MBB Hosts Notre Dame Saturday Morning

GAME 16: NOTRE DAME
• After playing just twice at home in 44 days, the Tar Heels return to the Smith Center for their second Atlantic Coast Conference game in four days when they play host to Notre Dame on Saturday, January 7, at 11:30 a.m.
• Following UNC's win over James Madison on November 20, the Tar Heels played at home only on December 10 vs. Georgia Tech and December 13 vs. The Citadel until the 88-79 win over Wake Forest on Wednesday.
• Carolina is 10-5 overall, 2-2 in the ACC.
• The Tar Heels have won five of their last six games since a four-game losing streak in late November-early December.
• Carolina has ACC home wins over Georgia Tech and Wake Forest and defeated Ohio State and Michigan in New York and Charlotte, respectively.
• The Fighting Irish are 8-7, 0-4 in league play. Notre Dame has an 18-point win over Michigan State but has opened the ACC with home losses to Syracuse and Miami and defeats at Florida State and Boston College.
• Saturday's 11:30 a.m. tipoff marks the second time this season the Tar Heels are beginning a game prior to Noon. On Thanksgving in Portland, Ore., UNC defeated Portland in a game that began at 10 a.m. local time.
• Carolina senior forward/center Armando Bacot has scored 20 or more points in four straight games for the first time in his career, including 21 points in the win over Wake Forest.
• Bacot leads the ACC in scoring (18.6 ppg), rebounding (11.1 rpg) and offensive rebounding (4.5) and is fourth in field goal percentage (.571). 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.
• Bacot, the ACC's Preseason Player of the Year, is averaging 22.0 points over his last six games.
• Earlier this week, Caleb Love and Bacot were named to the Wooden Award's mid-season top 25. Love has made at least one three-pointer in 43 consecutive games, breaking the previous UNC record of 41 games set by Marcus Paige.
• RJ Davis led Carolina with 27 points in the win over Wake Forest, scoring 22 in the second half. UNC is 9-0 over the last three seasons, including 4-0 this year, when Davis goes for 20 or more points.
• Fifth-year graduate student Leaky Black made a season-best three three-pointers vs. the Demon Deacons and finished with a career-high 18 points. The defensive ace fittingly set his personal scoring best with a steal, his third of the game, and slam dunk with seconds to play to cap the victory.

UNC-NOTRE DAME SERIES
• The Tar Heels are 27-9 against the Fighting Irish, including 11-5 since Notre Dame joined the ACC in men's basketball prior to the 2013-14 season.
• The Tar Heels have won nine of the last 11 against Notre Dame.
• Carolina is 8-1 at home, including 7-1 in the Smith Center and 1-0 in a 2017 game in Greensboro that is recognized as a home game.
• The Tar Heels have won the last four times the teams have played in Chapel Hill.
• The Irish won the only game against the Tar Heels last season, 78-73, in early January at Notre Dame (see below for details).
• Leaky Black scored the game-winning basket with nine seconds to play in UNC's 66-65 win on 1/2/2021, the last time the teams played in Chapel Hill. UNC freshman Day'Ron Sharpe scored a season-high 25 points in that game.

LAST YEAR'S GAME: NOTRE DAME 78, UNC 73
Jan. 5, 2022, in Notre Dame, Ind.
• Carolina trailed by 13 with 13:40 to play, cut it to five, then trailed 61-51 with 8:40 remaining. UNC went on a 16-5 run to take a 67-66 lead, capped by an Armando Bacot jump hook with under four minutes to play.
• The Irish then out-scored UNC, 12-6, over the final 3:08.
• Nate Laszewski was 6 of 7 from three-point range to lead Notre Dame with 20 points. His three with 3:08 to play gave the Irish the lead for good. Two possessions later he hit another three to stretch the Irish lead to five.
• Bacot had his fifth straight double-double with 21 points and a then-career-high 17 rebounds. He had a double-double (16/11) in the first half.
• RJ Davis had 19 points and five assists and Caleb Love added 15 points.
• The Tar Heels shot 50% from the floor in the second half and 49.2% for the game, their highest percentage in a loss all season.
• Notre Dame made 13 threes, the second most by an opponent all of last season.
• The Tar Heels committed 14 turnovers that led to 19 Notre Dame points, while the Irish turned the ball over only seven times.

