MBB Ready For Michigan In Charlotte Wednesday

GAME 13: MICHIGAN
• Carolina plays its final regular-season non-conference game when it travels to Charlotte, N.C., to play Michigan in the first Jumpman Invitational on Wednesday, December 21.
• Gametime is 7 p.m. at the Spectrum Center. ESPN will televise the game.
• The Tar Heels have won three straight games and are 8-4 overall, 1-1 in the ACC.
• Michigan is 7-3 and 1-0 in the Big Ten. The Wolverines have won two in a row, winning at Minnesota in their Big Ten opener and defeating Lipscomb, 83-75, on Saturday.
• Carolina is coming off an 89-84 overtime win over No. 23-ranked Ohio State in New York's Madison Square Garden in the ninth edition of the CBS Sports Classic.
• The Tar Heels tied the game at 79 and sent it to overtime on an 18-foot, turnaround jumper at the buzzer by Pete Nance (off an inbounds pass from Leaky Black).
• Nance's clutch shot marked the first time a Tar Heel made a field goal with no time remaining to send a game to overtime since Pete Chilcutt (off an assist from Jeff Lebo) vs. Syracuse on 11/21/1987, in Springfield, Mass. Remarkably, it also happened in UNC's previous overtime game, when Lebo fed Scott Williams for a jump hook at the buzzer that sent the 1987 ACC semifinal against Virginia to a second OT in Landover, Md.
• The 1987 buzzer-beaters came eight months, six games and one overtime game apart; Nance's shot was 35 years, 1,249 games and 52 overtime games since Chilcutt's shot vs. Syracuse.
• Armando Bacot led UNC vs. Ohio State with a season-high-tying 28 points and 15 rebounds, becoming the first Tar Heel ever to have at least 25 and 15 in a game in the current Madison Square Garden (Lennie Rosenbluth had 29 and 19 against Yale in the 1957 NCAA Tournament in the original Garden). It was his 16th career game with 20/10 and third with 25/15 (with Virginia and at NC State in 2021-22).
• Caleb Love had 22 points and a game-high seven assists. UNC is 4-0 this season and 18-0 the last two seasons when Love has five or more assists.
• Bacot earned ACC Player-of-the-Week honors for his play against Ohio State and The Citadel. He averaged 21 points, 13 rebounds, 2.5 assists and a block in UNC's two wins last week.
• It was Bacot's fourth career ACC Player-of-the-Week award, which ties him for the ninth most all-time by a Tar Heel with Brice Johnson, Joseph Forte and Sam Perkins. He needs just 41 rebounds to pass Perkins for the second most all-time in UNC history.
• Carolina trailed Ohio State by 10 with 6:44 to play. It was the first time UNC trailed by double digits with less than 10:00 to play and won since beating Louisville, 72-71, on 1/10/2015.
• Ohio State led by 14 twice in the first half. That was the largest deficit in a Tar Heel victory since 2/27/21, when UNC overcame a 16-point deficit to beat Florida State, 78-70, in the Smith Center.

TAR HEELS IN CHARLOTTE
• Carolina is 164-27 all-time in Charlotte, including 14-2 in the Spectrum Center.
• See a full list of UNC's games in Charlotte on page 5.
• This is Carolina's first game in Charlotte since a 74-73 loss to Duke in the 2019 ACC Tournament semifinals on 3/15/2019.
• This is Carolina's first game in Charlotte against a Big Ten opponent since the Tar Heels defeated Michigan, 109-97, on 3/14/1987, in the old Charlotte Coliseum on Independence Boulevard in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Jeff Lebo, currently a UNC assistant coach, had 16 points and four assists. J.R. Reid and Kenny Smith had 27 and 22 points, respectively, for the Tar Heels. Gary Grant led UM with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, the only triple-double vs. the Tar Heels in an NCAA Tournament game.

