MBB Visits Pitt Friday To Wrap Up 2022

GAME 14: AT PITTSBURGH
• Carolina returns to action for the first time in nine days and the final time in the calendar year 2022 when the Tar Heels play at Pittsburgh on Friday, December 30 (noon, ACC Network).
• The Tar Heels have won four straight games and are 9-4 overall, 1-1 in the ACC.
• The Panthers are 9-4, 2-0 in league play with a pair of road wins at NC State and Syracuse.
• The teams have played only one common opponent to date this season. Carolina edged Michigan, 80-76, last week, while the Wolverines beat Pittsburgh, 91-60, in Brooklyn on November 16.
• Carolina is playing for the first time since an 80-76 win over Michigan in Charlotte on December 21st; Pittsburgh last played on the 20th when the Panthers beat Syracuse, 84-82.
• Carolina's nine days between games is the longest scheduled break of the season. UNC will also have a week between games when the Tar Heels play host to Pittsburgh on February 1.
• The noon start at Pittsburgh is Carolina's second of the season but the last one currently scheduled. UNC beat James Madison in a noon start in Chapel Hill on November 20. Those noon starts aren't the earliest tip times for the Tar Heels this season as UNC beat Portland in a 10 a.m. local start in Oregon on Thanksgiving and will tip at 11:30 a.m. at home against Notre Dame on January 7.
• Carolina is 29-11 in 2022.
• The Tar Heels are back in the Associated Press poll this week. UNC is No. 25 after being unranked in the previous three polls.
• Carolina has been ranked in 75% of the AP polls all-time, the second most (Kentucky) in AP-poll history.
• The Tar Heels are coming off wins over Ohio State in Madison Square Garden and Michigan in Charlotte. It was the first time UNC won consecutive games over Big Ten opponents since defeating Wisconsin, Michigan State and Illinois to win the 2005 NCAA title.
• Armando Bacot led UNC with 28 points and 15 rebounds vs. Ohio State and 26 points vs. the Wolverines. He made 22 of 34 field goals in the two games, marking the first time a Tar Heel made 11 field goals in back-to-back games since Brice Johnson vs. Tulane and UCLA in December 2015.

UNC-PITTSBURGH SERIES
• Carolina is 15-6 all-time vs. the Panthers, including 8-5 since Pittsburgh joined the ACC.
• The Panthers have won three of the last four games, including 76-67 in Chapel Hill on 2/16/2022, the only game between the teams last season.
• Carolina went 11-2 the rest of the season following the loss to Pittsburgh.
• Only two of the eight players who played in Pittsburgh's win in Chapel Hill last season are on the roster this season (John Hugley, who had 18 points, and Jamarius Burton, who had 14 points and seven rebounds).
• Carolina won the previous matchup in the Petersen Center, 75-65, on 1/26/2021. Sophomore Armando Bacot had 21 points and 10 rebounds. The Tar Heels led by seven at the half, then shot 60.7% from the floor in the second to pull away for the win.
• The Tar Heels are 6-2 in Pittsburgh, including 3-2 in the Petersen Center.
• Junior Puff Johnson is from Moon Township, Pa., approximately 19 miles from the Petersen Center. Johnson's father, Gilbert, played at Pittsburgh from 1988-90. His brother, Cameron, earned his undergraduate degree from Pittsburgh and played for the Panthers for three seasons from 2014-17. He also played for the Tar Heels in 2017-18 and 2018-19, earning first-team All-ACC honors as a graduate student.
• Hubert Davis did not play against the Panthers in his collegiate career.

LAST YEAR'S GAME
Pittsburgh 76, UNC 67, 2/16/22 in Chapel Hill
• The Panthers led 40-23 at the half. The 17-point deficit tied UNC's third-largest ever in the Smith Center and was its largest since 1/4/2020, when Georgia Tech led 47-27.
• The Panthers broke a 12-12 tie with a 17-2 run. The deficit grew to 21 in the second half before the Tar Heels made a late run to pull within single digits with 2:28 to play and within six after a Brady Manek basket with 1:50 remaining.
• The Tar Heel comeback came to an end after a turnover and John Hugley basket with 90 seconds to play.
• All five Pittsburgh starters scored in double figures led by Ithiel Horton's 19 and Hugley's 18. Horton made 5 of 5 three-pointers.
• Caleb Love was 7 for 14 from the floor (6 for 8 from two-point range) and led UNC with 19 points. Brady Manek had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
• Armando Bacot was 2 for 6 from the floor and finished with seven points, eight boards, four assists and three blocks. It was the fifth and final game last season in which he did not score in double figures.
• Carolina shot 27.6% from the floor in the first half, its lowest field goal percentage in a half at home last season.
• The Tar Heels doubled their field goal percentage in the second half when they shot 55.2% from the floor.
• Pittsburgh scored 20 points off 10 UNC turnovers in the first half. The Panthers scored only two points off turnovers in the second half when UNC outscored Pitt by eight.
• Carolina scored a season-high 24 points off 18 Pittsburgh turnovers. The 18 turnovers were the most forced by UNC last season.
• Pittsburgh shot 60% from the floor in the first half.
•The Panthers made 10 of 17 three-pointers, the highest percentage (.588) by an opponent all season.
• Carolina led 5-0, its largest lead in a loss last season until the national championship game when Kansas overcame a 16-point Tar Heel lead.

