Men's Basketball Hosts No. 10 Tennessee Wednesday

• Carolina and Tennessee play a top-20 matchup in the first year of the ACC-SEC Challenge when the teams square off in the Smith Center at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, November 29. ESPN will broadcast the game live.
• The Tar Heels are 5-1, No. 17 in the AP poll and No. 13 in KenPom. The Volunteers are No. 10 in the AP poll and No. 9 in KenPom.
• Carolina began the season with a trio of home wins and went 2-1 in the Bahamas in the Battle 4 Atlantis, sandwiching wins over Northern Iowa and Arkansas around an 83-81, overtime loss to Villanova (the Wildcats won the tournament and are ranked 18th in the AP poll).
• Tennessee is 4-2 with a 10-point win at Wisconsin, a 17-point win over Syracuse and narrow losses to Purdue and Kansas in Honolulu.
• Carolina is 226-18 all-time against non-ACC teams in the Smith Center. UNC fans are encouraged to wear WHITE to Wednesday's game.

FIRST ACC-SEC CHALLENGE
• This is the first season of the ACC-SEC Challenge. UNC-Tennessee is one of 15 games being played November 28-29 at campus sites.
• The ACC-SEC Challenge replaces the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, in which the Tar Heels went 11-13 from 1999-2023.
• UNC played 20 ranked teams in the 24-year history of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, including a dozen top-10 opponents.
• From 1989-91 Carolina went 2-1 in the ACC-Big East Challenge.

RJ EARNS ACC AWARD
• Senior guard RJ Davis was co-ACC Player of the Week for his play in the Bahamas, where he averaged 22.0 points and led UNC in scoring with 23 points against Villanova and a career-high tying 30 in the win over Arkansas.
• Davis shared the award, his first ACC Player-of-the-Week honor, with Florida State's Jamir Watkins.
• Davis is the second Tar Heel to win the award in the first three weeks of the season. Armando Bacot won for the seventh time in his career for his play in UNC's first two games.
• Davis went 10 for 10 from the free throw line in his 30-point game vs. Arkansas. It was his second-best day at the stripe as a Tar Heel (he was 14 for 14 in a home win over NC State last season).
• Davis is UNC's all-time leader in free throw percentage at 85.4% and has climbed from 19th at the start of the season to a tie for 14th in ACC history in free throw accuracy.
• Davis is second, however, on the team this season from the line. Cormac Ryan has made 93.3% (14 of 15), Davis is shooting 91.3% (21 of 23) and Armando Bacot is third at 85.7% (24 of 28).

ACC OPENER NEXT UP
• Carolina returns to the Smith Center on Saturday at 2 p.m. when its hosts Florida State in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener.

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Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Cormac Ryan

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