MBB Starts Homestand Vs. Miami Monday

Monday, February 26

Chapel Hill

7 PM

North Carolina

Miami

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34 F Duwe Farris, 14 G Creighton Lebo, 8 G Paxson Wojcik,
University of North Carolina Men’s Basketball v Virginia Tech
Dean E. Smith Center
Chapel Hill, NC
Saturday, February 17, 2024

Photo by: HELEN MCGINNIS

February 26, 2024 | Men's Basketball

UNC Notes Miami Notes Watch Live Stats Tickets

• Carolina hosts Miami in the first of a three-game homestand at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26 on ESPN.
• The Tar Heels are 21-6 and 13-3 with a one-game lead on Duke in the ACC.
• Miami is 15-13 overall, 6-11 in the ACC. The Canes have dropped six in a row, including a 75-72 Tar Heel victory in Coral Gables on Feb. 10 and a 80-76 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday.
• Carolina is coming off a 54-44 win at Virginia on Saturday. The Tar Heels jumped out to an 18-6 lead behind three straight threes by Cormac Ryan, led by 10 at the half and never let the Cavaliers get closer than five in the win.
• Ryan made six threes, most by any Tar Heel this season, and scored a game-high 18 points. Armando Bacot had his sixth straight double-double and Carolina held the Cavaliers to 44 points and 27.6% from the floor (16.7% in the first half).
• The Tar Heels improved to 7-2 in ACC road games this season.
• UNC is 11-1 in the Smith Center this season, while Miami is 2-7 on the road.
• The Miami game is Hubert Davis' 100th as Carolina's head coach. Davis has led UNC to a 70-29 record. Davis has the fourth-most wins (Roy Williams 77, Bill Guthridge 75 and James Ashmore 73) among UNC coaches in their first 100 games.
• Hubert Davis is one of 15 candidates on the Atlanta Tipoff Club/Naismith Award's late-season watch list for National Coach-of-the-Year honors.
• RJ Davis leads the ACC in scoring at 21.0 points per game and is second in three-pointers per game (3.1). Davis has made 83 threes in 27 games, which is on pace to set single-season school records for most threes (105 by Justin Jackson in 2016-17) and most 3FGs per game (2.71 by Shammond Williams in 1996-97).
• Carolina leads the ACC in rebounding. Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram rank one-two in all games, while Ingram leads and Bacot is second in league action. They are the first pair of Tar Heels to average nine or more rebounds since John Henson and Tyler Zeller in 2011-12.
• The Tar Heels host NC State in the Smith Center on Saturday, March 2, at 4 p.m.
• Saturday is the 50th anniversary of one of the most famous games in ACC and Carolina Basketball history. On March 2, 1974, Duke led UNC, 86-78, with 17 seconds to play. Free throws by Bobby Jones and layups by John Kuester and Jones cut the deficit to two. The Tar Heels tied the game when Walter Davis took a halfcourt pass from Mitch Kupchak and banked in a jumper as time expired. The Tar Heels went on to win, 96-92, in overtime.

GAME 28 NOTEBOOK
• Carolina has 13 wins in its first 16 ACC games for the first time since beginning conference play 14-2 (and finishing 16-2) in 2018-19.
• The Tar Heels have won 21 games, the program's 64th season with 20 or more wins.
• Hubert Davis joins Bill Guthridge (1997-2000) as the only Tar Heel head coaches to win 20 or more games in their first three seasons.
• Carolina is 7-2 this season on the road (all in ACC play) after its 54-44 win in Charlottesville.
• Through Feb. 24, the Tar Heels and Creighton were the only teams in the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC with seven road wins.
• The Tar Heels are 5-2 against AP-ranked opponents this season with wins over No. 20 Arkansas, No. 10 Tennessee, No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 16 Clemson and No. 7 Duke (rankings when UNC played those teams).
• ESPN ranks UNC's strength of record No. 5 in the country behind Purdue, Houston, UConn and Kansas.
• Carolina's schedule is ranked 10th in the country by KenPom and 11th by ESPN.
• Among the teams in the country with 21 or more wins, only Purdue and Kansas have a stronger strength of schedules than UNC per ESPN.
• The Tar Heels are No. 8 in the country in defensive efficiency (93.5 points allowed per 100 possessions) and No. 24 in offensive efficiency (118.1 points scored per 100 possessions).
• Overall, KenPom ranks UNC No. 8 in the country.
• From January 6-22 Carolina won seven straight ACC games by double digits, most since winning 10 straight in 1992-93, and has won nine of its 13 ACC games by double digits, including a 15-point win over Virginia Tech and a 10-point road win over Virginia in its last two starts.
• Carolina's defense has held ACC opponents to 39.7% from the floor and 28.0% from three-point range.
• The Tar Heels have held ACC opponents below 70 points in 22 of the last 34 games.
• Carolina has out-rebounded its opponents in 16 straight games and is plus 160 on the boards in those games, 13 of which were victories.
• Carolina's 75-68 win at Florida State on January 27 was UNC's 750th regular-season ACC win, becoming the first program to win 750.
• Carolina has six players who have started 50 or more college games (158 by Armando Bacot, 112 by Cormac Ryan, 108 by RJ Davis, 89 by Harrison Ingram, 67 by Jae'Lyn Withers and 58 by Paxson Wojcik).
• Should the Tar Heels start the same lineup against Miami they have started the last 20 games (Elliott Cadeau, Ryan, Davis, Ingram and Bacot) that group would have a combined 494 career starts.

