Tar Heels Will Host Pitt On Wednesday Night

Wednesday, January 8

Chapel Hill

7 PM

North Carolina

Pittsburgh

Buy Tickets

Leaky Black

Photo by: Rebecca Lawson

January 7, 2020 | Men's Basketball

Watch Listen Know Before You Go Live Stats Tickets UNC Notes Pitt Notes

Carolina will host ACC foe Pittsburgh on Wednesday night in the Smith Center. The ACC Network will televise the game.

GAME 15 NOTEBOOK
• Carolina is 8-6 overall, including 1-2 in ACC play. The Tar Heels are coming off a 96-83 loss to Georgia Tech on 1/4.
• Carolina missed its first 15 shots from the floor, while Georgia Tech shot 59 percent for the game and scored 96 points, most against UNC this season.
• UNC scored a season-high 83 points in the loss to the Yellow Jackets, and shot 56.3 percent from the floor over the final 27 minutes.
• Garrison Brooks led UNC with 35 points and seven rebounds. Brooks has scored 91 points in the last five games (with Cole Anthony out due to injury). Brandon Robinson is next with 60 points and Jeremiah Francis is third with 38 in that stretch.
• Pittsburgh is 10-4 overall and also 1-2 in the ACC. The Panthers lost at home to Wake Forest on 1/4.
• Carolina has lost six of its last eight games.
• The Pittsburgh game is the third of a season-long four-game homestand for the Tar Heels, which concludes Saturday against Clemson. That game will be UNC's 500th game in the Smith Center.
• Carolina is 4-3 at home this season (4-2 at the Smith Center and 0-1 at Carmichael). UNC has not dropped four home games since 2014-15, when the Tar Heels went 10-5 at the Smith Center.

SERIES VS. PITTSBURGH
• Carolina has won 14 of 17 games against the Panthers, including six wins in a row.
• UNC is 7-0 in Chapel Hill with six of those wins coming in the Smith Center.
• Roy Williams is 7-2 against the Panthers as UNC's head coach (was 1-0 while at Kansas).
• UNC is 7-2 since Pittsburgh joined the ACC.
• Last year, Coby White led all scorers with 22 points and Cameron Johnson had 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists in UNC's 85-60 win in Pittsburgh.
• The game was tied 12-12 before Johnson hit a three to give UNC a 15-12 lead. The Panthers scored to make it 15-14, then the Tar Heels went on a 16-0 run to lead 31-16.
• Carolina held the Panthers without a field goal for 12:10 in the first half.
• Garrison Brooks had nine points, eight rebounds, a career-high five assists and no turnovers.

ROY MAKING HISTORY
• Carolina's win over Yale moved Roy Williams into a tie with Dean Smith for fourth place in wins by a Division I head coach with 879 and into a tie with Gary Williams for third place for wins by an ACC head coach with 461.
• Earlier this season Williams passed Jim Calhoun (873) and Adolph Rupp (876).

Most Wins by a Division I Head Coach
1145 Mike Krzyzewski
954 Jim Boeheim
902 Bob Knight
879 Dean Smith
879 Roy Williams
876 Adolph Rupp

MOST WINS AS ACC HEAD COACH, ALL GAMES
1072 Mike Krzyzewski Duke
879 Dean Smith North Carolina
461 Roy Williams North Carolina
461 Gary Williams Maryland
354 Bobby Cremins Georgia Tech

• The Georgia Tech game was Williams' 600th game as UNC's head coach. The Tar Heels are 461-139 under Williams, a winning percentage of .768. That's No. 3 all-time in ACC history behind only Krzyzewski (.789) and Smith (.776).
• Williams is just the fourth to coach at least 600 games at an ACC school.

MOST GAMES AS ACC HEAD COACH
1358 Mike Krzyzewski Duke
1133 Dean Smith North Carolina
713 Gary Williams Maryland
600 Roy Williams North Carolina

• Williams led UNC to more wins in his first 600 games as an ACC head coach than any other coach in league history.

MOST WINS IN FIRST 600 GAMES AS ACC HEAD COACH
461 Roy Williams North Carolina
456 Dean Smith North Carolina
446 Mike Krzyzewski Duke
392 Gary Williams Maryland

NOTABLE
• Ken Pomeroy ranks UNC's schedule as the 11th most difficult in the country. The non-conference schedule is the 24th most difficult in the country. That's easily the most challenging schedule among ACC teams; Georgia Tech's is second in the ACC at No. 47. The average ACC non-conference strength of schedule (other than UNC) is 211.

• Carolina has used five different starting lineups in 14 games. Last season, Roy Williams used two starting lineups – one for 35 games and a different one for one game.

• Cole Anthony (nine games), K.J. Smith (three) and Jeremiah Francis (two) have started at the point this season. This is the first time since 2007-08 UNC started three players at the point in a season (Ty Lawson 29, Quentin Thomas 9 and Bobby Frasor 1).

• Freshman guard Anthony Harris tore his right ACL in the second half of the Yale game. Harris missed the first eight games this season due to a left knee injury he suffered as a high school senior. He played for the first time as a Tar Heel at Virginia on 12/8 and scored 14 second-half points in the win over UCLA on 12/21.

• Seven different Tar Heels have combined to miss a total of 43 games due to injury thus far this season: Sterling Manley (14 games– left knee surgery on 12/12/19), Anthony Harris (9– first eight games due to left knee injury from high school, right knee surgery on 1/4/2020), Jeremiah Francis (first 8 games– left knee injury from high school), Cole Anthony (last 5 games– right knee surgery on 12/16/19), Brandon Robinson (first 4 games– right ankle), Andrew Platek (last 2 games– left ankle) and Leaky Black (1 game– turf toe, right foot).

