Men's Basketball Welcomes Elon Saturday Night

Saturday, December 11

Chapel Hill

8 PM

North Carolina

Elon

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

December 9, 2021 | Men's Basketball

UNC Notes Watch Live Stats Digital Program Media Central

GAME 9
• Carolina returns to action after a break for final exams on Saturday, December 11, at the Smith Center against Elon.
• Gametime is 8 p.m. (ACC Network).
• The Tar Heels won their ACC opener and improved to 6-2 overall with a 79-62 win at Georgia Tech on December 5.
• Elon is 2-7. The Phoenix are playing for the first time since an 83-77 loss to High Point on December 4.
• Carolina's game vs. Elon begins a stretch of four games over 11 days that close out the non-conference portion of the regular season.
• The Tar Heels are 4-0 at home this season and 441-81 all-time in the Smith Center. That includes a 215-18 record against non-ACC teams.
• Carolina is 174-18 all-time in all games against non-ACC opponents from the state of North Carolina. That includes a 72-53 win on November 23 vs. UNC Asheville.
• The Tar Heels have won their last three games and have climbed to No. 29 in KenPom. Carolina is third in the country in three-point percentage, ninth in offensive efficiency and 17th in effective field goal percentage.
• The 79-62 win at Georgia Tech was No. 2,300 in Carolina history. UNC is the third team in college basketball history with 2,300 wins (with Kentucky and Kansas).
• RJ Davis (23), Caleb Love (17), Armando Bacot (15) and Brady Manek (15) accounted for 70 of the Tar Heels' 79 points in Atlanta.
• Carolina led by eight early, gave up a 13-0 run to fall behind by nine and fought its way back to head to the locker room tied at 31. The Tar Heels then went on a 22-4 run to pull away for their fifth win in seven games in McCamish Pavilion.
• Carolina scored 31 points on 35 possessions in the first half, then scored 48 points on 37 second-half possessions in the win over the Yellow Jackets. The Tar Heels shot 65.5 percent from the floor in the second, their best shooting in a half on the road since a 2019 win at Wake Forest.
• Carolina beat Michigan, 72-51, on December 1 in its previous start in the Smith Center.
The 51 points were the fewest allowed by UNC in the 23-year history of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge and the margin of victory was Carolina's largest in the Challenge since defeating Michigan State on 12/3/2008.

CAROLINA ALL-TIME VS. ELON
• Carolina is 20-4 vs. Elon, including 3-0 in the ACC era.
• The Tar Heels have won 15 of the previous 16 games played in Chapel Hill, including 12/29/2011 and 11/20/2019.
• UNC has won the last 13 times the teams have played one another.

LAST TIME VS. ELON
• Freshman Armando Bacot had a game-high 22 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and two steals and freshman Cole Anthony had nine points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in Carolina's 75-61 win in Chapel Hill on 11/20/2019.
• Elon led 20-11 with 14:06 to play in the first half and 33-32 at the half.
• Carolina held Elon to 27.8 percent shooting from the floor in the second half when the Tar Heels out-scored the Phoenix, 43-28.
• The Tar Heels made nine more field goals and five more free throws in the game, but the Phoenix connected on a dozen three-pointers (UNC made three).
• Carolina out-rebounded Elon, 56-25.