UNC-MIAMI
• The Tar Heels defeated the Canes, 75-72, 16 days ago in Coral Gables. RJ Davis scored 25, Armando Bacot had 15 rebounds and freshman guard Elliot Cadeau scored a season-high 19 points and had eight assists.
• Cadeau hit two of Carolina's 11 three-pointers, the only time this season he made multiple threes.
• The Tar Heels led by 12 with 7:42 to play, but Miami pulled within two with 1:10 left. Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan both made one free throw to give UNC a 75-71 lead. Wooga Poplar made one free throw with two seconds to play before a lane violation on his second free throw gave UNC the ball to end the game.
• Carolina is 27-10 all-time against Miami, including 20-9 since the Canes joined the ACC.
• The Tar Heels are 12-5 in Chapel Hill, all of which were played in the Smith Center.
• Last year in Chapel Hill, Miami beat Carolina, 80-72, as Jordan Miller (24) and Nijel Pack (23) combined for 47 points. RJ Davis led UNC with 23 and Caleb Love added 20. Miami led by one at the half and with 17-plus minutes remaining, but went on a 15-2 run to pull away.
• The Tar Heels shot 68.6% from two-point range but began the game just 1 of 16 from three and finished 5 of 31 from beyond the arc.

WINS/LOSSES
• The Tar Heels allow 66.9 points in their 21 wins, while the opponents are scoring 82.8 per game in the six losses.
• UNC has held the opponents to 70 or fewer points in 16 of the 21 wins, while the opponents have scored 80 or more points in five of the six losses.
• Carolina is shooting 45.5% from the floor in the wins and 42.3% in the losses.
• The opponents are making 6.2 threes per game and shooting only 28.2% from three in UNC's wins. In the losses, the opponents are averaging 8.5 threes per game at 35.4%. That includes Georgia Tech (45.0%), Clemson (35.5%) and Syracuse (47.1%) in the last three losses.
• The Tar Heels are shooting 76.9% from the free throw line in the wins and 69.6% in the losses.
• The Tar Heels make 7.2 more free throws per game in their wins, while the opponents have made 3.5 more per game in the losses.
• UNC has a positive rebound margin of 8.9 per game in the wins and a margin of 0.2 per game in its six losses.
• Carolina has shot a higher three-point percentage than its opponents in 13 of its last 18 games. It won all 13 games in which the Tar Heels shot a higher percentage from three and lost four of the five games (Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Syracuse) in which the opponents shot a better percentage from three.
• The only game in the last 18 the Tar Heels won when an opponent shot better from three was the win at Florida State.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Armando Bacot has scored 2,198 points, third most all-time by a Tar Heel ... needs two for 2,200 and 92 to pass Phil Ford (2,290) for second.
• Bacot passed Georgia Tech's Mark Price (2,193) for 19th in ACC scoring ... needs 11 to pass Wake Forest's Randolph Childress (2,208) for 18th.
• Bacot has 1,616 rebounds, most ever by a Tar Heel and second most in ACC history ... Bacot is 13th in rebounds in NCAA history after passing San Francisco's Bill Russell (1,606) ... needs two to pass Louisville's Charlie Tyra (1,617) for 12th place and 58 to pass Morehead State's Kenneth Faried for 11th.
• Bacot is seventh in NCAA history with 82 double-doubles ... Syracuse's Derrick Coleman and La Salle's Lionel Simmons (83) are tied for fifth.
• Bacot is fourth in UNC history with 821 field goals ... needs five to pass Al Wood (825) for third.
• RJ Davis has scored 1,870 points ... needs 43 points to pass Brad Daugherty (1,912) for 10th.
• Davis has made 244 three-pointers, the third most all-time by a Tar Heel ... Marcus Paige is first (299) and Joel Berry II is second (266).
• Davis has 398 assists, 19th most in UNC history ... needs two to pass Shammond Williams (399) for 18th.
• Davis needs four rebounds for 500 ... currently he is one of three Tar Heels (with Paige and Berry) with 1,800 career points, 200 three-pointers and 300 assists ... Davis has 496 rebounds and would be the first of those three players with 500 rebounds.

STOP THE BALL
• Carolina leads the ACC in three-point percentage defense and is second in field goal percentage defense.
• Carolina is holding its opponents to 40.7% shooting from the floor, lowest by the opponents since 2014-15 (39.8%).
• Carolina is holding its opponents to 29.9% shooting from three-point range. That is the lowest percentage ever by the opponents in a season (previous low was 30.0% in 2014-15).
• ACC opponents are shooting 28.0% from three-point range. Opponents have shot under 30% in 10 of the 16 conference games (UNC 10-0) and better than 40% five times (UNC 3-2 with wins over Florida State twice and Louisville and losses at Georgia Tech and at Syracuse).
• In seven of the 10 games when the opponents shot under 30%, Carolina held those teams below 25% from three-point range – 5.6% at Clemson, 10.0% at NC State, 15.0% by Wake Forest, 17.2% at Pittsburgh, 17.6% at Boston College, 21.1% by Syracuse in Chapel Hill and 14.3% at Virginia).
• The Tar Heels are 15-2 this season (losses to Villanova and Syracuse) when they make more three-pointers.
• Carolina has held the opponents below 40% from the floor in 29 of 54 halves and 12 of 27 games this season.
• Carolina has held ACC opponents under 30% shooting in a half six times.
• Carolina held Pittsburgh, Clemson and NC State under 60 points on their home courts in early January, the first time UNC did that in three straight road wins since 1998-99.
• On the road, UNC has held teams to 37.8% from the floor, including 25.3% from three-point range. Carolina is averaging 7.9 threes, while the home teams are making 5.0 per game.
• UNC has held six teams without a fastbreak point and eight others have scored three or fewer fastbreak points, including three by Virginia.