MBB Visits Louisville For Saturday Matinee

Saturday, January 14

Louisville, Ky.

2 PM

North Carolina

Louisville

RJ Davis

Photo by: Maggie Hobson

January 13, 2023 | Men's Basketball

Watch Live Stats UNC Notes Media Central

GAME 18: AT LOUISVILLE
• The Tar Heels travel to Louisville for their only scheduled regular-season game against the Cardinals. Tipoff at the KFC Yum! Center is 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 14, and ESPN will televise.
• Carolina is 11-6 overall, 3-3 in the ACC after a 65-58 loss at Virginia on January 10.
• The Tar Heels led by as many as nine points in the first half and by six with just over 15:00 to play before Virginia scored 11 straight as part of a 21-5 run to lead, 52-42, with 9:25 to play. Carolina closed to within three twice, but couldn't get any closer as the Cavaliers won for the eighth straight time over UNC in Charlottesville.
• UNC played its second consecutive game without starting forward Pete Nance (strained back) and lost ACC Player-of-the-Year candidate Armando Bacot, the league's leading scorer and rebounder, 78 seconds into the contest when he sprained his left ankle.
• Bacot had scored 20 or more points in each of the previous five games and had earned his second ACC Player-of-the-Week award this season and fifth of his career for his play last week against Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
• Carolina held Virginia to 37.5% shooting from the floor in the first half, which helped the Tar Heels build a 24-15 lead, but the Cavaliers shot 53.6% in the second half. UVA made 2 of their 11 three-point attempts in the first half and 4 of 8 in the second.
• The Tar Heels made three of their last five three-point attempts over the final five minutes (all by Caleb Love) but were 5 of 19 from three prior to that.
• For the first time since the loss at Virginia Tech on December 4, the Tar Heels had more turnovers than assists. UNC went 6-1 in the previous seven starts when it had more assists than turnovers. This was the fifth straight loss when the Tar Heels had more turnovers than assists.

UNC-LOUISVILLE SERIES
• The Tar Heels are 18-7 all-time against the Cardinals, including 9-4 since UL joined the ACC in the 2014-15 season.
• Carolina is 3-3 vs. the Cardinals in the KFC Yum! Center and 3-5 all-time on the road vs. Louisville.
• The Tar Heels were 4-6 in Freedom Hall (0-1 vs. Louisville in that venue) and lost a 1929 game vs. the Cardinals in the Knights of Columbus Gym.
• Carolina has won three straight and five of the last six games against Louisville. The Tar Heels won both games a season ago, winning 90-83 in overtime in Louisville and 70-63 three weeks later in Chapel Hill (details below).

LAST SEASON'S GAMES
UNC 90, Louisville 83 (OT), 2/1/22 in Louisville
• Carolina won an overtime game, its first under head coach Hubert Davis, for the first time since beating Miami on 2/9/2019 in Chapel Hill.
• Brady Manek led UNC with four threes and 24 points.
• Armando Bacot had 19 points, a career-high tying 22 rebounds and three steals.
• Leaky Black scored a season-high 13 points. He made three 3FGs for the first time since he hit four at Miami on 1/5/2021.
• Louisville made 15 threes, the most by an opponent in a UNC win since Iona made 15 in the 2019 NCAA Tournament first round.
• Carolina scored zero fastbreak points (first time since a double-OT loss at Virginia Tech in 2020) and zero bench points (only time last season and first time in a win since 1998-99 against Georgia).
• There were 13 lead changes and nine ties.
• El Ellis came off the bench to lead Louisville with 25 points, all in the second half (20) and overtime (5).
• Louisville's bench out-scored UNC's, 44-0.

UNC 70, Louisville 63, 2/21/22 in Chapel Hill
• Manek made three three-point field goals and led Carolina in scoring with 17 points.
• Bacot had 12 points and 15 rebounds, Love had 16 points, five assists and a career-high seven turnovers and RJ Davis scored 16 points, had two assists, no turnovers and three steals.
• Puff Johnson came off the bench and was a plus 9 in 12 minutes.
• The game was tied at 36 at the half and at 60-all with 6:23 to play. Bacot's dunk off a Manek pass gave UNC a three-point lead with 90 seconds to play and Love made a driving layup with 37 seconds left to secure the win.
• Carolina shot 54.5% from the floor in the second half.
• Love played 40 minutes, the first Tar Heel to play the entire game since Raymond Felton at Virginia on 1/11/2003.

BACOT: 5-TIME ACC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• Bacot earned his second ACC Player-of-the-Week award this season and fifth of his career for his play against Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
• He averaged 21.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.6 blocks and made 16 of 28 field goals in the wins over Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
• In December, Bacot earned ACC Player-of-the-Week honors for his performances against The Citadel and Ohio State.
• Bacot has won ACC Player of the Week five times, which equals the fourth most all-time by a Tar Heel with Joel Berry II, Michael Jordan, Luke Maye, Mike O'Koren and Marcus Paige.
• Only Antawn Jamison (ACC-record 12), Tyler Hansbrough (11) and Phil Ford (6) have won the award more than Bacot.

