MBB Returns Home To Host Charleston Southern Friday

Friday, December 29

Chapel Hill

8 PM

North Carolina

Charleston Southern

Tickets

Photo by: University of North Carolina Men's Basketball

December 28, 2023 | Men's Basketball

UNC Notes CSU Notes Live Stats Watch Media Central Tickets

• Ninth-ranked Carolina (8-3) returns to action after an eight-day break to play host to Charleston Southern at 8 p.m. on Friday, December 29. It is the final game for UNC in the calendar year 2023.
• The Buccaneers are 4-8 after their 103-79 win over Kentucky Christian on December 21.
• This is the first time UNC and Charleston Southern have ever played in men's basketball.
• This is Carolina's second Big South opponent of the season – the Tar Heels defeated Radford, 86-70, in the season opener in the Smith Center on November 6.
• The Tar Heels have won 16 straight home games against non-conference opponents and are 227-18 all-time in the Smith Center against non-ACC opponents.
• Charleston Southern is UNC's final regular-season non-conference opponent this season. KenPom ranks the Tar Heels' non-conference schedule as the 11th most challenging in the country.
• Purdue is the only power conference team in the country with a more difficult non-conference schedule than the Tar Heels.
• Arkansas (20th), Tennessee (10th), UConn (5th), Kentucky (14th) and Oklahoma (7th) were all ranked in the top 20 by the Associated Press when they played the Tar Heels. It was the first time in Carolina history UNC played five consecutive non-conference games against ranked opponents.
• The Charleston Southern game is UNC's fifth in December, fewest in the month of December since playing four in 2018-19.
• Carolina last played on the 20th in Charlotte, where it raced out to an early 12-2 lead, held previously unbeaten Oklahoma to its season low in scoring and field goal shooting percentage and scored 24 points off turnovers in an 81-69 victory.
• It was the first time since at least 2004-05 the Tar Heels defeated an opponent that had played 10 or more games and was undefeated.

Next Up: Carolina begins the calendar year 2024 with the first of three consecutive ACC road games on January 2 at Pittsburgh. UNC then travels to Clemson (Jan. 6) and NC State (Jan. 10) before returning to the Smith Center for a pair of games vs. Syracuse (Jan. 13) and Louisville (Jan. 17).
• The Tar Heels have lost three in a row and five out of the last six games to the Panthers over the past four seasons.
• UNC is 6-3 all-time at Pittsburgh, including 3-3 in the Petersen Center, the current home of the Panthers.
• The Tar Heels are 1-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, opening league play at home on December 2 with a 78-70 win over Florida State.

GAME 12 NOTEBOOK
MILESTONE WATCH
• Armando Bacot has made 500 free throws...he became the seventh Tar Heel to make 500...needs seven to pass Pete Brennan for sixth place.
• Bacot has scored 1,975 points...needs eight to pass Larry Miller for seventh in all-time scoring by a Tar Heel and 25 to become the seventh Tar Heel to score 2,000 points.
• RJ Davis has made 193 three-pointers...needs one to Dante Calabria for solo 10th in UNC history and five to pass Hubert Davis (192) for ninth.
• Davis has scored 1,543 points...needs 10 to pass J.R. Reid for 30th in UNC history and 25 to pass Jeff Lebo (1,567) for 29th.
• Cormac Ryan has 1,289 career points ... he needs 11 for 1,300.

