Tar Heels Welcome Wolfpack To Smith Center Saturday

GAME 20: NC STATE
• The Tar Heels host NC State on Saturday, January 21, at 5 p.m. (ACC Network).
• Carolina is 13-6, 5-3 in the ACC. The Tar Heels have won two in a row and eight of the last 10.
• Carolina is 9-0 at home this season, including 4-0 in league play.
• NC State is 15-4 overall, 5-3 in the ACC and 2-2 on the road this season. The Wolfpack has won four straight and seven of eight.
• Saturday is the start of an eight-game stretch in which every team the Tar Heels play currently has a winning record in the ACC. Those next eight opponents have a combined record in league play of 44-19 and occupy six of the top eight spots in the ACC standings (the other two being Virginia and UNC).
• The Tar Heels defeated Boston College, 72-64, on January 17 in the Smith Center. Armando Bacot led all players with 20 points and 16 rebounds, his school-record tying 60th double-double and his second straight game with 16 rebounds.
• Bacot, named this week a mid-season second-team All-America by the Sporting News, tied Billy Cunningham's UNC career record with his 60th double-double and became the second Tar Heel and 12th player in ACC history with 1,200 rebounds. The senior from Richmond, Va., has 1,203 rebounds. He needs 16 to tie and 17 to pass Tyler Hansbrough for the all-time Carolina record.
• The Tar Heels also got 18 points on 4 of 7 three-point shooting from RJ Davis and 16 points, including a key three to halt an 8-0 Eagle run, from Caleb Love.
• Carolina held Boston College to 0 for 6 from three-point range. UNC's opponents had made a three in each of the previous 1,149 games. The previous time an opponent didn't make a 3FG was Jacksonville on 11/27/1990.
• Carolina attempted 23 more three-pointers than the Eagles (UNC made 10 of 29). The 23 more attempts equaled the largest margin ever in a game by the Tar Heels. On 12/30/1986, UNC went 9 for 30, while SMU was 0 for 7.
• Pete Nance returned to the starting lineup after missing the Notre Dame, Virginia and Louisville games (and all but two minutes of the game vs. Wake Forest) with a strained back.
• Freshman Jalen Washington did not play vs. BC after spraining his right ankle in shootaround Tuesday afternoon.

UNC-NC STATE SERIES
• Carolina is 163-79 all-time against NC State, including 35-5 in the last 40 games and 52-12 over the last 30 seasons.
• The Tar Heels are 80-23 vs. the Wolfpack in Chapel Hill, including 29-7 in the Smith Center.
• Carolina has won three in a row overall and four straight in Chapel Hill.
• The Tar Heels won both games in 2021-22 – 100-80 in the Smith Center on January 29 and 84-74 in Raleigh on February 26.

LAST SEASON'S GAMES
UNC 100, NC State 80, 1/29/22 in Chapel Hill
• Four Tar Heels scored in double figures as Carolina scored a season-high 100 points.
• Carolina led for 39:06 and never trailed.
• Carolina 54.8% from the floor and made a season-high 15 threes in 27 attempts (.556).
• UNC scored a season-high 25 fastbreak points, a season high and one of only two times it scored 20 or more.
• The Tar Heels shot 62.5% from the floor in the first half as they built a 56-31 lead.
• Armando Bacot had 18 points and 13 rebounds and tied his career high with six blocks.
• Brady Manek made five threes and scored 17 points, Caleb Love scored 21 points and had five assists.
• Love and RJ Davis combined for 38 points and nine assists with just two turnovers.
• It was the sixth time UNC scored 100 or more points vs. NC State (also 101 in 1971-72, 100 and 104 in 1992-93, 107 in 2016-17 and 113 in 2018-19).

