, followed by Garrison Brooks (16), Caleb Love (14), RJ Davis (14), Day'Ron Sharpe (12) and Kerwin Walton (10).
• Four players have scored 20 points this season – Love (twice), Sharpe (twice), Bacot (twice) and Walker Kessler.
• In four halves against Duke this season the Tar Heels shot 51.6, 54.5, 55.2 and 55.6 percent from the floor.
• The Tar Heels have trailed at the half in 14 of 27 games. Carolina has rallied to win six of those 14 games, including the quarterfinal win over Virginia Tech.
• UNC outscored the Hokies by 11 in the second half. For the season, the Tar Heels have outscored their opponents by 180 points (6.7 ppg).
• UNC is 11-1 when it leads at the half, 6-8 when it trails and 1-0 when tied.
• Carolina has shot a higher percentage from the floor in the second half in each of the last seven games, nine of the last 10 and 28 times overall.
• Carolina has shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half five times this season and has won four of those games (Kentucky, loss at NC State, home win over the Wolfpack, at Duke and Louisville).
• UNC has shot 50 percent or better from the floor for the game six times this season (.544 vs. NC State, .525 at Pittsburgh, .531 at Duke, a season-high .607 vs. Louisville, .554 in the home win over Duke and .506 vs. Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament). UNC is 6-0 this season and 220-9 in 18 seasons under Roy Williams when it shoots 50 percent from the floor.

ASSISTS/TURNOVERS
• Carolina has had more assists than turnovers in both ACC Tournament games (12/11 vs. Virginia Tech and 19/11 vs. Notre Dame). Those followed a four-game stretch during which UNC had 61 assists and 80 turnovers. Those games marked the first time since 1985 UNC committed 19 or more turnovers in four straight games.
• Marquette, Florida State, Syracuse and Duke scored 19, 25, 28 and 23 points off turnovers (31.9 percent of their points). However, the Irish scored only 11 points off UNC turnovers and only six fastbreak points and the Tar Heels limited the Hokies to nine points off turnovers and six fastbreak points.
• For the season, UNC has 22 more assists than turnovers (Carolina has never committed more turnovers than it had assists in 17 previous seasons under Roy Williams).
• In ACC play, the Tar Heels had 271 assists and 241 turnovers.
• The Tar Heels are 13-3 this season when they have more assists than turnovers (including 10-2 in ACC regular-season and Tournament games).
• In 18 seasons under Roy Williams, the Tar Heels have won 81.6 percent of their games when they have fewer turnovers than their opponents.

THREES
• Freshman Kerwin Walton leads UNC with 53 three-pointers and a three-point percentage of .414 (53 of 128).
• Walton is the co-leader in three-point percentage by a UNC freshman in program history.

HIGHEST THREE-POINT PERCENTAGE —
SEASON BY A FRESHMAN (min. 50 made)
.414 Kerwin Walton, 2020-21 (53 of 128)
.414 Rashad McCants, 2002-03 (72 of 174)
.371 Wayne Ellington, 2006-07 (66 of 178)
.359 Joseph Forte, 1999-00 (56 of 156)
.358 Raymond Felton, 2002-03 (69 of 193)

• Freshmen RJ Davis and Caleb Love are second and third, respectively, with 31 and 29 threes, respectively. Davis made a season-high four threes last night vs. Virginia Tech. Love is shooting 24.6 percent from three for the season, but has hit nine in the last four games.
• UNC has made 25 threes in the last three games (eight vs. Duke, nine vs. Notre Dame and eight vs. Virginia Tech). Players other than Kerwin Walton, who leads the team in threes, made 19 of those 25 three-pointers.
• UNC has made 10 threes twice, including January 16 at Florida State and February 6 at Duke.
• The Tar Heels have won the last five times they made at least seven threes in a game (since they lost when making 10 at FSU).
• The Tar Heels are shooting 3 1.6 percent from three-point range this season, which is on pace for the second lowest in school history.
• Carolina has been outscored 261-129 from the three-point line in its nine losses this season.
• The opponents have averaged 9.7 threes in the nine losses and shot 40.8 percent from beyond the arc (UNC has made 4.8 threes per game and shot 28.1 percent in the losses).
• In the 18 wins, the opponents still make more threes than UNC (7.1 to 6.0), but the Tar Heels have an advantage in percentage (.322 to .310).
• Carolina is making 5.6 three-pointers per game. Last season, the Tar Heels made 5.48 per game. In the previous three seasons, UNC had made 7.08 (2016-17), 8.24 (2017-18) and a school-record 8.67 (2018-19) per game.