RJ'S HISTORIC RUN
• Senior guard RJ Davis leads Carolina in scoring (21.7 points per game), three-pointers (32) and free throw shooting (94.6% at 53 for 56) and is second in assists (33).
• Davis leads the ACC in scoring. The last Tar Heel to lead the ACC was Tyler Hansbrough in 2007-08.
• Davis is on pace for the highest scoring average by a Tar Heel since Hansbrough averaged 22.6 in 2007-08. Davis' 21.7 points per game are on pace as the highest average by a UNC guard since Charlie Scott averaged 27.1 in 1969-70 (Scott playerd both shooting guard and small forward).
• Davis has led UNC in scoring in each of the last seven games – 23 vs. Villanova, a career-high tying 30 vs. Arkansas, 27 vs. Tennessee, 27 vs. Florida State, 26 vs. UConn, 27 vs. Kentucky and 23 vs. Oklahoma. He led UNC in consecutive games two different times last year.
• He is the first Tar Heel to lead in scoring seven straight games since Tyler Hansbrough, who led in eight in a row in 2008-09.
• Davis' 183 points are the most by a Tar Heel since Hansbrough scored 199 over seven games in 2008.
• Davis scored at least 26 points in five straight games (Arkansas through Kentucky), the first Tar Heel to do that since Charlie Scott in 1969-70.
• Davis has scored 20 or more points 20 times as a Tar Heel, including eight of UNC's 11 games this season. He is the only current Tar Heel with a 30-point game, and he has two – against Baylor in the 2022 NCAA second round and this season in the Bahamas against Arkansas.
• Davis is UNC's all-time leader in free throw percentage at 86.4% and has climbed from 19th at the start of the season to ninth in ACC history in free throw accuracy.
• Davis made 41 straight free throws from the Villanova game on November 23 to the Kentucky game. That tied Jeff Lebo's school record for consecutive makes. Davis also had a streak of 39, which he set over the last five games in the 2022 NCAA Tournament to the first four games last season. That is now tied for the fourth-longest streak by a Tar Heel.
• Davis began his fourth season as UNC's 48th-leading scorer and has moved up 17 spots to 31st through 11 games with 1,543 points. He has passed Danny Green, Ty Lawson, Kris Lang, Luke Maye, Brendan Haywood, Deon Thompson, Jason Capel, Shammond Williams, Dennis Wuycik, Caleb Love, Kennedy Meeks, Tyler Zeller and Scott Williams. J.R. Reid is 30th with 1,552.
• Davis is tied with Dante Calabria for 10th in UNC with 193 three-pointers. Hubert Davis is ninth with 197.
• Davis is tied with Caleb Love for 25th in assists with 337. Dexter Strickland is 24th with 342.
• Davis is shooting career-high percentages from three-point range (.381) and the free throw line (.946).

POLLING
• Carolina is No. 9 in week eight in the Associated Press poll.
• This is the 944th time the Tar Heels are ranked in the AP poll, the second most in college basketball history.
• This is the third time this season (all in the last four weeks) and 692nd time (third most all-time) the AP has ranked the Tar Heels in the top 10.

ANOTHER ACC HONOR FOR DAVIS
• RJ Davis was the co-ACC Player of the Week for his 23 points, five assists, five three-pointers and no turnovers in UNC's 81-69 win over No. 7 Oklahoma on December 20.
• It was the second time this season Davis was the ACC Player of the Week and third time a Tar Heel won the honor (see below).
• Davis also was named the ACC Player of the Week on November 27 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 was one of five players named to the all-tournament team at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
• Davis is the first Tar Heel guard to win multiple ACC Player-of-the-Week honors since Joel Berry II was a four-time winner in 2016-17.
• Davis also was one of the USBWA's National Players of the Week for his play vs. Oklahoma. It was the second time this season a Tar Heel won the USBWA's weekly honor (see below).

BACOT AN EARLY ACC, USBWA WEEKLY WINNER
• Armando Bacot earned national player-of-the-week honors from the USBWA and Lute Olson Award and was named the ACC Player of the Week for his play in Carolina's wins over Radford and Lehigh. The grad student from Richmond, Va., averaged 23.5 points and 16.5 rebounds, made 18 of 30 from the floor (.600) and 11 of 12 free throws (.917) in the two games.
• The ACC award was the seventh of his career, the third most by a Tar Heel.

ROSTER TIDBITS
• The average age of Carolina's 11 scholarship players at the start of the season was 21.0 years. Cormac Ryan (25), Armando Bacot (23), Paxson Wojcik (23), RJ Davis (22) and Jae'Lyn Withers (22) are the oldest; freshmen Elliott Cadeau and Zayden High are among five 19-year-olds.
• Carolina was active in the transfer portal in the offseason with five players joining the program from Brown (grad student Paxson Wojcik), Louisville (grad student Jay'Lyn Withers, Notre Dame (grad student Cormac Ryan), Stanford (junior Harrison Ingram) and West Virginia (junior James Okonkwo).
• Carolina has six players who have started 50 or more college games (143 by Bacot, 96 by Ryan, 92 by Davis, 73 by Ingram, 67 by Withers and 58 by Wojcik).
• Wojcik is the son of Doug Wojcik, who was an assistant coach for the Tar Heels from 2000-03 and was part of the staff that recruited all five starters on Carolina's 2005 NCAA championship team.
• Ingram played the last two seasons at Stanford, where he was coached by former Tar Heel assistant coach Jerod Haase.