NOTABLE
• The Tar Heels are averaging 81.3 points in the first eight games, their highest average since scoring 85.8 per game in 2018-19. Carolina has averaged 80 or more points 21 times since the shot clock era began in 1985-86.
• Carolina scored at least 83 points and averaged 88.8 points in the first four games this season. In the last four games, UNC has scored 72 points three times and 79 once, winning three of those four games.
• Carolina has allowed only 166 points in winning the last three games (55.3 per game).
• The wins over UNC Asheville and Michigan marked the first time since December 2006 the Tar Heels held the opponents to 53 or fewer points in consecutive games.
• The Tar Heels have not allowed 62 points or fewer in four straight games since doing that five consecutive games in 2011-12.
• Caleb Love is fifth in the ACC in assists and eighth in scoring and assist-turnover ratio. The sophomore guard leads UNC in scoring (16.3 ppg) and assists and has more assists than turnovers in all eight games.
• Armando Bacot is second in the ACC in field goal percentage (.641) and rebounding (9.9) and leads ACC in double-doubles with five. He is eighth nationally in double-doubles and is the first Tar Heel to have five in the first eight games since first-team All-America Brice Johnson in 2015-16.
• Bacot has double-doubles in the last two games (11 points, 14 rebounds vs. Michigan and 15 points, 13 boards at Georgia Tech). He had three consecutive double-doubles twice as a freshman, which tied the Tar Heel freshman record with Mike O'Koren and Antawn Jamison.
• Brady Manek made three second-half three-pointers at Georgia Tech. The first was his 250th career three-pointer. He transferred to UNC as a graduate student after four seasons at Oklahoma, where he is fifth in Sooner history with 235 threes.
• Manek is ninth in the ACC in three-pointers and 10th in field goal percentage.
• Sophomore guard RJ Davis leads UNC with 18 threes. He is sixth in the league, making 2.3 per game. Davis also leads UNC in three-point accuracy, converting 51.4 percent from beyond the arc (18 of 35).
• Five Tar Heels are averaging double figures in scoring this season. The last time five Tar Heels averaged 10 or more points was 2017-18.
• Five different Tar Heels also have scored 20 or more points in a game this season. Armando Bacot and Caleb Love each have three 20-point games, Brady Manek and RJ Davis have two and Dawson Garcia has one.
• Tar Heels have scored 20 or more points 11 times in eight games, including three games in which two players scored 20 or more (Loyola, Brown and Charleston). Last season, UNC had only seven 20-point performances in 29 games. Freshman Day'Ron Sharpe became the first Tar Heel to score 20 or more when he had 25 against Notre Dame in the season's 10th game. UNC did not have any games last season when two players scored 20 or more points.
• Love has scored 22 points three times in the first eight games – against Loyola Maryland, College of Charleston and Michigan. The sophomore guard scored 20 or more twice in 29 games last season.
• Carolina is 5-0 in two seasons when Love scores 20 or more and 6-0 when he makes 50 percent of his field goal attempts (4-0 last season and 2-0 in 2021-22).
• UNC is averaging 8.9 threes per game, which is on pace to set the school record for a season (8.7 per game in 2018-19).
MOST THREE-POINT FIELD GOALS MADE PER GAME
8.9 in 2021-22 (71 in 8 games)
8.7 in 2018-19 (312 in 36 games)
8.3 in 2002-03 (290 in 35 games)
8.3 in 1982-83 (132 in 16 games – ACC games only)
8.2 in 2017-18 (305 in 37 games)
7.8 in 1994-95 (266 in 34 games)

• The Tar Heels are shooting 43.3 percent from three-point range over the first eight games. That is on pace for the third-best percentage by UNC and the highest since 1987-88.
HIGHEST THREE-POINT FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE
.437 in 1982-83 (132 of 302) ACC games only
.436 in 1986-87 (213 of 488)
.433 in 2021-22 (71 of 164)
.430 in 1987-88 (169 of 393)
.410 in 1994-95 (266 of 648)
.403 in 2004-05 (277 of 687)
• The Tar Heels are fourth in the country in three-point percentage. Last season, UNC was 262nd in the country (.318) and, in 2019-20, the Tar Heels ranked 306th in three-point accuracy (.304).