RANKINGS
• Carolina is No. 25 in the country in KenPom and No. 32 in the NCAA's NET.
• The Tar Heels lead the ACC in scoring (80.0 ppg) and are second in rebounding (39.8) and rebound margin (+4.5). Carolina is seventh in the league in scoring margin (+6.3).
• Last season, UNC was No. 1 in the ACC and No. 3 in the country in rebound margin (plus 8.5). This season, UNC is No. 2 in the conference and 74th nationally at plus 4.5 per game.
• The Tar Heels are sixth in the ACC in field goal percentage and 10th in field goal percentage defense.
• Carolina is 11th in the ACC in three-pointers per game (6.8), 13th in three-point shooting (.320) and 12th in three-point percentage defense (.347).
• Armando Bacot (third), Caleb Love (eighth) and RJ Davis (10th) each rank in the top 10 in the league in scoring.
• Bacot came into the game at Virginia leading the ACC in scoring and rebounding but did not score and had one rebound in 1:18 of action before leaving the game due to injury. He is still third in the ACC in scoring (17.6), second in rebounding (10.6), first in offensive boards (4.4) and first in double-doubles (9).
• Bacot ranks fourth in the country in offensive rebounding, sixth in double-doubles (9) and ninth in rebounds per game and free throw attempts (115).

SCHEDULE
• Carolina's schedule is ranked the fifth-most difficult in the nation (per KenPom) among all teams behind only Alabama, Creighton, Gonzaga and Kansas.
• Carolina's first 17 opponents collectively have the second-best offensive efficiencies in the country and the 14th-best defensive efficiencies.
• The six teams that have defeated UNC were a combined 71-25 (.740) through January 11.
• Carolina has played four teams that are ranked in the January 9 AP poll – No. 4 Alabama, No. 13 Virginia, No. 14 Iowa State and No. 22 Charleston.
• Indiana, Ohio State and Pittsburgh also received votes, as did the Tar Heels.

KENPOM HIGHLIGHTS
• Some notable stats according to KenPom: in addition to playing the fifth-most difficult schedule in the country, the Tar Heels are 18th in offensive efficiency (115.0 points per 100 possessions), 21st best in getting to the free throw line and have committed the 21st-fewest turnovers per possession.
• The Tar Heels are 257th in three-point percentage and 331st in forcing turnovers.
• UNC is 269th in assists to field goals percentage at .475, but the Tar Heels have assists on 55.6% of their field goals over the last eight games. Last season, Carolina had assists on 54% of its field goals.
• Armando Bacot is 16th in the country in offensive rebound percentage, but as a team the Tar Heels are 173rd. Bacot has 70 offensive rebounds, 48 more than Leaky Black, who is second with 22.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS (WINS & LOSSES)
• Carolina has scored 11.6 more points per game in its 11 wins than in the six losses, while the opponents have scored nearly eight more points per game in UNC's losses.
• The Tar Heels are shooting 48.3% from the floor in the wins and 41.4% in their losses.
• The Tar Heels make 7.5 threes at 34.6% in the wins, but only 5.5 threes at 27% in the losses.
• Carolina has a rebounding edge of 7.2 in the wins and has been out-rebounded by 0.5 per game in its losses.
• The Tar Heels are plus 45 in assists/turnovers in the wins and minus 15 in the six losses.
• The opponents have shot 42.1% from the floor in Carolina's wins and 46% in the losses.
• The opponents are plus 26 assist/turnovers in UNC's losses and plus 2 in Carolina's 11 wins.
• UNC has outscored the opponents, 180-128, in points off turnovers in the Tar Heels' 11 wins, including 24-10 vs. Charleston, 27-12 vs. Ohio State and 32-8 vs. Wake Forest.
• The opponents have outscored the Tar Heels, 99-53, in points off turnovers in the six losses. That includes a 15-point advantage by Iowa State, a seven-point edge by Alabama, a 17-4 advantage at Indiana, a 12-6 margin by Pittsburgh and 19-10 advantage by Virginia.
• Carolina is 6-1 in games when it has scored more points off turnovers than its opponents.
• The Tar Heels are 3-5 when the opponents score more points off turnovers.
• The opponents scored at least 40 paint points four times in the UNC losses, including 40 by Alabama, 50 by Indiana, 42 by Virginia Tech and 42 by Pittsburgh. UNC has allowed 30.9 paint points in its 11 victories. Virginia out-scored UNC, 32-20, in paint points.
• Carolina's five starters are all shooting at least 42% from the floor in the 11 wins; in the five losses, only Armando Bacot (.571) is shooting better than 43% from the floor.
• In the 11 wins, Bacot is the only starter with more turnovers than assists; in the six losses, only Black has more assists than turnovers.