UNC 84, NC State 74, 2/26/22 in Raleigh
• Bacot had 28 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks, becoming the first Tar Heel ever to compile at least 20 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in a game.
• Bacot tied the UNC record for rebounds in a game against NC State (Billy Cunningham had 18 on 1/13/1965 in Chapel Hill).
• The Tar Heels shot 60.0% from the floor in the first half and 51.8% for the game.
• Carolina went 21 for 23 from the free throw line, a season-high 91.3%
• Puff Johnson scored a career-high 16 points. He made two 3FGs, his first career multi-three game.
• Carolina out-rebounded the Pack, 46-25.

30-YEAR REUNION FOR NCAA CHAMPS
• The 1992-93 NCAA champion Tar Heels will be honored at halftime of the NC State game.
• 1993 seniors George Lynch, Henrik Rödl, Travis Stephenson and Matt Wenstrom, Final Four Most Outstanding Player Donald Williams and All-America center Eric Montross are among the former players expected to be in attendance.
• Pat Sullivan, a junior forward in 1993, is Carolina's director of recruiting.
• The 1992-93 team went 34-4, won the ACC regular-season title at 14-2, beat Cincinnati in overtime to win the NCAA East Regional and defeated Kansas and Michigan in New Orleans to win the school's third NCAA title and the second under head coach Dean Smith.
• Williams scored 25 points in both the national semifinal and championship games. He remains the last player in the NCAA to score 25 or more points in both games in the Final Four.

RANKINGS
• Carolina is No. 25 in the country in KenPom and No. 36 in the NCAA's NET.
• The Tar Heels lead the ACC in scoring (79.6 ppg) and are second in rebounding (39.4) and rebound margin (+5.0). Carolina is seventh in the league in scoring margin (+7.2).
• 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 52nd nationally.
• The Tar Heels are seventh in the ACC in field goal percentage and ninth in field goal percentage defense.
• Carolina is ninth in the ACC in three-pointers per game (6.9), 12th in three-point shooting (.320) and 10th in three-point percentage defense (.333).
• Carolina is the only team with multiple players in the top 10 in the ACC in scoring. Armando Bacot is fourth and RJ Davis and Caleb Love are tied for ninth.
• 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 (17.6) and leads the ACC in rebounding (11.2), offensive boards (4.4) and double-doubles (11).
• Nationally, Bacot is third in offensive rebounding, fourth in double-doubles and rebounds and eighth in free throw attempts (134).
• Davis leads the ACC in free throw shooting at 87.8%.

