Tar Heels Host Louisville Saturday

Saturday, January 12

Chapel Hill

Noon

North Carolina

Louisville

Tickets

Kenny Williams

Photo by: J.D. Lyon Jr.

January 11, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Watch UNC Notes Louisville Notes Live Stats Know Before You Go

GAME 16 NOTEBOOK
• Carolina plays its first ACC home game of the season when it hosts Louisville at the Smith Center. The Tar Heels are 12-3 overall, 2-0 in the ACC and have won four straight. The Cardinals are 10-5, 1-1 in league play with a home win over Miami and an overtime loss at Pitt.
• UNC is one of five teams unbeaten in league play, but the only one that opened with two road games.
• The Tar Heels are the only ACC team with four road wins this season (in all games). Virginia is next with three, Syracuse has two, eight teams have one and four teams do not have a road win yet.
• The Tar Heels have played (Gonzaga and Michigan) and will play (Duke and Virginia) four of the five teams ahead of them in KenPom's overall rankings.
• Carolina, Duke and Virginia are the only three teams that rank in the top 10 in both of KenPom's offensive and defensive efficiencies.
• Carolina and Kansas are the only two teams in KenPom's top 10 in overall efficiency whose strength of schedule is also in the top 10.
• Luke Maye is one of 25 players named to the Wooden Award's mid-season watch list. Maye and Duke's Zion Williamson are the only players in the ACC with double-doubles in each of the first two ACC games.
• Maye led the Tar Heels with 21 points at NC State. Maye has scored 31, 33 and 21 points in his last three games against the Wolfpack. That average of 28.3 points is the second highest average ever over a three-game span by a Tar Heel against NCSU. Only Tyler Hansbrough, who averaged 30.0 points over three games in his junior and senior seasons in 2008 and 2009, has averaged more than Maye.
• Cameron Johnson leads the ACC and is eighth nationally in three-point shooting at 49.4 percent. The graduate student from Moon Township, Pa. is 39 for 79 from three. Three Tar Heels – Raymond Felton (.440 in 2005), Dante Calabria (.496 in 1995) and Hubert Davis (.489 in 1991) – have led the conference in three-point accuracy.

UNC-LOUISVILLE SERIES
• Carolina leads the series against Louisville, 13-5, including 4-2 since the Cardinals joined the ACC for the 2014-15 season.
• Carolina is 3-0 against the Cardinals in Chapel Hill (all in the Smith Center).
• Roy Williams is 7-3 against Louisville (6-2 at Carolina, 1-1 as Kansas's head coach).
• The teams have played 10 of the previous 18 games on neutral sites.
• Carolina is 1-0 against Louisville in the ACC Tournament (2015 quarterfinals) and 3-1 in the NCAA Tournament.

LAST YEAR'S RECAP
• Carolina's 93-76 win was the first ever for UNC in Louisville against the Cardinals.
• The 17-point margin of victory was the largest over Louisville in the KFC Yum! Center.
• The 93 points were the most scored against Louisville in any game since UNC beat the Cardinals, 93-84, on 11/24/2013, in Uncasville, Conn.
• The 93 points were the most scored by any opponent at Louisville since Charlotte scored 106 at Freedom Hall on 2/11/2001.
• Joel Berry II scored a game-high 23 points, tied his career high with eight rebounds and had four assists and a key blocked shot late in the game.
• Luke Maye had 19 points, 13 rebounds and made a career high four steals.
• Theo Pinson had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

