Men's Basketball To Host Gardner-Webb Tuesday Night

GAME 3: GARDNER-WEBB
• The third game of a four-game homestand to begin the season is Tuesday, Nov. 15, against Gardner-Webb.
• Tip time is 8:05 p.m. The game will be televised on the ACC Network (Wes Durham, Dan Bonner).
• The Tar Heels are 2-0 with home wins over UNCW and the College of Charleston.
• The Runnin' Bulldogs are 0-2 with losses at Colorado State and Stephen F. Austin.
• Carolina is 177-18 all-time against in-state, non-ACC opponents.
• The Tar Heels have won the last 47 times they played an in-state, non-ACC opponent.
• Leaky Black should make his 100th career start. The Gardner-Webb game will be his 125th as a Tar Heel. He is coming off a 15-point performance on 6 of 6 shooting from the floor vs. Charleston.
• RJ Davis scored his 800th career point vs. Charleston.
• Caleb Love needs 32 points to become UNC's 80th 1,000-point scorer all-time.
• Armando Bacot scored 27 of his 28 points vs. Charleston in the second half. Bacot drew 11 fouls by the Cougars, which were the most fouls Bacot has drawn in a game (previous were 10 by Baylor in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and 10 by Georgia Tech in Chapel Hill on 1/15/22, when he matched his career high with 29 points).
• Carolina made 30 of 38 two-point field goal attempts vs. Charleston, its fifth-highest percentage (.789) in a game in the three-point era and the best since 2000.
• Carolina is 2-0 for the 18th consecutive season. The Tar Heels have won their first three games each of the last eight seasons prior to 2022-23.

NO. 1
• Carolina is No.1 in the nation in the Nov. 14 Associated Press poll.
• UNC was also No. 1 in the nation in the preseason Associated Press poll.
• The Nov. 14 poll is the 112th time UNC is ranked No. 1 in an AP poll, fourth most in NCAA college basketball history.
• The Tar Heels have been voted No. 1 in the preseason in 1977-78, 1981-82, 1983-84, 1986-87, 1993-94, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2011-12, 2015-16 and 2022-23.
• This was the 10th time the Tar Heels have been ranked No. 1 to begin a season. UNC's 10 preseason No. 1 rankings are the most all-time, breaking a tie with Duke. UCLA is third with eight, Kentucky is fourth with six and Arizona, Indiana, Kansas and Michigan are tied with three.
• The UNCW game was the Tar Heels' first as the AP's No. 1 team since 11/21/15, when it lost at Northern Iowa without injured senior guard Marcus Paige.
• Carolina's No. 1 ranking in the 2022-23 preseason poll marked the 66th season UNC has been ranked at least once in the 75-year history of the Associated Press poll. In 58 of those 66 seasons, the Tar Heels have been ranked in the top 10 at least once.
• This is the 21st season UNC has been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll at some point in the season. It's the first time UNC is the preseason No. 1 team since 2015-16; the Tar Heels played in the national championship game that year.
• Carolina also was preseason No. 1 in the coaches poll and Sports Illustrated, No. 2 in CBSSports.com and the Sporting News and No. 9 in KenPom.
• This was the 10th time UNC is No. 1 in the first coaches' poll (1957-58, 1981-82, 1985-86, 1986-87, 1987-88, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2011-12, 2015-16 and 2022-23).
• Head coach Hubert Davis's Tar Heels were picked to finish No. 1 in the ACC at the conference's preseason media day in Charlotte.

TAR HEELS AS NO. 1
• Carolina is 190-31 as the No. 1 team in the AP poll.
• Dean Smith led UNC to 100 wins (100-18) in games as the No. 1 team in the AP poll.
• The Tar Heels were 50-7 as No. 1 under Roy Williams.
• UNC is 2-0 under Hubert Davis as No. 1.

SERIES VS. GARDNER-WEBB
• The Tar Heels are 5-0 against Gardner-Webb.
• All five previous games were played in Chapel Hill.
• UNC defeated Gardner-Webb, 77-61, on 11/15/19, in the most recent matchup. Freshman point guard Cole Anthony led the Tar Heels with 28 points.
• Freshman Armando Bacot posted the first of his now 49 career double-doubles with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

SMITH CENTER
• This season is the 38th in which the Tar Heels are playing in the Dean E. Smith Center. That is the most years UNC has played in a home venue (played 26 seasons in Woollen Gym from 1939-65).
• The Tar Heels are 453-83 in 536 games in the Smith Center, including 220-18 against non-ACC opponents.
• UNC has won nine straight at home over non-ACC opponents since a February 2021 loss to Marquette.
• Last season, the Tar Heels went 15-2 in the Smith Center, including 7-0 against non-ACC opponents.