FROM THE STRIPE
• Carolina is seventh in the country in free throws made per game (18.1) and 12th in attempts (24.6). That is despite season lows in free throws made (8) and attempted (12) at Virginia, largely due to Armando Bacot playing fewer than two minutes.
• Bacot is ninth nationally in free throw attempts (122) and 28th in free throws made (80).
• Carolina is 10-1 this season and 31-8 in his career when Bacot attempts more than six free throws in a game. The Tar Heels are 1-4 this season and 40-37 over the last four seasons when he attempts fewer than six.
• RJ Davis leads the ACC and is 49th in the country in free throw percentage at .871. Pete Nance (15th at .784) and Caleb Love (16th at .783) also rank in the top 20 in the ACC.

MISCELLANEOUS
• Armando Bacot leads Carolina in scoring (17.6 ppg), rebounding (10.6 rpg), offensive rebounding (4.4), blocks (20) and field goal percentage (.567). Last season, the Richmond, Va., native became the first Tar Heel ever to lead UNC in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots in consecutive seasons, and he is on pace to accomplish that again this season.
• Caleb Love and Bacot were named last week to the Wooden Award's mid-season top 25. Love has made at least one three-pointer in 45 consecutive games, breaking the previous UNC record of 41 games set by Marcus Paige.
• Bacot (17.6 ppg), Love (16.6) and RJ Davis (16.4) are on pace to become the first Tar Heel trio to average 16 points in a season since Walter Davis, Phil Ford and Mitch Kupchak did that in 1974-75 and 1975-76.
• Bacot leads the Tar Heels in plus/minus at +121. Davis is second at +114.
• Bacot has led UNC in plus/minus six times. Pete Nance is second in games led in plus/minus with three.
• Freshman Jalen Washington led all Tar Heel players who played at least half the game in plus/minus at Virginia with a +3.
• Washington is the fourth Tar Heel non-starter to lead the team in plus/minus in a game this season (Puff Johnson vs. Alabama, Tyler Nickel at Virginia Tech, Seth Trimble vs. Wake Forest and Washington at Virginia).
• Puff Johnson was a +6 in 14 minutes at Virginia; Johnson has a positive plus/minus in each of his last five games, the longest current streak on the team.
• Caleb Love led UNC with a plus 17 vs. Notre Dame, the second game this season he has led the Tar Heels in plus/minus.
• Freshman guard Seth Trimble posted a game-high plus 16 in the 88-79 win over Wake Forest. He entered the game with 14:09 to play with UNC trailing 56-52 and helped Carolina out-score the Deacons by 13 the rest of the game.
• Sophomore guard D'Marco Dunn, who returned to action at Pittsburgh after missing five games due to a broken bone in his left hand, leads the non-starters in plus/minus at +34.
• Carolina's bench has outscored the opponents four times this season (16-12 in the loss at Virginia Tech, 42-18 vs. The Citadel, 10-9 in the loss at Pittsburgh and 22-12 in the win over Notre Dame).
• 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 81 1,000-point scorers, including Caleb Love, Armando Bacot and RJ Davis, who scored his 1,000th point against Wake Forest on 1/4/23.
• Bacot is 28th all-time in scoring at Carolina, Love is 62nd and Davis is 76th.
• Davis scored 27 points to pass the 1,000-point mark against Wake Forest in his 83rd game, the 38th-fewest games needed by a Tar Heel to score 1,000 points.
• Raymond Felton and Ty Lawson both scored their 1,000th points in their 84th games.
• Bacot scored his 1,000th in his 82nd game, while Love scored his 1,000th point in his 73rd game, the fewest games needed since Harrison Barnes hit the mark in his sophomore season in 2011-12 in his 61st game as a Tar Heel.
• Bacot has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in a UNC-record 65 games. He passed Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham, who had 61 in three seasons from 1962-65.
• Bacot passed Sam Perkins on January 7 for second place all-time in rebounds at UNC. He has 1,170 rebounds and needs 50 to pass four-time first-team All-America Tyler Hansbrough for the UNC record.
• Bacot has 58 double-doubles in 116 games (double-doubles in 50.0% 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 vs. JMU marked his sixth career game with 20 or more. The Ohio State game on December 17 was his 19th with 15 or more.
• Bacot had 21 points and 13 rebounds vs. Notre Dame, his 18th career outing with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.
• Bacot is second in UNC history in double-doubles (58), second in rebounds (1,170), second in offensive rebounds per game (3.55), 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 11th, respectively, in free throw percentage.
• Love has made at least one three-pointer in a UNC-record 45 consecutive games. He broke Marcus Paige's previous mark of 41.
• Last season, Love made 40 consecutive free throws, the second-longest streak in school history (one off the record by Jeff Lebo).
• Leaky Black has played in 139 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 115 starts and Black has 114.
• Black, a fifth-year graduate student, recently surpassed 700 career points, 600 rebounds and 300 assists.
• Love dished out his 300th career assist at Virginia (has 301) and scored his 1,200th point (has 1,209).

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.

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.