MBB To Face Ohio State In NYC Saturday

GAME 12: OHIO STATE
• Carolina returns to Madison Square Garden for the first time in more than a decade as the Tar Heels play Ohio State on Saturday, Dec. 17, in the ninth CBS Sports Classic. CBS will televise the game, and Paramount Plus will stream it (subscription required).
• The Tar Heels have won two straight games and are 7-4 overall, 1-1 in the ACC.
• No. 23-ranked Ohio State, idle since beating Rutgers on December 8, is 7-2.
• Carolina made a season-high 15 three-pointers, handed out a season-high 24 assists on 32 field goals and hit triple digits for the third time this season in defeating The Citadel, 100-67, Tuesday evening in the Smith Center.
• Armando Bacot grabbed 11 rebounds to go along with 14 points, two blocks and two assists for his 55th career double-double. He set a UNC record with his 62nd game with 10 or more rebounds.

CBS SPORTS CLASSIC
• Carolina is 5-3 in the CBS Sports Classic (2-0 vs. Ohio State, 2-0 vs. UCLA and 1-3 vs. Kentucky).

CAROLINA IN THE CBS SPORTS CLASSIC
def. Ohio State, 82-74, 12/20/2014 (Chicago)
def. UCLA, 89-76, 12/19/2015 (Brooklyn)
lost to Kentucky, 100-103, 12/17/2016 (Las Vegas)
def. Ohio State, 86-72, 12/23/2017 (New Orleans)
lost to Kentucky, 72-80, 12/22/2018 (Chicago)
def. UCLA, 74-64, 12/21/2019 (Las Vegas)
def. Kentucky, 75-63, 12/19/2020 (Cleveland)
lost to Kentucky, 69-98, 12/18/2021 (Las Vegas)

UNC-OHIO STATE ALL-TIME
• Carolina is 12-3 against the Buckeyes.
• Ohio State defeated UNC, 74-49, in the most recent matchup on 12/4/2019, in Chapel Hill in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
• The 25-point margin was UNC's second-largest in the Smith Center; the Tar Heels shot 27.4 percent, their lowest ever in the Smith Center.
• Cole Anthony led UNC with 15 points.
• Armando Bacot left the game with an ankle injury with 12:48 to play in the first half and did not return.
• The Tar Heels had won the previous seven games, including CBS Sports Classic games in 2014-15 in Chicago and 2017-18 in New Orleans.
• The Tar Heels are 2-0 vs. the Buckeyes in Madison Square Garden.
• Carolina beat Ohio State in the original Garden in the 1946 NCAA East Regional championship game and the current facility on 11/19/2009 in the semifinals of Coaches vs. Cancer.

TAR HEELS IN NEW YORK
• Carolina is returning to Madison Square Garden for the first time since 12/28/2010, when the Tar Heels defeated Rutgers, 78-55.
• Carolina is playing in MSG for the first time since the arena underwent a $1 billion renovation from 2011-13.
• Carolina is 29-11 in the current facility located at 4 Penn Plaza. The Tar Heels first played in the Garden in the 1968 ECAC Holiday Festival.
• UNC is 43-25 all-time in New York City. That includes a 6-3 record in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn over the previous seven seasons.

HUBERT RETURNS TO THE GARDEN
• The New York Knicks selected UNC head coach Hubert Davis with the 20th pick in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft.
• Davis played 12 seasons in the NBA, scoring 5,583 points, an average of 8.2 per contest. He made 728 three-point field goals and is currently second in NBA history in three-point percentage at .441.
• In four seasons with the Knicks, Davis played in 311 games (regular season and playoffs) and totaled 2,743 points.
• He averaged double-figure scoring in four different seasons – a career-high 11.1 with Dallas in 1997-98 and with the Knicks in 1993-94 (11.0), 1994-95 (10.0) and 1995-96 (10.7).
• In 1993-94, he was fourth on the Knicks in scoring behind Patrick Ewing, John Starks and Charles Oakley as New York won 57 games and advanced to the NBA Finals, where they took Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Kenny Smith to seven games (Doc Rivers and Greg Anthony were also Knicks that season).

