MBB Hosts Boston College Tuesday

GAME 19: BOSTON COLLEGE
• Carolina opens a two-game homestand vs. Boston College on Tuesday, January 17, at 7 p.m.
• The game will be televised on the Regional Sports Network. Affiliates include the following Bally Sports networks (Detroit Extra, Great Lakes, Midwest, North Extra, South, Southeast, Southwest, Sun and West), Marquee Sports Network, Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, New England Sports Network and YES Network.
• Carolina is 12-6 overall, 4-3 in the ACC. The Tar Heels won their first road game of the season on Saturday, 80-59, at Louisville.
• Armando Bacot returned to the starting lineup after missing all but 78 seconds of the January 10 game at Virginia due to a sprained left ankle. The Richmond, Va., native shared team scoring honors with sophomore guard D'Marco Dunn with 14 points and had a game-high 16 rebounds.
• Bacot had his 10th double-double of the season and 59th of his career. His next double-double will tie the all-time UNC record with Naismith Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham.
• The 16-rebound performance was Bacot's 20th game with 15 or more rebounds.
• Dunn scored in double figures for the first time as a Tar Heel with a career-high 14 points and led all players in plus/minus with a plus 25.
• Carolina trailed 15-7, but finished the first half on a 30-11 run and built the lead to 16 after back-to-back threes by Puff Johnson less than four minutes into the second half.
• The Tar Heels converted 14 Louisville turnovers into 23 points. Carolina is 7-1 this season when it scores more points off turnovers than the opponents.
• The Eagles have lost three straight, including at home to Wake Forest on Saturday, and are 8-10 overall, 2-5 in the ACC.

UNC-BOSTON COLLEGE SERIES
• The Tar Heels are 20-6 all-time against the Eagles, including 18-5 since BC joined the ACC in the 2005-06 season.
• Carolina has won 14 of the last 15 games, including two straight (last season).
• The teams did not play in 2020-21 due to the pandemic.
• UNC is 7-3 in Chapel Hill, all of which have been played in the Smith Center.
• Last season, Carolina beat the Eagles, 91-65, in Massachusetts on 1/2/22 and 58-47 in Chapel Hill on 1/26/22.
• See below for details on Carolina's two wins over the Eagles in 2021-22.

LAST SEASON'S GAMES
UNC 91, BOSTON COLLEGE 65
January 2, 2022, in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
• It was the third time since 1998 four Tar Heel scored 17 or more points. Caleb Love led with 22, Armando Bacot had 18 and RJ Davis and Brady Manek both had 17.
• Carolina led by 29 at the half and by as many as 36 in the second half.
• Bacot made his first (and only) career three-pointer.
• Love made four of UNC's 11 threes.
• BC shot 16.7% from the floor in the first half, the lowest in a half by an opponent since UNLV shot 16.7% in the second half in Asheville, N.C., on 11/30/2020.
• Carolina improved to 9-1 in Conte Forum with its seventh straight win at BC.

UNC 58, BOSTON COLLEGE 47
Jan. 26, 2022, in Chapel Hill
• Carolina shot 29.1% from the floor, the lowest in UNC history in a win. The previous low was 30.3 against William & Mary on 1/8/1957.
• UNC held Boston College to 21.4% shooting from the floor and 16 points in the second half, fewest by an opponent since Northern Iowa scored 16 in the second half on 12/21/2016.
• Carolina held the Eagles to 47 points, second fewest by an opponent all of last season.
• The 47 points were the fewest by an opponent in an ACC game since a 65-41 Tar Heel victory over Virginia on 2/18/2017.
• Bacot had a game-high 18 rebounds, but scored only six points, which ended his double-double streak at 10 games.
• Love (16) and Davis (13) were the only Tar Heels to score in double figures.
• Carolina's 58 points were the fewest in a UNC win since beating Virginia in Charlottesville, 54-51, on 2/25/2011.
• Carolina had lost the previous 22 times it scored fewer than 60 points.
• BC made one of 16 three-pointers.
• The 105 points tied the fourth fewest combined points in the Smith Center.