UNC-MICHIGAN ALL-TIME
• Carolina is 5-4 all-time against Michigan.
• The Tar Heels defeated the Wolverines, 72-51, in Chapel Hill on 12/5/2021 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
• The teams have played four times in the NCAA Tournament (UNC is 3-1), three times in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge (UNC 2-1) and one time each in the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu (UNC 0-1) and the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas (UNC 0-1).
• This is the fifth time in the last six seasons the Tar Heels are playing the Wolverines. Prior to 2017 the teams had not played since the 1993 NCAA championship game in New Orleans.
• Armando Bacot and Leaky Black are the only two Tar Heels who played in the nine-point loss to Michigan in the Bahamas on 11/28/2019. Bacot had six points and six rebounds; Black scored two points in 21 minutes, but missed the final 11 minutes of the second half after spraining his right foot.
• Pete Nance played five games against Michigan while competing at Northwestern for four seasons (two games as a freshman in 2018-19 and one game in each of the next three seasons).
• Nance scored 31 points and had 18 rebounds against the Wolverines. He scored 10 points as a junior and had 14 points, six rebounds and four assists in Ann Arbor last season.
• This is the first time UNC has played back-to-back games against Big Ten opponents (Ohio State and Michigan) since the 2017-18 season, when UNC lost to Michigan State in Portland, Ore., and defeated Michigan in Chapel Hill in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
• This is the first time UNC and Michigan are playing when neither team is ranked in the Associated Press poll. Both were ranked in five of the previous nine encounters.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAST YEAR'S GAME
• Box score from last year's game on page 6.
• Caleb Love scored a game-high 22 points. He tied his then-career high with four three-pointers.
• Armando Bacot had 11 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
• UNC made two of three free throws. The two made free throws tied the fewest in a game in UNC history in the ACC era (since 1953).
• UNC's three free throw attempts were the fewest in a game in the ACC era.
• Carolina committed six turnovers, its second-fewest in any game last season (five in the win at Duke later that season).
• Michigan led by five in the first half.
• The Tar Heels led, 29-27, at halftime, but out-scored the Wolverines, 43-25 in the second half.
• Carolina made 18 of 31 field goals in the second half (55.6%), including 5 of 9 from three-point range.

NOTE-WORTHY
• Carolina is No. 20 in the country in KenPom, No. 25 in the NCAA's NET and No. 32 in the December 19 AP poll.
• Carolina is unranked in the AP poll for the third consecutive week.
• Michigan is 48th in KenPom and No. 86 in the NET.
• The Tar Heels lead the ACC in scoring at 81.1 points per game and are eighth in scoring margin.
• Carolina has played the 20th-most difficult schedule in the nation (per KenPom) among all teams and the fourth-most difficult among Power 5 conference teams behind only Michigan State, Alabama and Stanford.
• The four teams that defeated UNC (Iowa State, Alabama, Indiana and Virginia Tech) were a combined 37-8 through December 18.
• Some notable stats according to KenPom: the Tar Heels are 10th in the country in offensive efficiency (114.6 points per 100 possessions), 14th best in getting to the free throw line (and 15th in percentage of points coming from the free throw line) and have committed the 29th-fewest turnovers per possession.
• Conversely, the Tar Heels are 309th in three-point percentage, 309th in forcing turnovers and 281st in assists to field goals (up 68 spots after a handing out 59 assists on 91 field goals in the last three wins over Georgia Tech, The Citadel and Ohio State).
• 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 third in the country in free throws made per game (19.8) and ninth in attempts.
• The Tar Heels are converting 75.0% 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, The Citadel and Ohio State the Tar Heels shot a combined 46.9% from the floor, made 24 three-pointers (two fewer than the opponents), had a rebound margin of 14.3 per game, dished out 59 assists on 91 field goals (64.8%) and had 59 assists/36 turnovers.
• Pete Nance leads the Tar Heels in plus/minus at plus 101. RJ Davis (+94), Leaky Black (+89) and Armando Bacot (+88) are the next three after Black posted a game-high plus 27 in the overtime win over Ohio State.
• Bacot has led UNC in plus/minus four times. Nance is second with three games as UNC's plus/minus leader.
• Bacot ranks third in the country in offensive rebounding (5.1 per game), fourth in rebounds per game (11.6), double-doubles (7) and free throw attempts (91).
• Carolina is 4-1 in games when it has scored more points off turnovers than its opponents, including Saturday's win over Ohio State when the Tar Heels held a 27-12 advantage over the Buckeyes. It was the third time in the last four games UNC had an advantage in points off turnovers.
• 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.
• 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 40 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 has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in a UNC-record 63 games, including a game-high 15 against Ohio State. 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 40 to pass College Basketball Hall of Famer Sam Perkins for second and 91 to surpass four-time first-team All-America Tyler Hansbrough for the UNC record.
• Bacot has 56 double-doubles in 111 games (double-doubles in 50.5% of his games). Only Cunningham (87.0%) and Lennie Rosenbluth (51.3%) recorded double-doubles in a higher percentage of games by a Tar Heel.
• 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. The Ohio State game was his 19th with 15 or more.
• Bacot is second in UNC history in double-doubles (56), second in offensive rebounds per game (3.59), third in rebounds (1,129) and sixth in rebounds per game (10.2). The Richmond, Va., native is one of eight Tar Heels to average a career double-double (13.4/10.2).
• 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 134 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 110 starts and Black has 109.
• RJ Davis and Caleb Love are are tied for fifth and 11th, respectively, in free throw percentage.

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