SCHEDULE
• Carolina has 12 games, all conference games, remaining in the regular season. Ten of the 12 games are against teams that currently have winning records in ACC play and an 11th is .500.
• Carolina's schedule is the 19th-most difficult in the nation (per KenPom). Virginia (33rd) amd Florida State (34th) are the others ACC team with strength of schedules ranked in the top 35.
• Carolina's first 19 opponents collectively have the 24th-best offensive and 26th-best defensive efficiencies in the country.
• The six teams that have defeated UNC were a combined 82-26 (.759) through January 19.
• 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
• The Tar Heels are 18th in offensive efficiency (115.6 points per 100 possessions) and 62nd in defensive efficiency.
• Carolina is second in the ACC in offensive efficiency behind Miami.
• The Tar Heels have committed the 32nd-fewest turnovers per possession, but are 331st in forcing turnovers.
• The Tar Heels are 59th in two-point field goal percentage and 265th in three-point percentage.
• UNC is 290th in assists to field goals percentage at .466, but the Tar Heels have assists on 52.1% of their field goals over the last 10 games.
• However, over the last three games, UNC has 29 assists on 74 field goals (39.2%). Last season, Carolina had assists on 54% of its field goals.
• Armando Bacot is 14th in the country in offensive rebound percentage, but as a team the Tar Heels are 146th. Bacot has 80 offensive rebounds, 53 more than Leaky Black, who is second with 22. Puff Johnson is third with 16.
• 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 10.3 more points per game in its 13 wins than in the six losses, while the opponents have scored almost nine more points per game in UNC's losses than they have when the Tar Heels win.
• Carolina is shooting 47.8% from the floor in the wins and 41.4% in their losses.
• The Tar Heels make 7.6 threes at 34.1% in the wins, but only 5.5 threes at 27% in the losses.
• Carolina has a rebounding edge of 7.5 in the wins and has been out-rebounded by 0.5 per game in its losses.
• The Tar Heels are plus 39 in assists/turnovers in the wins and minus 15 in the losses.
• The opponents have shot 42.2% 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 nine more turnovers than assists in Carolina's 13 wins.
• UNC has outscored the opponents, 211-150, in points off turnovers in the Tar Heels' 13 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 4-5 when the opponents score more points off turnovers.
• The opponents have 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 32 paint points in its 13 victories.
• In the 13 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 seven of the last 10 games. He's made 16 threes in the last five games and 21 in the last seven.
• Davis has made 50% or better from three in eight of his last 10 games, including the last five, when he is 16 for 28 combined from beyond the arc.
• Davis has shot 49.2% from the floor in the last 11 games (62 for 126) after opening the season 42 for his first 108 (.389). He's also made 25 of his last 52 three-pointers (.481) 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 11-2 this season and 42-11 over the last three seasons when Davis has more assists than turnovers.
• Armando Bacot leads Carolina in scoring (career-high 17.6 ppg), rebounding (11.2 rpg), offensive rebounding (career-high 4.4), blocks (20) and field goal percentage (.579). 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 and Oscar Robertson Trophy's (USBWA) 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 (17.6 ppg), Davis (16.3) and Love (16.3) 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 and Davis lead the Tar Heels in plus/minus at plus 145 and plus 144, respectively.
• Bacot has led UNC in plus/minus seven 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).
• 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 +60.
• Puff Johnson has a positive plus/minus in each of his last seven games, the longest current streak on the team.
• 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 11-1 this season and 32-8 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 31st in the country in free throw percentage at .875. Pete Nance (14th at .784) and Caleb Love (18th at .761) 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 26th all-time in scoring at Carolina, passing Mitch Kupchak and Hubert Davis when he scored 20 points vs. Boston College.
• Love scored 16 points vs. BC to pass James Worthy, Harrison Barnes, Joe Wolf and James Michael McAdoo for 57th place in UNC scoring.
• Davis scored 18 points vs. BC to pass Bill Bunting and Jerry Stackhouse for 72nd place.
• 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 67 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 1,203 rebounds and needs 17 to pass four-time first-team All-America Tyler Hansbrough for the UNC record.
• Bacot has 60 double-doubles in 118 games (double-doubles in 50.8% 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 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 Boston College game (16 rebounds) was his 21st with 15 or more.
• Bacot had 20 points and 16 rebounds vs. Boston College, his 19th career performance with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.
• Bacot also had 16 rebounds at Louisville. The Louisville and BC games marked the ninth time in the last two seasons he grabbed at least 15 boards in consecutive games. He had a four-game streak and a five-game streak with 15 or more last season (last five games in the 2022 NCAA Tournament).
• Bacot is tied for first in UNC history in double-doubles (60), second in rebounds (1,203), second in offensive rebounds per game (3.58), and sixth in rebounds per game (10.2). He is one of eight Tar Heels to average a career double-double (13.7/10.2).
• Sean May and Bacot are the only Tar Heels to average career double-doubles in the last 50 years.
• RJ Davis and Caleb Love are fifth and 13th, respectively, in free throw percentage.
• Last season, Love made 40 consecutive free throws, the second-longest streak in school history (one off the record by Jeff Lebo).
• Love has attempted the seventh-most three-pointers in UNC history (519) and made the 16th most (163).
• At Virginia, Love had his 300th assist (has 302) and scored his 1,200th point (has 1,235).
• Love is one of nine Tar Heels with 1,200 points, 300 assists and 150 three-pointers (also Joel Berry II, Jason Capel, Raymond Felton, Rick Fox, Justin Jackson, Jeff Lebo, Marcus Paige and Shammond Williams).
• Love is three steals from 100. Berry, Capel, Felton, Fox, Lebo and Paige also had 100 steals.
• Leaky Black has played in 141 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 117 starts and Black has 116.
• 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.

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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