RANKINGS
• Carolina is No. 22 in the country in KenPom and No. 33 in the NCAA's NET.
• The Tar Heels lead the ACC in scoring (80.0 ppg) and are second in rebounding (39.6) and rebound margin (+4.7). Carolina is seventh in the league in scoring margin (+7.1).
• 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 62nd nationally at plus 4.7 per game.
• The Tar Heels are sixth in the ACC in field goal percentage and eighth in field goal percentage defense.
• Carolina is 10th in the ACC in three-pointers per game (6.8), 12th in three-point shooting (.319) and 11th in three-point percentage defense (.337).
• Carolina is the only team with three players in the top 11 in the ACC in scoring (Pittsburgh has two, the only other team with more than one). Armando Bacot is fourth, Caleb Love is ninth and RJ Davis is 11th.
• Bacot came into the game at Virginia leading the ACC in scoring and rebounding but did not score and had two rebounds in 1:18 of action before leaving the game due to injury. He is still fourth in the ACC in scoring (17.4), second in rebounding (10.9), first in offensive boards (4.4) and first in double-doubles (10).
• Bacot is fourth nationally in offensive rebounding, fifth in double-doubles, sixth in rebounds per game and eighth in free throw attempts (127)

SCHEDULE
• Carolina's schedule is ranked the 10th-most difficult in the nation (per KenPom). No other ACC team has a strength of schedule ranked in the top 30 (Florida State is next at 32nd).
• Carolina's first 18 opponents collectively have the ninth-best offensive efficiencies in the country and the 19th-best defensive efficiencies.
• The six teams that have defeated UNC were a combined 75-26 (.743) through January 16.
• Carolina has played four teams that are ranked in the January 16 AP poll – No. 4 Alabama, No. 10 Virginia, No. 12 Iowa State and No. 18 Charleston.

KENPOM HIGHLIGHTS
• Some notable stats according to KenPom: in addition to playing the 10th-most difficult schedule in the country, the Tar Heels are 18th in offensive efficiency (115.4 points per 100 possessions) and 57th in defensive efficiency.
• Carolina is one of four ACC teams in the top 60 in both offensive and defensive efficiency with Duke, NC State and Virginia.
• The Tar Heels have committed the 26th-fewest turnovers per possession, but are 325th in forcing turnovers.
• The Tar Heels are 56th in two-point field goal percentage and 268th in three-point percentage.
• UNC is 276th in assists to field goals percentage at .474, but the Tar Heels have assists on 54.3% of their field goals over the last nine games. Last season, Carolina had assists on 54% of its field goals.
• Armando Bacot is 12th in the country in offensive rebound percentage, but as a team the Tar Heels are 167th. Bacot has 75 offensive rebounds, 53 more than Leaky Black, who is second with 22.
• Bacot has 40% of Carolina's offensive rebounds. Last season he grabbed 36% of UNC's offensive boards.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS (WINS & LOSSES)
• Carolina has scored 11.3 more points per game in its 12 wins than in the six losses, while the opponents have scored 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 7.4 threes at 34.1% in the wins, but only 5.5 threes at 27% in the losses.
• Carolina has a rebounding edge of 7.3 in the wins and has been out-rebounded by 0.5 per game in its losses.
• The Tar Heels are plus 43 in assists/turnovers in the wins and minus 15 in the losses.
• The opponents have shot 41.8% from the floor in Carolina's wins and 46% in the losses.
• The opponents are plus 26 assist/turnovers in UNC's losses and have six more turnovers than assists in Carolina's 12 wins.
• UNC has outscored the opponents, 203-136, in points off turnovers in the Tar Heels' 12 wins, including 24-10 vs. Charleston, 27-12 vs. Ohio State, 32-8 vs. Wake Forest and 23-8 at Louisville.
• 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 7-1 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 31.5 paint points in its 12 victories. Virginia out-scored UNC, 32-20, in paint points.
• In the 12 wins, four starters have more assists than turnovers; in the six losses, only Black has more assists than turnovers.
• Carolina has scored 80 or more points 10 times. The Tar Heels are 9-1 in those games, losing 103-101 in four overtimes vs. Alabama (scored 77 in the regulation).
• The Tar Heels have averaged 66.8 points in the other five losses with a high of 74 at Pittsburgh.