BACOT'S REBOUNDING RECORDS
• Fifth-year grad student Armando Bacot is Carolina's all-time leader in rebounds (1,456), offensive rebounds (513), double-doubles (73) and games with 10 or more rebounds (81).
• Through 11 games this season Bacot has passed Joel Berry II, Bobby Lewis, Marcus Paige, Walter Davis, Brad Daugherty and Antawn Jamison for eighth in UNC career scoring with 1,975 points. Larry Miller is seventh with 1,982 in three seasons.
• Bacot has five double-doubles this season and 73 in his career. He is third in ACC history behind only Tim Duncan and Ralph Sampson.
• Bacot has 73 double-doubles in 143 games (double-doubles in 51.0% of his games). That is the third-highest percentage by a Tar Heel.
• Bacot set UNC single-season records in 2021-22 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 season and tied the NCAA single-season record for double-doubles with 31 (Navy's David Robinson also had 31 in 1985-86).
• Bacot's 22 points against Tennessee marked his 30th career 20-point game. The Tar Heels are 25-5 when he scores 20 or more.

STAT STUFF
• Per KenPom, Carolina is 10th in the country in offensive efficiency (118.5 points per 100 possessions), 27th in turnover percentage and 10th best at getting to the free throw line.
• Carolina is second in the nation (behind Tulane) in free throws made per game at 21.1.
• Carolina leads the ACC in scoring at 84.5 points per game and is seventh in scoring margin at 10.0 per game.
• RJ Davis and Armando Bacot lead the ACC in scoring and rebounding, respectively. The last time two different Tar Heels led the ACC in those categories was 2003-04 (Rashad McCants in scoring, Sean May in rebounding).
• The Tar Heels have a rebound margin of plus 2.5 per game. That would be the smallest margin for UNC since 2002-03, when the opponents out-rebounded Carolina by 4.3 per game.
• Harrison Ingram made a career-high three 3FGs seven times during his two seasons at Stanford. He has made at least three four times this season, including 4 of 6 vs. UNI, 4 of 5 vs. Villanova, 4 of 8 against Tennessee and 3 of 4 vs. UConn.
• Ingram averaged 1.1 threes per game in his first two college seasons (72 in 65 games) and is averaging 1.8 this season (20 in 11).
• Ingram has improved his three-point percentage from .313 and .319 his freshman and sophomore seasons to .435 through 11 games this season.
• The Tar Heels turned the ball 17 times in the loss to Kentucky but only nine times as they defeated Oklahoma. UNC has committed fewer than 10 turnovers in five of the first 11 games.
• The Tar Heels are committing 10.6 turnovers per game. UNC's record low average for a season is 10.8 in 2015-16 and 2022-23.
• In Hubert Davis' three seasons as head coach, the Tar Heels have won 80% of games when they committed fewer than or the same number of turnovers (including 23-7 when they commit fewer). Conversely, UNC is 25-18 (58%) when it commits more turnovers than its opponents.
• RJ Davis leads UNC in plus/minus at +113. He has been +20 or better in three games this season (+25 vs. UC Riverside, +21 vs. UNI and +22 vs. Arkansas) and has led UNC five times.
• Freshman Elliot Cadeau leads Carolina in assists with 41 (3.7 per game). Phil Ford, Ed Cota, Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson, Kendall Marshall, Marcus Paige, Coby White, Cole Anthony and Caleb Love also led UNC in assists as freshmen.
• Carolina is shooting 76.1% from the free throw line, which is on pace to equal the third-highest percentage in school history.
• RJ Davis (.946) and Cormac Ryan (.900) are shooting at least 90% from the free throw line. The UNC single-season record is .911 by Shammond Williams in 1997-98.
• Davis led the ACC in free throw shooting last season (.881).
• Jalen Washington scored 43 points in 20 games as a freshman. This season he has 48 points in 11 games.