Top-Seeded Tar Heels Set For FSU In ACC Quarterfinal Thursday

• Top-seeded North Carolina (25-6, 17-3) begins play in the 2024 ACC Tournament on Thursday at noon against No. 9 seed Florida State (17-15, 11-10) on ESPN.
• The Tar Heels are 25-6 overall and won their 33rd regular-season ACC title (22nd outright) with a 17-3 record, two games ahead of Duke.
• Carolina led by double digits in 18 of 20 league games. It finished 9-1 in ACC play in the Smith Center (loss to Clemson) and 8-2 on the road (losses at Georgia Tech and Syracuse).
• The 17 wins tied Virginia (17-1 in 2017-18) for the most in a season in ACC history and are the most since the league went to a 20-game schedule in 2019-20.
• Carolina's 84-79 win at Duke on March 9 was its 25th of the season, which extends UNC's NCAA record for 25-win seasons to 41.
• Cormac Ryan led UNC with 31 points at Duke. It was the second time he scored at least 28 points in Cameron Indoor Stadium and he became the first Tar Heel ever to make six 3FGs at both Virginia and Duke.
• Carolina's road winning percentage (.800) is the highest among teams in the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 or SEC. The eight wins tied the most among teams in those six leagues.
• It was the second time in Hubert Davis' three seasons as head coach the Tar Heels won at least seven road games in the ACC (7-3 in 2021-22).
• Davis has led the Tar Heels to 13 wins over Associated Press-ranked teams in his three seasons as head coach. That includes eight wins over top-10 opponents (three in 2021-22, one last year and four this season), which ties Bill Guthridge and Roy Williams for the most wins over top-10 teams in their first three seasons as UNC's head coach.
• The Tar Heels enter the ACC Tournament as the No. 4 team in the Associated Press poll. This is the 12th consecutive week the AP has ranked UNC in the top 10 and is the highest UNC has been ranked following the regular season since 2018-19, when it went to Charlotte No. 3 in the nation.
• Carolina is the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament for a record 27th time.
• RJ Davis was voted the ACC Player of the Year by the league and AP (unanimously), becoming the fifth guard and 15th Tar Heel to win the award.
• Hubert Davis was voted the ACC Coach of the Year by the league and the AP (unanimously), becoming the fifth Tar Heel head coach to win the award, the first since Roy Williams in 2011.
• RJ Davis was joined on the All-ACC team by Armando Bacot (first team AP, second-team ACC panel), Harrison Ingram (third-team ACC) and Elliott Cadeau (All-Freshman team). Bacot was also named to his first All-Defensive team.
• Bacot is the eighth Tar Heel to earn a first-team All-ACC honor three times.

GAME 32 NOTEBOOK
• Carolina is 25-6 overall, 17-3 in the ACC. The Tar Heels secured at least a share of the regular-season championship with an 84-51 win over Notre Dame on March 5 and won the title outright with an 84-79 victory at Duke four nights later.
• The title is Carolina's 33rd regular-season championship in 71 seasons of ACC Basketball. That is the most regular-season titles in ACC history. Duke is second with 20.
• Including seven Southern Conference first-place finishes, this is Carolina's 40th regular-season conference championship. UNC has the third-most in college basketball history behind Kansas (64) and Kentucky (54).

ACC REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPIONSHIPS
33 UNC
20 Duke
11 Virginia
7 NC State
5 Maryland
4 Wake Forest
2 Georgia Tech, Miami
1 Clemson, Florida State, South Carolina