RANKINGS
• Carolina is No. 20 in the country in KenPom, No. 24 in the NCAA's NET and No. 25 in the December 26 AP poll.
• Pittsburgh is No. 69 in KenPom and 70th in the NET.
• The Tar Heels lead the ACC in scoring at 81.5 points per game and are eighth in scoring margin.
• Caleb Love and Armando Bacot rank one-two in the ACC in scoring at 18.3 and 18.2 points per game, respectively. RJ Davis is 10th at 15.9.
• Bacot ranks third in the country in offensive rebounding (4.7 per game) and free throw attempts (98), fifth in double-doubles (7) and sixth in rebounds per game (11.1).

SCHEDULE
• Carolina has played the 13th-most difficult schedule in the nation (per KenPom) among all teams and the third-most difficult among Power 5 conference teams behind only Michigan State and Alabama.
• The four teams that defeated UNC (Iowa State, Alabama, Indiana and Virginia Tech) were a combined 40-9 through Christmas.

KENPOM HIGHLIGHTS
• Some notable stats according to KenPom: the Tar Heels are 11th in the country in offensive efficiency (114.5 points per 100 possessions), 12th best in getting to the free throw line (and 15th in percentage of points coming from the free throw line) and have committed the 25th-fewest turnovers per possession.
• Conversely, the Tar Heels are 292nd in three-point percentage, 313th in forcing turnovers and 285th in assists to field goals.

STREAKING
• Some notable stats from the Tar Heels' 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 current four-game winning streak over Georgia Tech, The Citadel, Ohio State and Michigan the Tar Heels have shot a combined 47.6% from the floor, made 31 three-pointers (one fewer per game than the opponents), had a rebound margin of 11.3 per game, dished out 72 assists on 120 field goals (60%) and had 72 assists/48 turnovers compared to the opponents' 48 assists/49 turnovers.

FREEBIES
• Carolina is attempting 26.4 free throws per game, the third-highest average number of 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 (19.4) and fifth in attempts.
• One statistical category where the Tar Heels have not excelled over the last four games is free throw shooting. Through the Virginia Tech game on December 4, Carolina was converting 75.2% from the stripe; over the last four games, all wins, the Tar Heels are just 73 for 105 for 69.5%. However, Georgia Tech, The Citadel, Ohio State and Michigan have shot a combined 60.4% from the free throw line.
• In these last four wins, UNC has made 25 more free throws (and attempted 57 more) than the opponents have attempted.

LATE-GAME HEROICS
• Pete Nance's clutch shot vs. Ohio State marked the first time a Tar Heel made a field goal with 0:00 on the clock (released with 0.2 to play) 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.
• 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.

BACOT EARNS ANOTHER ACC AWARD
• 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.
• 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 35 rebounds to pass Perkins for the second most in UNC history.
• 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).

MISCELLANEOUS
• Armando Bacot and RJ Davis lead the Tar Heels in plus/minus at +100.
• Bacot has led UNC in plus/minus five times, including a +12 vs. Michigan. Pete Nance is second with three games as UNC's plus/minus leader.
• Sophomore guard D'Marco Dunn, who has missed the last five games with a broken bone in his left hand, leads the non-starters in plus/minus at +37. Freshman guard Seth Trimble is next at +8 off the bench.
• Carolina is 4-1 in games when it has scored more points off turnovers than its opponents, including the overtime win over Ohio State, when the Tar Heels held a 27-12 advantage over the Buckeyes.
• Carolina committed only two more turnovers than Michigan, but the Wolverines converted those into 16 points, nine more than the Tar Heels scored off UM's miscues.
• 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 Tar Heel 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 AP poll ranked the Tar Heels 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 21 points for 1,000.
• Should Davis score 21 or more points at Pittsburgh he would hit the 1,000-point mark in his 82nd game, which would match Armando Bacot for the 37th-fewest games needed by a Tar Heel to score 1,000 points.
• 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. He passed Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham, who had 61 in three seasons from 1962-65.
• Bacot is second in UNC history in offensive rebounds per game in his career. He leads the ACC and is third in the country in offensive rebounds per game this season, but did not have one against Michigan. It was the first time in 64 games since a loss at Clemson on 2/2/2021 Bacot did not have an offensive rebound.
• Bacot passed George Lynch on December 10 against Georgia Tech for third place all-time in rebounds at UNC. He has 1,134 rebounds and needs 35 to pass College Basketball Hall of Famer Sam Perkins for second and 86 to surpass four-time first-team All-America Tyler Hansbrough for the UNC record.
• Bacot has 56 double-doubles in 112 games (double-doubles in 50% 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 on December 17 was his 19th with 15 or more.
• Bacot is second in UNC history in double-doubles (56), second in offensive rebounds per game (3.55), third in rebounds (1,134) and sixth in rebounds per game (10.1). The Richmond, Va., native is one of eight Tar Heels to average a career double-double (13.6/10.1).
• Sean May and Bacot are the only Tar Heels to average a double-double over a career in the last 50 seasons.
• RJ Davis and Caleb Love are fifth and 12th, respectively, in free throw percentage.
• Leaky Black has played in 135 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 111 starts and Black has 110.
• Black handed out his 300th career assist in the win over Michigan (he now has 301). He needs two points for 700 and seven rebounds for 600.
• Caleb Love needs nine assists for 300.
• RJ Davis grabbed his 300th rebound in the Michigan game.
• Bacot needs two offensive rebounds for 400.

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.

MILLER, WILLIAMS HONORED
• 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.

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Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

RJ Davis

D'Marco Dunn

Puff Johnson

Caleb Love

Brady Manek

Pete Nance

Tyler Nickel

Seth Trimble

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