MISCELLANEOUS
• Carolina leads the nation in rebounds per game, is third in assists and rebound margin and fifth in scoring.
• Carolina is averaging 89.9 points, which is on pace for the third-highest figure in UNC single-season history.
• Carolina out-rebounds its opponents by 11.5 per game, which is the second highest margin in UNC history (behind 12.3 in 2016-17). The Tar Heels out-rebounded NC State by 18. Carolina has won the rebounding battle in 13 of the first 15 games this season and won 11 of those 13 games.
• The Tar Heels have won 85 percent of the games in which they out-rebound the opponents in Roy Williams' 16 seasons as head coach.
• Carolina has finished in the top 10 in the nation in rebound margin in nine of Roy Williams' first 15 seasons at UNC, including No. 1 in the country in 2008, 2012 and 2017. The Tar Heels have finished ninth, ninth, first and third in the nation in the last four years.
• The Tar Heels are averaging 19.7 assists per game, most in a season since 1990-91 (20.0 per game). UNC had 20 assists on 29 field goals in the win at NC State and had 44 assists on 61 baskets in it first two ACC games.
• UNC has 20 or more assists in eight of 15 games, including three of the last four games.
• The Tar Heels have finished in the top six in the country in assists per game 11 times under Williams, including second, fourth, fourth and tied for fourth in the last four seasons.
• Carolina is averaging 8.4 three-pointers per game. UNC has made 8.0 or more in only two previous seasons (a school-record 8.3 in 2002-03 and 8.2 in 2017-18).
• Carolina made 10 threes in the win at NC State. The Tar Heels are 5-1 this season when they make 10 or more threes.
• Carolina is the only team ranked in KenPom's top 10 teams in the country that has three losses. Three-loss Kentucky is 11th in KenPom's overall rankings (UNC is sixth).
• KenPom ranks the Tar Heels third in the nation behind Savannah State and FIU in shortest average length of offensive possessions (13.5 seconds) and fifth in tempo (possessions per game).
• Carolina has led by double digits in 14 of its first 15 games, including its losses to Texas and Michigan. The only game UNC has not led by double figures was against Kentucky (biggest lead was three).
• Senior forward Luke Maye is the third Tar Heel with 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 80 or more three-point field goals. The Huntersville, N.C., native enters the Louisville game with 1,079 points, 715 rebounds and 86 threes. The other two Tar Heels to reach each of those figures we Ademola Okulaja (1,254/890/143 from 1995-99) and Jason Capel (1,447/807/164 from 1998-2002).
• Maye has 149 more career rebounds and seven double-doubles than any other active player in the ACC.
• This season marked the 11th time overall and second time in three seasons the Tar Heels started ACC play with two road games (1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1998, 2003, 2017 and 2019).
• UNC has won both road games seven times, including this season, split twice and lost both twice.

AP POLL NOTES
• Carolina is ranked No. 12 in the Associated Press and coaches polls this week.
• Carolina is ranked this week in an AP poll for the 906th time, more than any other school in college basketball history.
• This is the 90th consecutive AP poll the Tar Heels have been ranked, dating back to mid-conference play in the 2013-14 season.
• UNC began the year No. 8 in the preseason AP poll. It was the 13th time in 16 seasons under Roy Williams UNC was ranked in the preseason Top 10.
• This season is the 56th time in 71 seasons the Tar Heels have been ranked in the top 10 in at least one week of the poll.
• UNC finished the year in the AP poll top 10 in 10 of Williams' first 15 seasons.
• Carolina has finished in the top 10 37 times, including 26 of the last 38 years. UNC has finished the season ranked in the AP poll 50 times.

NUMBER ONE IN WINS PER SEASON
• This is the 109th season of Carolina Basketball. The Tar Heels have won 2,244 games, third most in NCAA history.
• Carolina has won an average of 20.7 games per season. UNC is the only school in the top 10 in all-time NCAA wins that has averaged at least 20 wins per season.

ROY WILLIAMS COURT
• On 8/23/18, Carolina officially dedicated the Tar Heels' home floor as Roy Williams Court at the Dean E. Smith Center.
• The dedication was part of a two-day Carolina Basketball reunion of more than 300 players, coaches, managers and staff.

WILLIAMS INKS EIGHT-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION
• Carolina announced on Dec. 20 that head coach Roy Williams has signed a contract extension through the 2027-28 season.
• Williams is in his 16th season as the head coach at his alma mater. He is the first coach to win three national championships at his alma mater (2005, 2009, 2017).
• Williams' previous contract ran through 2020.

NO. 1 SCHEDULE IN THE COUNTRY
• Carolina's complete 2018-19 schedule is rated the No. 1 most difficult schedule in the country by NCAA.com.
• Eight opponents are in the AP top 25 this week (No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Michigan, No. 4 Virginia, No. 5 Gonzaga, No. 9 Virginia Tech, No. 13 Florida State, No. 15 NC State and No. 18 Kentucky).
• UNC plays eight ACC teams that played in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Three of the four ACC teams the Tar Heels play twice played in the 2018 NCAA Tournament (Duke, Miami and NC State) and the fourth (Louisville) won 22 games.
• KenPom has ranked Carolina's final strength of schedule in the top six in the country in each of the last four seasons, including the most difficult in 2014-15 and 2017-18 (No. 6 in 2015-16 and 2016-17).

HALL OF FAMERS SCOTT, PERKINS
• Charlie Scott was inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2018.
• Scott is the 10th Tar Heel in the Naismith Hall of Fame, joining Ben Carnevale (inducted in 1970), Frank McGuire (1977), Dean Smith (1983), Billy Cunningham (1986), Bob McAdoo (2000), Larry Brown (2002), James Worthy (2003), Roy Williams (2007) and Michael Jordan (2009).
• Sam Perkins was inducted in the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame in November 2018 in Kansas City.
• Perkins is the 11th Tar Heel in the College Hall of Fame with Brown, Carnevale, Cunningham, Phil Ford, McAdoo, McGuire, Scott, Smith, Williams and Worthy.