Tar Heels Will Open ACC Tournament Wednesday Night

GAME 26: ACC TOURNAMENT 2ND ROUND
• Carolina enters the 2021 ACC Tournament as the No. 6 seed after finishing the regular season tied for fifth place in the standings with a 10-6 record (.625) in league play.
• Carolina, 16-9 overall, will play No. 11 seed Notre Dame, which edged No. 14 Wake Fores on Tuesday night.
• The Tar Heels defeated Notre Dame, 66-65, in Chapel Hill on January 2.
• Carolina won 10 of its last 14 ACC games. The Tar Heels are 39th in the NCAA's NET, with a strength of schedule ranked No. 28 in the country (third most difficult in the ACC).
• Carolina has nine combined wins in Quadrants 1 and 2, tied with Florida State for the second most among ACC teams.
• Clemson is the fifth seed by virtue of the Tigers' 63-50 win over the Tar Heels at Clemson on February 2. The teams were originally scheduled to play in Chapel Hill on January 9, but that game was postponed and eventually canceled due to Covid-19 safety protocols.
• The Tar Heels are 16-9 overall, coming off a 91-73 home win over Duke on Saturday, March 6.
• Four Tar Heels scored in double figures (Armando Bacot, Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton with 18 and senior Garrison Brooks with 14) and UNC shot 55.4 percent from the floor to overcome 20 turnovers in the win over Duke.
• That victory over the Blue Devils assured UNC of sweeping a home-and-away series against at least one team in all 68 seasons in ACC Basketball history.

ACC TOURNAMENT
• Carolina is second all-time in ACC Tournament championships (18) and wins (102) 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 102-48 in the ACC Tournament, including 2-1 in the second round (wins in 2015 and 2018 and a loss in 2020).
• Last season, No. 14 seed UNC defeated No. 11 Virginia Tech, 78-56, in the first round and was beaten, 81-53, by No. 6 Syracuse in the second round. That 28-point margin was Carolina's largest defeat in an ACC Tournament game. That game was also the final game of the 2020 Tournament, which was canceled the following day due to the pandemic.
• Carolina is 13-8 against Wake Forest and 1-1 vs. Notre Dame in ACC Tournament play.
• Roy Williams is 27-14 as Carolina's head coach in the ACC Tournament. He has led UNC to titles in 2007, 2008 and 2016, and eight appearances in 17 previous seasons to the finals.

TAR HEELS IN GREENSBORO
• Carolina is 125-38 all-time in games played in Greensboro.
• That includes a 29-12 record at the renovated Greensboro Coliseum (from 1995 to present) and a 117-34 in all games played in the Greensboro Coliseum.
• Carolina is 40-19 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).

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.

WILLIAMS FASTEST TO 900 WINS; ONE WIN FROM TYING FOR KNIGHT FOR THIRD
• Roy Williams is 901-262 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.
• Krzyzewski and Boeheim enter the ACC Tournament with 1,168 and 979 wins, respectively. Knight is third with 902, one ahead of Williams.
• 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 enters the Big 12 Tournament with 899 wins, 828 of which have come as a D-I head coach.

MOST WINS AS DIVISION I HEAD COACH
1168 Mike Krzyzewski
979 Jim Boeheim
902 Bob Knight
901 Roy Williams
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 96-33 (.744) in March as head coach of the Tar Heels.

UNC-NOTRE DAME
• Carolina leads the series, 26-8.
• Carolina has won eight of the last nine games.
• The Tar Heels are 10-4 since the Irish joined the ACC in 2013-14.
• UNC is 1-1 against the Irish in the ACC Tournament, losing, 90-82, in Greensboro in the 2015 championship game, and beating Notre Dame a year later, 78-47, in the semifinals in Washington, D.C.
• UNC is 1-1 against Notre Dame in Greensboro. In addition to the 2015 ACC title game, Carolina beat the Irish, 83-76, in a regular-season game in 2017. That game was originally scheduled for the Smith Center, but a water shortage in Chapel Hill resulted in the game being postponed a day and moved to the Greensboro Coliseum.
• Roy Williams is 11-4 against Notre Dame (all while head coach of the Tar Heels).
• On 1/2/2021, Leaky Black banked in the game-winning shot with 9.3 seconds to play in Carolina's 66-65 win in Chapel Hill. Day'Ron Sharpe had 25 points and 10 rebounds and Kerwin Walton made four threes and scored a dozen points.

SCORING/SHOOTING
• Sophomore Armando Bacot leads the team in scoring at 11.7 points per game. The last time UNC's leading scorer averaged less than 12 points was 1946-47 (11.4 by Jim Hamilton).
• 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 16 games. Armando Bacot and Garrison Brooks both have reached double figures 16 times, followed by Caleb Love (13), RJ Davis (12), Day'Ron Sharpe (10) and Kerwin Walton (10).
• Walker Kessler led UNC in scoring in February games against Virginia and Florida State. He became the seventh different player to lead UNC in scoring.
• Kessler is one of four players to score 20 points this season with Love (twice), Sharpe (twice) and Bacot.
• Carolina scored a season-high 99 points in beating Louisville. UNC has scored 80 or more points seven times in the last 14 games. The Tar Heels scored 80 only one time (in a 13-point loss at Iowa) in their first 11 games.
• 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.
• In four halves against Duke this season the Tar Heels shot 51.6, 54.5, 55.2 and 55.6 percent from the floor.
• Carolina averaged 64.8 points in its last four road games. That included 50 at Clemson, 48 at Virginia and 70 at Syracuse in losses, but it also included 91 in a four-point win at Duke.
• Carolina had been outscored by 28 points in the first half this season prior to leading Duke, 42-26, at the half on March 6. The Tar Heels have trailed at the half in 13 of 25 games. However, in the second half, the Tar Heels have outscored their opponents by 141 points (5.6 ppg).
• UNC is 10-1 when it leads at the half, 5-8 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 five games, seven of the last eight and 16 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 five times this season (.544 vs. NC State, .525 at Pittsburgh, .531 at Duke, a season-high .607 vs. Louisville and .554 in the home win over Duke). UNC is 5-0 this season and 219-9 in 18 seasons under Roy Williams when it shoots 50 percent from the floor.