RETURNING TAR HEELS
• Carolina returns four starters from last season's team that went 29-10 overall, 15-5 in the ACC, was the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament, No. 8 seed in the East Regional in the NCAA Tournament, won the NCAA East Regional and advanced to the national championship game.
• The four returning starters include graduate student small forward Leaky Black, senior forward/center Armando Bacot and junior guards RJ Davis and Caleb Love.
• UNC returns 71.2% of the scoring from a year ago in addition to 58.5% of its rebounding, 82.3% of its assists and 58.5% of its three-point field goals.
• Brady Manek, a fifth-year grad student from Oklahoma, averaged 15.1 points and 6.1 rebounds, made 98 threes, the second most in UNC single-season history, and led the ACC in three-point percentage (.403). Manek is currently playing professional basketball in Australia.

PRESEASON ACCOLADES
• Senior forward/center Armando Bacot was one of five players named to the Associated Press's 2022-23 Preseason All-America team. Bacot is joined on the AP team by Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky), Drew Timme (Gonzaga), Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana) and Marcus Sasser (Houston).
• Bacot was chosen the Preseason ACC Player of the Year at the league's media day.
• Bacot also was named a preseason first-team All-America by The Sporting News, The Athletic, CBSSports.com, Fox, Blue Ribbon Yearbook, Dick Vitale, College Hoops Today and Field of 68.
• Junior guard RJ Davis was named preseason first-team All-America by Lindy's. He received second-team All-America recognition from Dick Vitale and third team from College Hoops Today.
• Davis was selected to the All-ACC third team at the league's media day and was also chosen by Lindy's as part of the No. 1 backcourt in the country with junior guard Caleb Love.
• Love was named to the preseason All-ACC team and a second-team All-America by The Athletic, CBSSports.com, College Hoops Today and Dick Vitale.
• Lindy's tabbed Love as the top playmaker and most entertaining player in the ACC.
• Field of 68 chose Pete Nance as the No. 2 transfer player to watch. Nance previously played four seasons at Northwestern, where he led the Wildcats last season in scoring, rebounding, three-point percentage and blocks. He scored 1,025 points (9.6 per game) in 107 career games.
• The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced preseason watch lists for its positional awards and four Tar Heels were named to the respective lists: Caleb Love (Bob Cousy Award for point guards), Leaky Black (Julius Erving Award for small forwards), Pete Nance (Karl Malone Award for power forwards) and Armando Bacot (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award for centers).
• Bacot (No. 3), Love (No. 10), Davis (No. 31) and Black (No. 95) were named among CBSSports.com's top 100 players.
• Three Tar Heels – Bacot, Davis and Love – are among 20 players on the NABC Player of the Year watch list. UNC is the only team with three players on the NABC list (Baylor has two).

IN THE RECORD BOOK
• Carolina has an NCAA-record 79 1,000-point scorers, including Armando Bacot, who scored his 1,000th point on 1/29/22 against NC State. Caleb Love needs 32 points and RJ Davis needs 200 to reach the 1,000-point mark.
• Louisville is second all-time with 69 1,000-point scorers.
• Bacot set UNC single-season records last year with 511 rebounds, 31 double-doubles, five 20-rebound games (tied), 32 games with 10 or more rebounds, rebounds in an NCAA Tournament and rebounds by a Tar Heel in the Elite 8, national semifinal and national championship games.
• Bacot became the first player in NCAA Tournament history with six double-doubles in one year and tied the NCAA single-season record for double-doubles with 31 (Navy's David Robinson also had 31 in 1895-86).
• Bacot is third in UNC history in double-doubles (49) and offensive rebounds per game (3.41), tied for sixth in rebounds per game (10.0) and eighth in rebounds (1,016). He is one of eight Tar Heels to average a career double-double (13.0/10.0). Sean May and Bacot are the only Tar Heels to average a double-double over a career in the last 50 seasons.
• Leaky Black has played in 124 games over the previous four seasons. He could break Deon Thompson's school record for games played (152).
• Caleb Love is sixth in UNC history in free throw percentage at .838.
• RJ Davis is eighth in free throw percentage at .834.

NBA TAR HEELS
Cole Anthony, 3rd year Orlando
Harrison Barnes, 11th year Sacramento
Tony Bradley, 6th year Chicago
Reggie Bullock, 10th year L.A. Clippers
Danny Green, 14th year Memphis
Justin Jackson, 6th year Boston
Cameron Johnson, 4th year Phoenix
Nassir Little, 4th year Portland
Theo Pinson, 5th year Dallas
Day'Ron Sharpe, 2nd year Brooklyn
Coby White, 4th year Chicago

The following players are playing professional basketball overseas or the G League:

Garrison Brooks (G-League, Westchester, N.Y.); Tyler Hansbrough (Puerto Rico); John Henson (Puerto Rico); Isaiah Hicks (Japan); Joel James (Russia); Brice Johnson (Japan); Christian Keeling (Finland); Justin Knox (South Korea); Brady Manek (Australia); Luke Maye (Spain); James Michael McAdoo (Japan); Kennedy Meeks (Dominican Republic); Walker Miller (The Netherlands); Marcus Paige (Spain); Justin Pierce (Montenegro); Reyshawn Terry (Argentina);Deon Thompson (Turkey); J.P. Tokoto (Israel); Kenny Williams (Greece)

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Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

RJ Davis

Caleb Love

Pete Nance