MISCELLANEOUS
• Junior guard RJ Davis has made multiple three-pointers in six of the last nine games and made 17 threes in the last six games.
• Davis has shot 49.6% from the floor in the last 10 games (56 for 113) after opening the season 42 for his first 108 (.389). He's also made 21 of his last 45 three-pointers (.467) after making 11 of his first 42 (.262).
• The White Plains, N.Y., native dislocated a finger on his shooting hand in late October.
• Carolina is 10-2 this season and 41-11 over the last three seasons when Davis has more assists than turnovers.
• Armando Bacot leads Carolina in scoring (17.4 ppg), rebounding (10.9 rpg), offensive rebounding (4.4), blocks (20) and field goal percentage (.570). Last season, he 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 to the Wooden Award's mid-season top 25.
• Love made at least one three-pointer in the first 17 games this season and 45 consecutive dating back to December 2021, breaking the previous UNC record of 41 games set by Marcus Paige.
• Bacot (17.4 ppg), Love (16.3) and RJ Davis (16.2) 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.
• Davis leads the Tar Heels in plus/minus at +134. Bacot is second at +130.
• Bacot has led UNC in plus/minus six times. Pete Nance is second in games led in plus/minus with three.
• D'Marco Dunn led the Tar Heels in plus/minus at Louisville with a plus 25 (plus 18 in the first half). Dunn became the fifth 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, Jalen Washington at Virginia and Dunn at Louisville).
• Puff Johnson was plus 9 at Louisville; Johnson has a positive plus/minus in each of his last six games, the longest current streak on the team.
• 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 +59.
• Dunn tied for the team lead in scoring with a career-high 14 points and was a game-high plus 25 in the win at Louisville. He set career highs Saturday in minutes (25:56), points, field goals (5), three-pointers (2), offensive rebounds (2), rebounds (5), steals (2) and plus/minus (+25) and tied his career highs in free throws (2), assists (1), turnovers (1) and blocks (1)
• Carolina's bench has outscored the opponents five times this season (16-12 in the loss at Virginia Tech, 42-18 vs. The Citadel, 10-9 in the loss at Pittsburgh, 22-12 in the win over Notre Dame and 26-10 in the win at Louisville).
• 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 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 2-4 this season and 41-37 over the last four seasons when he attempts fewer than six.
• RJ Davis leads the ACC and is 38th in the country in free throw percentage at .875. Pete Nance (13th at .784) and Caleb Love (17th at .783) also rank in the top 20 in the ACC.
• The last Tar Heel to lead the ACC in free throw percentage was Joel Berry II in 2017-18 (.893). Berry was the 11th Tar Heel to lead the league.
• 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 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.

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.

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 tied with James Worthy for 60th and Davis is 74th.
• 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 66 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 1,187 rebounds and needs 33 to pass four-time first-team All-America Tyler Hansbrough for the UNC record.
• Bacot has 59 double-doubles in 117 games (double-doubles in 50.4% 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 Louisville game (16 rebounds) was his 20th 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 (59), second in rebounds (1,187), second in offensive rebounds per game (3.57), and sixth in rebounds per game (10.1). He 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 140 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 116 starts and Black has 115.
• Black, a fifth-year graduate student, recently surpassed 700 career points, 600 rebounds and 300 assists.

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.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

RJ Davis

D'Marco Dunn

Puff Johnson

Caleb Love

Brady Manek

Pete Nance

Tyler Nickel

Seth Trimble

Jalen Washington

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