ASSISTS/TURNOVERS
• Carolina has 61 assists on 105 field goals (58.1 percent) but has also committed 80 turnovers in its last four games. It's the first time since 1985 UNC committed 19 or more turnovers in four straight games.
• Prior to the last four games the Tar Heels had more assists than turnovers in nine out of their previous 10 games.
• The turnovers led to fastbreak opportunities and points for UNC's opponents. Marquette, Florida State, Syracuse and Duke scored 19, 25, 28 and 23 points off turnovers, respectively, in the last four games. Although Duke scored only four fastbreak points, the Seminoles and Orange combined for 42.
• Those four opponents have scored 31.9 percent of their points off UNC turnovers.
• For the season, UNC has 13 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 11-3 this season when they have more assists than turnovers (including 8-2 in ACC 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 51 three-pointers and a three-point percentage of .421 (47 of 114).
• Walton enters the ACC Tournament with the highest three-point percentage by a freshman in program history.

HIGHEST THREE-POINT PERCENTAGE — SEASON BY A FRESHMAN (min. 50 made)
.421 Kerwin Walton, 2020-21 (51 of 121)
.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 tied for second with 25 threes. Love is shooting 23.8 percent from three for the season, but made 30.4 percent in ACC play. He made 4 of 5 at Duke and two each in the last two games against Syracuse and Duke.
• UNC made 18 of 33 from three-point range in the two wins over Duke (.545) and 116 of 400 (.290) in the other 23 games.
• UNC made 10 of 15 threes 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) and 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 0.9 percent from three-point range this season, which is on pace to equal 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 16 wins, the opponents still make more threes than UNC (7.1 to 5.7), but the Tar Heels have a slight advantage in percentage (.325 to .306).
• Carolina is making 5.36 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 326th-most experienced team in the nation (out of 342 teams).
• UNC freshmen played 2,627 of 5,000 minutes (52.5 percent) this season.
• Freshmen have made 51 starts, which equals the fifth most starts by freshmen in the country behind Kentucky, Washington State, Kansas State and Duke and tied with Montana.
• 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 56.5 percent of Carolina's points this season (1,057 of 1,871 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
.565 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 three times in ACC play this season – 73 vs. Louisville, 62 at home vs. Florida State and 61 at home vs. NC State.
• 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 (15.4 per game) and rebound margin (+10.7) and is third in total rebounds per game (42.8 rpg).
• Carolina also leads the nation in offensive rebound percentage, pulling down 40.6 percent of its own missed shots.
• UNC has grabbed 40 or more rebounds 15 times this season.
• UNC has more offensive rebounds than its opponents in 22 of 25 games. In the one game an opponent had more offensive rebounds (12-8 on March 6 by Duke) and the 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 16.3 second-chance points with a season-high 30 vs. Charleston, low of seven at Georgia Tech and 20 or more five times, including 25 at Syracuse. The 16.3 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 +10.7 per game is the fourth highest in school history.

HIGHEST REBOUNDING MARGIN PER GAME
12.3 in 2016-17
11.0 in 2007-08
10.8 in 1956-57
10.7 in 2020-21
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.

WILLIAMSES GIVE $3 MILLION FOR SCHOLARSHIPS AT UNC
• On March 8, UNC announced a $3 million gift from Roy and Wanda Williams to provide scholarships at their alma maters.
• The Williamses dedicated $1.5 million to the Carolina Covenant, $1 million to Carolina Athletics to endow a scholarship in men's basketball and $500,000 to the Chancellor's Science Scholars program.
• "The whole world is in a tough situation right now — financially, health-wise, everything you can think about. And we are in a position to be able to do something about it. It just seemed like it was the right idea at the right time," says Coach Williams. "We hope others might be encouraged to do some things as well."
• The Williamses have given more than $5.8 million to Carolina in the 18 years Coach Williams has been head coach of the Tar Heels. That includes more than $600,000 the Willamses gave to pay for the extra year of grants-in-aid UNC's spring sport seniors received in 2021 due to Covid-19.
• The Carolina Covenant provides eligible low-income scholars a debt-free path to graduation through a combination of scholarships, grants and work-study. An endowment that will last generations
• The endowed basketball scholarship will be given to the 13th man on the squad, an idea that originated with Wanda. The Williamses' son, Scott Williams was on UNC in the late 1990s that included All-Americas Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter. Wanda and Coach Williams want to ensure opportunities like these stay in place.
• "It was strictly her idea," says Coach Williams. "I wish it were mine, but she usually comes up with better ideas than I do anyway. Doing something to endow scholarships for UNC Athletics is important to us, to the future of the men's basketball program — all of these programs have been really important to us."
• The Chancellor's Science Scholars program offers academic scholarships to encourage talented students to explore their interests in science, technology, engineering and math, ultimately strengthening the STEM workforce through diversity.

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Players Mentioned

Cole Anthony

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

RJ Davis

Walker Kessler

Nassir Little

Caleb Love

Luke Maye

Day'Ron Sharpe

Kerwin Walton

Coby White

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University of North Carolina Athletics