NOTE-WORTHY
• Carolina has played the 32nd-most difficult schedule in the nation (per KenPom) among all teams and the eighth-most difficult among Power 5 conference teams.
• The four teams that defeated UNC (Iowa State, Alabama, Indiana and Virginia Tech) were a combined 35-6 through December 14.
• Some notable stats according to KenPom: the Tar Heels are ninth in the country in offensive efficiency (115.1 points per 100 possessions), 13th best in getting to the free throw line (and 15th in percentage of points coming from the free throw line) and have committed the 24th-fewest turnovers per possession.
• Conversely, the Tar Heels are 253rd in three-point percentage (up 72 spots after making 15 of 31 vs. The Citadel), 314th in forcing turnovers and 304th in assists to field goals (up 45 spots after a handing out 39 assists on 59 field goals in the two wins over Georgia Tech and The Citadel).
• Carolina is attempting 26.3 free throws per game. That is the third most attempts by the Tar Heels in the last 45 years. Only the 1994-95 (28.8 per game) and 2004-05 (27.0) teams averaged more attempts per game.
• Carolina is second in the country in free throws made per game (19.8) and 10th in attempts.
• The Tar Heels are converting 75.4% from the free throw line, the second straight season UNC has converted 75% or better (76.4%, second best in school history in 2021-22).
• Some notable stats from the Tar Heels' recent four-game losing streak: Carolina shot 41.4% from the floor, including 23.7% from three; the opponents made nearly twice as many threes (35 to 18 or 8.8 per game to 4.5 per game); the opponents out-rebounded UNC by 3.0 per game; the Tar Heels averaged 7.3 fewer assists per game than their opponents; and UNC had assists on only 36.5% of its field goals.
• In Carolina's most recent wins over Georgia Tech and The Citadel the Tar Heels shot a combined 48.4% from the floor, made 18 three-pointers (one more than the Yellow Jackets and Bulldogs), had a rebound margin of 18.5 per game, dished out 39 assists on 59 field goals (66.1%) and had 39 assists/23 turnovers.
• Armando Bacot and Pete Nance are one-two on the team in plus/minus. Bacot leads the team with a plus-90 and Nance is second at plus-89. Both frontcourt starters have led the team three times in plus/minus this season.
• Nance leads Carolina in three-point shooting, converting 16 of 40 for 40%. Eleven of his 16 made threes have come in three games (three vs. Gardner-Webb, a career-high five vs. Portland and three vs. The Citadel).
• Bacot is second in the country in offensive rebounding, third in free throw attempts, fifth in double-doubles and fifth in rebounds per game.
• Carolina's opponents have scored 10 more points off turnovers than UNC has this season (the Tar Heels are 3-1 in games when they have scored more).
• The Tar Heels averaged only 8.6 fastbreak points in their first five games. In the last six games UNC has averaged 14.5 fastbreak points.
• Carolina's bench has outscored the opponents twice this season (16-12 in the loss at Virginia Tech and 42-18 vs. The Citadel).
• Freshman Tyler Nickel's 16 points vs. The Citadel were his season high and the most by a non-starter this season. His 16 points equaled the previous high for most total bench points in a game by UNC this season. They were also the most by a Tar Heel non-starter (in a non-Senior Day game) since Puff Johnson had 16 at NC State last February.
• Carolina's 103-101 loss to Alabama was just the second four-overtime game in UNC history and the first since Carolina beat Tulane, 113-106, in New Orleans on Feb. 14, 1976.
• Carolina had not played even a triple overtime game since 2003-04 (a 119-114 loss to Wake Forest).
• It was only the third time UNC lost in 211 games all-time when scoring 100 points.
• Caleb Love played 57:24 in Carolina's four-overtime loss to Alabama. That is the second-highest minutes played in a game by a Tar Heel. Phil Ford played 58 minutes in a four-OT win at Tulane in 1976.
• Love was named to the PKI All-Tournament team after scoring a career-high 34 points against the Tide.
• Carolina is unranked for the second consecutive week.
• The Nov. 21 poll was the 113th time UNC was ranked No. 1 in an AP poll, fourth most in NCAA college basketball history.
• This was the 10th time the Tar Heels have been ranked No. 1 to begin a season (1977-78, 1981-82, 1983-84, 1986-87, 1993-94, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2011-12, 2015-16 and 2022-23).
• 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.