THREE-POINT PERCENTAGE, NCAA LEADERS
South Dakota State .452
Purdue .440
Colorado State .434
North Carolina .433
Jacksonville State .424
as of 12/8/21

• Carolina is 18th nationally in effective field goal percentage (which takes into account the added value of three-point shooting). The Tar Heels' effective FG percentage is 56.7%, which would rank fourth in UNC history since the three-point shot was introduced in the mid-1980s. The only three seasons UNC had a higher effective FG percentage were 1986-87, 1987-88 and 1988-89 (Jeff Lebo's sophomore through senior seasons and Hubert Davis's freshman season).
• Carolina's effective FG percentage the last two seasons were 46.4% in 2019-20 and 48.3% in 2020-21.
• By comparison, Carolina's effective FG percentage in its most recent NCAA championship seasons were 51.7% in 2016-17, 52.8% in 2008-09 and 56.0% in 2004-05.
• Carolina is only 10th in the ACC in offensive rebounding but leads the conference in rebound margin at plus 8.0 per game.
• Bacot and senior Leaky Black rank one-two in plus/minus through eight games. Bacot is +110 and Black is +99 (Black has played in one fewer game than Bacot).
• Black has a positive plus/minus in six of his seven games this season (did not play due to illness vs. Purdue). In all six games in which he had a positive plus/minus, Black was at least +12. His +29 against Michigan is the highest value by a Tar Heel in any game this season.
• Bacot is +73 over the last three games against UNC Asheville, Michigan and Georgia Tech. The junior from Richmond, Va., was +20 vs. UNCA, +27 vs. Michigan and +26 at Georgia Tech.

HUBERT
• Hubert Davis is 6-2 as Carolina's head coach. Davis was named Carolina's 20th head coach, and first Black head coach, on April 5, 2021.
• Davis is the fourth Tar Heel head coach who also played at UNC, joining Reynolds Cuthbertson, Monk McDonald and Matt Doherty.
• Davis played for Dean Smith from 1988-92, was selected by the New York Knicks in the first round of the NBA Draft and played a dozen seasons in the NBA. He was a college basketball analyst at ESPN for seven years and an assistant coach on Roy Williams' Tar Heel staff from 2012-21.

TEAM CAPTAINS
Junior forward/center Armando Bacot and sophomore guards RJ Davis and Caleb Love were selected team captains.
• Davis and Love are UNC's first sophomore captains since Marcus Paige in 2013-14.
• The players were selected captains by a vote of their teammates.

2021-22 ROSTER NOTES
• The Tar Heels welcome seven new players to the roster, including three transfers, two freshmen and two former junior varsity players.
• Graduate student Brady Manek made 235 threes and scored 1,459 points in four seasons at Oklahoma. Sophomore Dawson Garcia averaged 13.0 points and 6.6 rebounds an earned Freshman All-Big East Conference honors last season at Marquette. Junior Justin McKoy, a Raleigh native who attended Panther Creek High School in Cary, returns to his home state after two seasons at Virginia.
• Manek's 235 three-pointers for the Sooners were more than all but two Tar Heels – Marcus Paige (299) and Joel Berry II (266).
• Manek earned his degree from OU in seven semesters. He became the tallest player in Big 12 history to make 200 threes and the first with 200 threes and 100 blocks. The Harrah, Okla., native is the only Sooner to compile 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 three-pointers and 100 blocks.
• Garcia scored 24 points and had 11 rebounds for Marquette against the Tar Heels in February when the Golden Eagles handed UNC an 83-70 loss in Chapel Hill.
• Garcia played AAU ball with fellow Minnesota native and Tar Heel teammate Kerwin Walton.

PRESEASON ACCOLADES
• Carolina was picked to finish third in the ACC by the media at preseason media day in Charlotte on October 12.
• Armando Bacot, who earned third-team All-ACC honors in 2021, was selected to the preseason first team. Sophomore guard Caleb Love was chosen for the second team. Love was a member of the ACC's All-Freshman team last season.
• Bacot and Dawson Garcia are on the preseason watch list for the Wooden Award. Bacot is also on the list for the Naismith Trophy and the Lute Olson Award.
• Bacot, Love and Dawson Garcia are on the Basketball Hall of Fame's preseason watch lists for their respective positional player-of-the-year awards.
• Love is a candidate for Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award, Garcia for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year award and Bacot for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year award.
• Carolina is the only school to win three Bob Cousy Awards (Raymond Felton in 2005, Ty Lawson in 2009 and Kendall Marshall in 2012). Felton and Lawson won as juniors, while Marshall won the award as a sophomore.