• Carolina won 17 regular-season ACC games for the first time since the league went to an 18-game slate in 2012-13 and 20 games in 2019-20. UNC's previous high for wins was in 2018-19, when it went 16-2 to tie Virginia for the title.
• UNC is the second team to win 17 ACC regular-season games in one year. Since the league went to 18- and then 20-game schedules, Virginia (17-1 in 2017-18) is the only other team to win 17 games.
• Carolina's previous best 20-game ACC record was 15-5 in 2021-22, Hubert Davis' first season as head coach.
• The Tar Heels have won 25 games, the program's 64th season with 20 or more wins and an NCAA-record 41st with at least 25.
• Hubert Davis and Bill Guthridge (1997-2000) are the only Tar Heel head coaches to win 20 or more games in each of their first three seasons. Davis led Carolina to 29 wins and a berth in the national championship game in 2022 and 20 wins last season.
• Davis has led UNC to 74 wins in three seasons, the third-most wins by a Tar Heel head coach in his first three seasons (80 by Guthridge from 1997-2000 and 76 by Roy Williams from 2003-06).
• The Tar Heels are 6-2 against AP-ranked opponents this season with wins over No. 20 Arkansas, No. 10 Tennessee, No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 16 Clemson, No. 7 Duke and No. 9 Duke (rankings when UNC played those teams).
• ESPN ranks UNC's strength of record No. 4 in the country behind Purdue, Houston and UConn.
• Carolina's schedule is ranked 12th in the country by ESPN and 18th by KenPom.
• Among the 20 teams with 25 or more wins, only Purdue has a stronger strength of schedule than UNC per ESPN.
• The Tar Heels are No. 5 in the country in defensive efficiency (93.3 points allowed per 100 possessions) and No. 26 in offensive efficiency (118.4 points scored per 100 possessions).
• Overall, KenPom ranks UNC No. 8 in the country.
• Carolina went 8-2 this season on the road (all in ACC play).
• The Tar Heels are one of five teams in the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC with eight or more road wins (UNC, UConn, Creighton, South Carolina and Tennessee).
• UNC's road winning percentage (.800) is the highest among teams in the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC.
• From January 6-22, Carolina won seven straight ACC games by double digits, most since winning 10 straight in 1992-93. UNC had 10 double-digit nine wins in its 17 ACC wins and had a scoring margin of 10.5 in league play, the highest in the conference.
• In all games, Carolina leads the ACC in scoring and rebounding, is second in scoring margin, field goal percentage defense and three-point percentage defense.
• Carolina's defense has held ACC opponents to 39.5% from the floor and 30.7% from three-point range.
• The Tar Heels have held ACC opponents to 70 points or below in 27 of the last 38 games dating back to last season.
• Carolina has out-rebounded its opponents in 20 straight games and is plus 185 on the boards in those games, 17 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 (162 by Armando Bacot, 115 by Cormac Ryan, 112 by RJ Davis, 92 by Harrison Ingram, 67 by Jae'Lyn Withers and 58 by Paxson Wojcik).
• Bacot has started more games (162) than any other individual in ACC history has played.
• The lineup UNC started at Duke has started the last 23 games (other than Senior Night vs. Notre Dame when the three senior walk-ons joined Bacot and Davis in the starting lineup). Elliott Cadeau, Ryan, Davis, Ingram and Bacot have a combined 506 career starts.
• The Tar Heels went 6-1 in November, 3-2 in December, 8-1 in January, 5-2 in February and 3-0 thus far in March.

CAROLINA IN THE ACC TOURNAMENT
• The Tar Heels are 106-51 with 18 championships in the ACC Tournament.
• Carolina's most recent title came in 2016 in Capital One Arena (then named the Verizon Center). Tournament MVP Joel Berry II scored a game-high 19 points to lead seventh-ranked UNC past fourth-ranked Virginia, 61-57, for the title.
• Carolina is second in ACC history in championships (18), wins (106) and tied for first in championship game appearances (35).
• The Tar Heels are 4-1 in Washington, D.C., with a 3-0 record in 2016 and a 1-1 record in 2005. All five previous games were played in Capital One Arena.
• The Tar Heels have won 72.5% of their ACC Tournament games outside the state of North Carolina and 65.8% in Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh.
• UNC is 77-40 in the Tar Heel State and 29-11 in the DMV, Florida, Georgia and New York.
• Carolina is the No. 1 seed for the 27th time (Duke is second with 18, NC State and Virginia are third with six apiece).
• The Tar Heels are the No. 1 seed for the first time since 2017, when they lost in the semifinals in Brooklyn.
• Carolina has won 11 of its 18 ACC Tournament championships as the No. 1 seed (1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1979, 1982, 2007, 2008 and 2016).
• UNC won as the No. 2 seed in 1975, 1981, 1991, 1994 and 1998, the No. 3 seed in 1997 and the No. 4 seed in 1989.
• Carolina is 21-0 as a No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals (in five seasons the No. 1 seed earned a bye into the semifinals).
• Overall, the Tar Heels are 48-14 in the quarterfinals.
• Head coach Hubert Davis won two titles as a player in 1989 and 1991 and one (2016) as an assistant coach. The Tar Heel assistant coaches won a combined six as players (two by Brad Frederick and Pat Sullivan and one each by Jeff Lebo and Marcus Paige).
• Armando Bacot was named first-team All-ACC Tournament in 2021 and second team in 2022.
• RJ Davis earned second-team All-ACC Tournament honors in 2023.
• Bacot has played in nine ACC Tournament games. He has scored in double figures seven times with a high of 20 against Notre Dame in 2021 and has five double-doubles. He has 13 or more rebounds three times with a high of 14 against Virginia Tech in 2022.
• Davis has scored in double figures in five of his seven previous ACC Tournament games. He scored a season-high 19 points as a freshman vs. Virginia Tech. His high is 24 last year in the season-ending quarterfinal loss against Virginia.
• Cormac Ryan averaged 14.5 points in four ACC Tournament games while at Notre Dame. He scored 20 against Virginia Tech in 2022 and 18 vs. the Hokies last season.