RANKINGS
• Carolina is No. 22 in the country in KenPom and No. 28 in the NCAA's NET.
• Notre Dame is No. 118 in KenPom and 180th in the NET.
• The Tar Heels lead the ACC in scoring (81.4 ppg) and rebounding (39.4) but are last in the league in points allowed (74.9).
• 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. 3 in the conference and 104th nationally at plus 3.9 per game.
• The Tar Heels are fourth in the ACC in field goal percentage. Carolina has shot 50% from the floor in two of the last three games and 50% in the second half in five of the last seven games. UNC shot 60% in the second half and 51.7% for the game in the win over Wake Forest.
• Carolina is 11th in the ACC in three-pointers per game (6.6), 14th in three-point shooting (.313) and 14th in three-point percentage defense (.346).
• Armando Bacot (first), Caleb Love (seventh) and RJ Davis (eighth) rank in the top eight in the league in scoring.
• Bacot leads the ACC in scoring, rebounding, offensive boards and double-doubles.
• Bacot ranks third in the country in offensive rebounding (4.5 per game), fourth in rebounds per game (11.1), fourth in free throw attempts (115) and sixth in double-doubles (8).

SCHEDULE
• Carolina's schedule is ranked the sixth-most difficult in the nation (per KenPom) among all teams and the third-most difficult among Power 5 conference teams behind only Seton Hall and Alabama.
• Carolina's non-conference schedule is currently the 11th-toughest in the country.
• Iowa State (11-2), Alabama (12-2), Indiana (10-4), Virginia Tech (11-4) and Pittsburgh (11-4), the five teams that have defeated UNC, were a combined 55-16 (.775) through January 5.
• Five of Carolina's first 15 opponents are ranked in this week's Associated Press poll – No. 7 Alabama, No. 15 Indiana, No. 23 Charleston, No. 24 Ohio State and No. 25 Iowa State.
• The Tar Heels are 2-3 against those five teams currently ranked in the AP poll.

KENPOM HIGHLIGHTS
• Some notable stats according to KenPom: the Tar Heels are 11th in the country in offensive efficiency (114.9 points per 100 possessions), 12th best in getting to the free throw line and have committed the 19th-fewest turnovers per possession.
• Conversely, the Tar Heels are 278th in three-point percentage and 317th in forcing turnovers. UNC is 284th in assists to field goals percentage at .468, but the Tar Heels have assists on 56% of their field goals over the last six games. Last season, Carolina had assists on 54% of its field goals.
• Armando Bacot is 22nd in the country in offensive rebound percentage, but as a team the Tar Heels are 174th. Bacot has 63 offensive rebounds, 42 more than Leaky Black, who is second with 21.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS (WINS & LOSSES)
• Carolina has scored nine fewer points per game in its five losses than the 10 wins and allowed nearly 10 more points in the losses.
• The Tar Heels are shooting 48.4% from the floor in the wins and 41.7% in their losses.
• The Tar Heels make 7.4 threes at a 33.9% clip in the wins, but only 5.0 threes at 25.5% in the five losses.
• Carolina has a rebounding edge of 6.6 in the wins and has been out-rebounded by 1.4 per game in its losses.
• The Tar Heels are plus 34 in assists/turnovers in the wins and minus 11 in the five losses.
• The opponents have shot 42.2% from the floor in Carolina's wins and 46% in the losses.
• The opponents are plus 23 assist/turnovers in UNC's losses and minus 1 in Carolina's 10 wins.
• UNC has outscored the opponents, 167-116, in points off turnovers in the Tar Heels' 10 wins, including a 32-8 advantage in the win over Wake Forest.
• The opponents have outscored the Tar Heels, 80-43, in points off turnovers in the five losses. That includes a 15-point advantage by Iowa State, a seven-point edge by Alabama, a 17-4 advantage at Indiana and a 12-6 margin by Pittsburgh.
• Carolina is 5-1 in games when it has scored more points off turnovers than its opponents.
• The Tar Heels are 3-4 when the opponents score more points off turnovers.
• The opponents are averaging 40.0 paint points in the five UNC losses, including 40 by Alabama, 50 by Indiana, 42 by Virginia Tech and 42 by Pittsburgh. UNC has allowed 31.4 paint points in its 10 victories.
• Carolina's five starters are all shooting at least 43% from the floor in the 10 wins; in the five losses, only Armando Bacot (.571) is shooting better than 43% from the floor.
• In the 10 wins, Bacot is the only starter with more turnovers than assists; in the five losses, only Black has more assists than turnovers.

FREEBIES
• Carolina is attempting 25.9 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 second in the country in free throws made per game (19.2) and fifth in attempts.
• Armando Bacot is fourth nationally in free throw attempts (115) and 15th in free throws made (77).
• Carolina is 9-1 this season and 30-8 in his career when Bacot attempts more than six free throws in a game. The Tar Heels are 1-3 this season and 40-36 over the last four seasons when he attempts fewer than six.
• RJ Davis leads the ACC and is 26th in the country in free throw percentage at .894. Pete Nance (11th at .784) and Caleb Love (18th at .764) also rank in the top 20 in the ACC.

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 The Citadel and Ohio State. 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 (18.6 ppg), Caleb Love (16.8) and RJ Davis (16.7) are each averaging better than 16 points per game. The only other Tar Heel trio to do that were Walter Davis, PhiL Ford and Mitch Kupchak, who averaged better than 16 per game in 1974-75 and 1975-76.
• Bacot leads the Tar Heels in plus/minus at +111. RJ Davis is second at +107.
• Bacot has led UNC in plus/minus six times. Pete Nance is second with three games as UNC's plus/minus leader.
• 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.
• Trimble became the third Tar Heel non-starter to lead the team in plus/minus in a game this season (Puff Johnson vs. Alabama and Tyler Nickel at Virginia Tech).
• 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 +35. Trimble is next at +26 off the bench.
• Carolina's bench has outscored the opponents three times this season (16-12 in the loss at Virginia Tech, 42-18 vs. The Citadel and 10-9 in the loss at Pittsburgh).
• 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.
• 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 64 games. 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 has 1,156 rebounds and needs 13 to pass College Basketball Hall of Famer Sam Perkins for second and 64 to surpass four-time first-team All-America Tyler Hansbrough for the UNC record.
• Bacot has 57 double-doubles in 114 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 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 22 points and 13 rebounds at Pittsburgh, his 17th career outing with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.
• Bacot is second in UNC history in double-doubles (57), second in offensive rebounds per game (3.55), third in rebounds (1,156) and sixth in rebounds per game (10.1). The Richmond, Va., native is one of eight Tar Heels to average a career double-double (13.6/10.2).
• 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 third and 12th, respectively, in free throw percentage.
• Love has made at least one three-pointer in a UNC-record 43 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 137 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 113 starts and Black has 112.
• Black, a fifth-year graduate student, recently surpassed 700 career points, 600 rebounds and 300 assists.
• Caleb Love needs six assists for 300.

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.

LOVE VOLUNTEERS TO SUPPORT THE ARTS, DANCE
• Carolina Basketball, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Carolina Performing Arts have partnered to announce a new campaign: "Artists Are Athletes / Athletes Are Artists."
• To launch this initiative, the organizations are releasing a video that debuts at halftime of the UNC-Notre Dame game featuring Caleb Love and renowned Ailey dancer Michael Jackson Jr.
• The video, shot at campus landmarks the Dean E. Smith Center and Memorial Hall, uses dramatic cinematography to showcase the power and virtuosity of the two leads.
• "We launched this collaboration to demonstrate the parallels between our prestigious athletic programs and one of the most iconic dance companies in the world, coming together at our country's oldest public university," says Alison Friedman, the James and Susan Moeser Executive and Artistic Director of Carolina Performing Arts. "Greatness comes in all forms of artistic and athletic excellence. This runs through the fabric of Carolina, and we want to illustrate this union in a visual way."
• "Basketball and dance have much in common," says Love. "Both are physically demanding requiring strength, agility and skill, and allow us to express ourselves as artists, as individuals and within teams and groups. I encourage our great fans to support Carolina Performing Arts and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as enthusiastically as you do our Tar Heel basketball team."
• "It's a thrill to leap into the world of Carolina Basketball through this video highlighting the skill, grace and power that athletes and dancers have in common," says Jackson Jr. "This exciting collaboration will move and connect fans of basketball and the arts, sparking conversations between two sets of passionate audiences. What better way to start our national tour and fulfill Alvin Ailey's belief that 'the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.'"

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Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

RJ Davis

D'Marco Dunn

Puff Johnson

Caleb Love

Pete Nance

Tyler Nickel

Seth Trimble

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