• Forward Garrison Brooks led all scorers in the Georgia Tech game with a career-high 35 points.
– It was the most points by a Tar Heel since Brice Johnson's 39 at Florida State on 1/4/2016;
– He became the fourth Tar Heel and ninth collegiate player to score 35 or more in the Smith Center (with Tar Heels Antawn Jamison, Joseph Forte and Tyler Hansbrough).

• Brooks made 17 of 18 free throws against the Yellow Jackets. His percentage of .944 is the second highest in UNC history among players with 18 or more attempts in a game. The 17 free throws equal the sixth most in any game by a Tar Heel and tie the third most by a Tar Heel in an ACC game.

HIGHEST FT PCT. IN A GAME BY A TAR HEEL
(min. 15 attempts)
1.000 by York Larese vs. Duke, 12/29/59 (21x21)
.944 by Garrison Brooks vs. Georgia Tech, 1/4/20 (17x18)
.900 by Pete Brennan at NC State, 2/18/58 (18x20)
.895 by Tyler Hansbrough vs. Clemson, 2/10/08 (17x19)
.895 by Lennie Rosenbluth at NC State, 1/15/57 (17x19)
.895 by Lennie Rosenbluth vs. Duke, 2/4/55 (17x19)

MOST FREE THROWS MADE IN A GAME BY A TAR HEEL
21 by York Larese vs. Duke, 12/29/59
20 by Tyler Zeller vs. Maryland, 2/29/12
19 by Dennis Wuycik vs. Creighton, 12/12/70
19 by Larry Miller vs. Oregon State, 12/30/67
18 by Pete Brennan at NC State, 2/18/58
17 by Garrison Brooks vs. Georgia Tech, 1/4/20
17 five other times
• In the last two games, Brandon Robinson has set career highs in points (20), three-pointers (5) and minutes played (36) against Yale and assists (6) and steals (4) against Georgia Tech. The Yale game marked the first time Robinson led UNC in scoring in his career.

• Robinson has scored in double figures in six of the 10 games he has played in this season. He reached double figures twice in his first three collegiate seasons.

• Carolina is 423-75 in the Smith Center (215-58 in ACC games). The Clemson game on 1/11 will be the Tar Heels' 500th game in the Smith Center.

• The Tar Heels lead the nation in rebounds per game (44.1), are sixth in offensive rebounds per game (14.7) and 12th in rebound margin (+9.4).

• Carolina has led the nation in rebounds per game in each of the previous three seasons.

• Carolina scored a season-high 83 points in the loss to Georgia Tech. It was second time in four games UNC scored 80 or more points, but UNC has lost both those games (GT and Gonzaga). Dating back to the 97-80 loss to Auburn in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, UNC has lost three consecutive games in which it scored 80 or more points. That's the first time UNC has lost three straight games when scoring 80 points since the 1991-92 season (lost 99-94 to NC State, 110-96 at Florida State and 82-80 at Maryland).

• Carolina began the game vs. Georgia Tech missing its first 15 field goal attempts, but then shot 56.3 percent from the floor over the final 27 minutes (27x48). The Tar Heels finished the game at 42.9 percent and have shot under 50 percent from the floor in the first 14 games. That's the longest stretch to open a season since the 1959-60 team shot 53.6 percent against Duke in the 16th game.

• Carolina's field goal percentage (.403) is its lowest since the 1957-58 season and its three-point percentage (.306) is its lowest ever.

• Carolina is 10th in the ACC in scoring at 70.7 points per game. Carolina has finished first, first, second and first in the ACC in scoring in the last four seasons.

• In Roy Williams' previous 16 seasons, Carolina has led the ACC in scoring eight times, finished second five times and third three times.

• No Roy Williams-coached team in 16 previous seasons at UNC has averaged fewer than 74.5 points per game (in 2009-10). The lowest scoring average in his 15 seasons at Kansas (1988-2003) was 72.1 in 1998-99. Williams' teams have averaged 80 or more points in 23 of his previous 31 seasons as a head coach.

MEDIA POLLING
• Carolina is not ranked in the Associated Press poll for the fourth week in a row. UNC had been ranked in the top 10 in each of the first five weeks of the 2019-20 AP poll.
• The December 16th poll marked the first time in 107 polls the Tar Heels were not ranked in the AP poll.
• Prior to this season, the last time UNC was out of the AP top 25 was the 16th week of the 2013-14 season.
• UNC has finished the season in the top 10 in each of the last four seasons (3 in 2015-16, 5 in 2016-17, 10 in 2017-18 and 3 in 2018-19).
• Carolina has been ranked in 922 AP polls, the most rankings of any school in the country.
• Carolina has finished in the Top 10 of the AP poll 38 times, including 27 of the previous 39 years.

AP POLL STREAKS
• Carolina's 106-week streak of being ranked in the AP poll was the third longest in UNC history and the sixth longest in ACC history.
• UNC's longest streaks include:
172 weeks from 11/1/90 to 1/18/2000;
171 weeks from 12/5/72 to 12/14/82;
106 weeks from 2/24/14 to 12/16/2019;
87 weeks from 11/27/84 to 12/5/90

ALL-DECADE
• The Lute Olson National Player of the Year Award selected 25 players to its 2010-19 All-Decade team and two Tar Heels made the list, Harrison Barnes (2010-12) and Justin Jackson (2014-17).

2019 SIGNEES
• R.J. Davis, a 5-11 guard from White Plains, N.Y.
• Donovan "Puff" Johnson, a 6-7 forward from Moon Township, Pa.
• Walker Kessler, a 7-0 forward from Newnan, Ga.
• Caleb Love, a 6-3 guard from St. Louis, Mo.
• Day'Ron Sharpe, a 6-10 forward from Greenville, N.C.