TAR HEEL STAFF
• Head coach Hubert Davis is a Tar Heel alum, and so are each of his assistant coaches and members of the basketball staff.
• Assistant coaches Brad Frederick (1996-99), Jeff Lebo (1985-89) and Sean May (2002-05), Director of Recruiting Pat Sullivan (1990-93, 1994-95) and Director of Team and Player Development Jackie Manuel (2001-05) all played for the Tar Heels. Director of Operations Eric Hoots has been on staff for 18 seasons.
• Frederick played on Final Four teams that won ACC championships in 1997 and 1998.
• Lebo is a 20-year head coaching veteran who set 10 UNC records in his playing career.
• May was the Most Outstanding Player of the 2005 NCAA Final Four, scoring 26 points in the national championship game vs. Illinois.
• Manuel was twice named Carolina's defensive player of the year and was a starter on the 2005 NCAA champions.
• Sullivan was a key contributor on the 1993 national champions and is one of seven Tar Heels who have played in three Final Fours.
• Davis, Lebo, May and Frederick combined to score 4,441 points as Tar Heels. Syracuse is the only school whose coaches scored more points at their alma mater than UNC (Gerry McNamara, Adrian Autry, Allen Griffin and Jim Boeheim scored 5,189 for the Orange).

PRO HEELS
NBA
Cole Anthony, Orlando
Harrison Barnes, Sacramento
Tony Bradley, Chicago
Reggie Bullock, Dallas
Ed Davis, Cleveland
Wayne Ellington, Los Angeles Lakers
Danny Green, Philadelphia
Cameron Johnson, Phoenix
Nassir Little, Portland
Day'Ron Sharpe, New Jersey
Coby White, Chicago

G League
Justin Jackson, Austin (Dallas)
Theo Pinson, Maine (Boston)

International source: TarHeelInternational.com
Nate Britt, Yoast United, The Netherlands
Isaiah Hicks, Seoul Samsung Thunders, South Korea
Desmond Hubert, Al Arabi, Kuwait
Brice Johnson, Toyama Grouses, Japan
Christian Keeling, BC Rustavi, Georgia
Justin Knox, Neo-Phoenix, Japan
Ty Lawson, US Monastir, Tunisia
Luke Maye, BAXI Manresa, Spain
James Michael McAdoo, Hitachi Sun Rockers, Japan
Kennedy Meeks, Cholet Basket, France
Marcus Paige, Orleans Loiret, France
Justin Pierce, VfL Kircheim Knights, Germany
Reyshawn Terry, Plateros de Fresnillo, Mexico
Deon Thompson, Leones des Ponce, Puerto Rico
J.P. Tokoto, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Israel
Jawad Williams, Yamagata Wyverns, Japan
Kenny Williams, Kolossos Rhodes, Greece

TOYS FOR TOTS
• Carolina Basketball and the Orange County Toys for Tots are teaming up to collect toys at the Carolina-Elon game.
• Collection bins will be located at each entrance. All Carolina fans are encouraged to bring at least one new, unwrapped toy for a needy youngster in Orange County.
• Toy donations can also be made online at GoHeels.com or by shopping for toys at either Walmart or Target. Those toys will be delivered directly to Department of Social Services.
• The link is: https://www.myregistry.com/organization/orange-county-dss-hillsborough-nc/3111071
• Chapel Hill Transit is joining the effort to help Toys for Tots. You can bring a new, unwrapped toy to the Friday Center park and ride lot for the UNC-Elon game.
• Tar Heel Express shuttles will begin at 6 p.m. from the park-and-ride location at the Friday Center only. The shuttles will provide continuous and fully accessible service, running every 10 to 15 minutes between the park-and-ride lot and the Smith Center. The shuttles will operate for approximately 45 minutes following the game.
• Shuttles drop off and pick up on Bowles Drive in front of the Smith Center. Shuttles are $5 for a roundtrip or $3 for a one-way ride.
• Park-and-ride permits are not required during Tar Heel Express events.