IN THE RECORD BOOK
• Carolina has an NCAA-record 80 1,000-point scorers, including Caleb Love and Armando Bacot, who scored his 1,000th point on 1/29/22.
• RJ Davis needs 61 points for 1,000.
• Love scored his 1,000th point in his 73rd game, the fewest games needed since Harrison Barnes hit the mark in his 61st game as a Tar Heel.
• Bacot had 11 rebounds against The Citadel, setting the UNC record with his 62nd game with 10 or more. He passed Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham, who had 61 in three seasons from 1962-65.
• Bacot passed George Lynch on December 10 against Georgia Tech for third place all-time in rebounds at UNC. He needs 55 to pass College Basketball Hall of Famer Sam Perkins for second and 106 to surpass four-time first-team All-America Tyler Hansbrough for the UNC record.
• Bacot has 55 double-doubles in 110 games (a double-doubles in 50% of his games). Only Cunningham recorded double-doubles in a higher percentage of games by a Tar Heel (87.0%).
• 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 1985-86).
• Bacot grabbed a career-high 23 rebounds in UNC's 80-64 win over previously unbeaten James Madison on November 20.
• Bacot's 23 rebounds marked his sixth career game with 20 or more and 18th with 15 or more.
• Bacot is second in UNC history in double-doubles (55), second in offensive rebounds per game (3.55), third in rebounds (1,114) and sixth in rebounds per game (10.1). The Richmond, Va., native is one of eight Tar Heels to average a career double-double (13.3/10.1).
• 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 133 games in four-plus seasons. He could break Deon Thompson's school record for games played (152).
• Black is one of two current Tar Heels to start at least 100 career games. Bacot has made 109 starts and Black has 108.
• RJ Davis is fifth in free throw percentage.

MILLER, WILLIAMS INDUCTED INTO COLLEGE HALL
• Larry Miller, the only Tar Heel to twice earn ACC Player of the Year and ACC Tournament MVP honors, and three-time national championship winning head coach Roy Williams were inducted in the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame Nov. 20 in Kansas City.
• Miller and Williams are among 13 Tar Heels in the College Basketball Hall of Fame with Larry Brown, Ben Carnevale, Billy Cunningham, Phil Ford, Antawn Jamison, Bob McAdoo, Frank McGuire, Sam Perkins, Charlie Scott, Dean Smith and James Worthy.
• On December 14, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced named Williams the recipient of the 2023 Naismith Outstanding Contributor to Men's Basketball. He will be honored at the 2023 Final Four.
• In September, George Karl was inducted in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Karl, who played at UNC from 1970-73, became the 12th Tar Heel enshrined in Springfield with Brown, Carnevale, Cunningham, Bobby Jones, Michael Jordan, McAdoo, McGuire, Scott, Smith, Williams and James Worthy.

NOVEMBER SIGNEES
• Carolina signed two players to National Letters of Intent in November 2022.
• Zayden High, a 6-10 forward from San Antonio, Texas. High attends AZ Compass Prep in Chandler, Ariz., where he plays for Coach Ed Gipson.
• Simeon Wilcher, a 6-5 guard from Plainfield, N.J. Wilcher plays for Coach Dave Boff at Roselle Catholic High School in Roselle, N.J.

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Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

RJ Davis

Puff Johnson

Caleb Love

Pete Nance

Tyler Nickel

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University of North Carolina Athletics