FRESHMEN
• KenPom ranks Carolina the 330th-most experienced team in the nation (out of 342 teams).
• UNC freshmen played 2,865 of 5,400 minutes (53.1 percent) this season.
• Freshmen are third (Caleb Love), fourth (Day'Ron Sharpe), fifth (RJ Davis) and sixth (Kerwin Walton) in scoring. This would be the first season four freshmen are among UNC's top six scorers.
• Freshmen have scored 57.4 percent of Carolina's points this season (1,178 of 2,053 points). That's the second-highest percentage in any season at UNC. The 2002-03 team got 58.4 percent of its scoring from freshmen, including Rashad McCants, Sean May, Raymond Felton and David Noel. In the first nine games that season, before May broke his foot, freshmen accounted for 62 percent of the team's scoring.

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

• Five Tar Heels won ACC Freshman of the Week honors this season, the first time in ACC history one team had five different players earn Freshman of the Week honors in the same season (Wake Forest had four different winners in 1978-79).
• Caleb Love won twice for his play against Wake Forest/NC State and Duke, Day'Ron Sharpe vs. Notre Dame, RJ Davis vs. Syracuse/Florida State, Kerwin Walton vs. Northeastern/Louisville and Walker Kessler vs. Marquette/Florida State.
• The six weekly awards this season were the most by UNC freshmen since Harrison Barnes (3), Kendall Marshall (3) and Reggie Bullock (1) combined for seven in 2010-11.
• Carolina point guards have won ACC Freshman of the Week honors nine times in the last three seasons (five by Coby White in 2018-19, twice in an injury-shortened season a year ago by Cole Anthony and two times by Love).
• Prior to this season, the single-game record for combined scoring by UNC freshmen was 58 against Penn State in the 2002-03 opener. UNC's freshmen have topped that figure four times in ACC play this season – 73 vs. Louisville, 70 vs. Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament (a school record), 62 at home vs. Florida State and 61 at home vs. NC State.
• In one stretch of UNC's ACC quarterfinal win over Virginia Tech, Tar Heel freshmen accounted for 26 consecutive points.
• 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.
• Love is the fourth Tar Heel to start at the point in the last four seasons (senior Joel Berry II in 2017-18, White in 2018-19, Anthony in 2019-20 and Love).

REBOUNDING
• Carolina leads the nation in offensive rebounding (15.7 per game) and rebound margin (+11.1) and is third in total rebounds per game (43.2 rpg).
• Carolina pulled down 54 rebounds vs. Notre Dame, which matched its season high vs. UNLV.
• UNC has grabbed 40 or more rebounds 17 times in 27 games this season.
• Carolina also leads the nation in offensive rebound percentage, pulling down 41.3 percent of its own missed shots.
• UNC has more offensive rebounds than its opponents in 24 of 27 games. In the one game an opponent had more offensive rebounds (12-8 on March 6 by Duke) and two games when the teams tied (Wake Forest and Louisville), the Tar Heels shot 50 percent from the floor each time.
• The Duke game on March 6 was the first time in 31 games an opponent had more offensive rebounds, UNC's longest such streak on record since offensive rebounds were kept beginning in 1986-87.
• Carolina is averaging 16.7 second-chance points with a season-high 30 vs. Charleston, low of seven at Georgia Tech and 20 or more six times, including 27 vs. Notre Dame on Wednesday. The 16.7 points are the second-most second-chance points UNC has averaged in the last 10 seasons (17.6 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).
• UNC's rebound margin of +11.1 per game is the second highest in school history.

HIGHEST REBOUNDING MARGIN PER GAME
12.3 in 2016-17
11.1 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.

CLOSE LOSSES
• Carolina either led in the final 10 minutes, including two times when UNC led inside the final 3:30, or trailed by one possession in the final minutes in six of its nine losses this 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.
– trailed at Syracuse, 70-68, with 19 seconds to play but lost 72-70.