AWARDS & REWARDS
• RJ Davis was voted the ACC Player of the Year by the 75-person panel of ACC coaches and selected media and also by the Associated Press.
• Davis received 90.7% of the vote for Player of the Year by the ACC panel and was a unanimous selection by the Associated Press.
• The senior guard from White Plains, N.Y., is the 15th Tar Heel to win ACC Player-of-the-Year honors, the first since Justin Jackson in 2016-17. It is the 16th time a Tar Heel has won the award (Larry Miller won twice).
• Davis is the fifth Tar Heel guard to win the award with Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, Joseph Forte and Ty Lawson.
• Davis was the leading vote-getter on the All-ACC team. He is the 53rd Tar Heel to earn first-team All-ACC honors (a total of 81 first-team awards, the most in league history).

ACC PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
Lennie Rosenbluth 1957
Pete Brennan 1958
Lee Shaffer 1960
Billy Cunningham 1965
Larry Miller 1967, 1968
Mitch Kupchak 1976
Phil Ford 1978
Michael Jordan 1984
Antawn Jamison 1998
Joseph Forte 2001 (co-winner)
Tyler Hansbrough 2008
Ty Lawson 2009
Tyler Zeller 2012
Justin Jackson 2017
RJ Davis 2024

• As of March 12, Davis has been named first-team All-America by ESPN.com, the Sporting News and Dick Vitale.
• Armando Bacot earned first-team All-ACC honors by the AP and second-team by the ACC panel. Harrison Ingram was third team by the ACC panel.
• It is the first time three Tar Heels earned All-ACC honors since Cameron Johnson (first team), Luke Maye (second) and Coby White (second) in 2018-19.
• Bacot also made the ACC's All-Defensive team. This is the third straight year a Tar Heel made the team (Leaky Black in 2022 and 2023). Bacot is the first Tar Heel big man to make the defensive team since Brice Johnson made the coaches' team in 2016.
• Davis and Bacot are among five finalists, respectively, for the Jerry West Shooting Guard Award and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center Award.
• Elliot Cadeau was voted to the ACC All-Freshman team. He is the first Tar Heel to make the ACC All-Freshman team since Caleb Love and Day'Ron Sharpe in 2021.
• Cadeau joins Ed Cota, Raymond Felton, Bobby Frasor, Ty Lawson, Kendall Marshall, Marcus Paige, Coby White, Cole Anthony and Love as Tar Heel point guards to earn All-Freshman team honors.
• Hubert Davis was named ACC Coach of the Year by the ACC panel and the Associated Press.
• Davis is the fifth Tar Heel to win ACC Coach-of-the-Year honors (a total of 13 times), joining Frank McGuire, Dean Smith (eight times), Bill Guthridge and Roy Williams (2006 and 2011).

ACC COACHES OF THE YEAR
Frank McGuire 1957
Dean Smith 1967, 1968, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1988, 1993
Bill Guthridge 1998
Roy Williams 2006, 2011
Hubert Davis 2024

• This is the first time Carolina won both the player- and coach-of-the-year awards in the same season since Antawn Jamison and Bill Guthridge in 1997-98.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Elliot Cadeau

RJ Davis

Harrison Ingram

Caleb Love

Cormac Ryan

Jae'Lyn Withers

Paxson Wojcik

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics