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• UNC and Notre Dame are playing for the first time since 2/22/2023, a 63-59 Tar Heel road win.
• The Tar Heels are 23-6, including 15-3 in the ACC. Carolina is ranked No. 7 in the country in the Associated Press poll, UNC’s 11th straight top-10 ranking and 702nd all-time.
• Carolina leads the ACC, one game ahead of Duke. UNC has secured a top-2 seed in the ACC Tournament. The Tar Heels will begin play in Washington, D.C., in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, March 14 (time TBA).
• With a win over Notre Dame Carolina would clinch at least a tie for the ACC regular-season championship, which would be the Tar Heels’ 33rd. UNC has won the regular-season title outright 21 previous times and shared the title 11 times.
• UNC last won the ACC regular-season title in 2018-19, when it went 16-2 and shared the crown with Virginia.
• Armando Bacot will be playing in his 162nd game, which sets the all-time ACC record. Virginia’s Kihei Clark played in 161 from 2018-23.
• Seven Tar Heels will be participating in Senior Night ceremonies, which begin at 6:42 p.m. Those players include Bacot, RJ Davis, Duwe Farris, Rob Landry, Creighton Lebo, Cormac Ryan and Paxson Wojcik.
• The Tar Heels are playing at home for the third straight game. UNC is 13-1 in the Smith Center this season, including 8-1 in ACC games. A win would mark the 14th time UNC has won 14 or more games in a season in the Smith Center in its 39th year as UNC’s home arena.
• Carolina defeated NC State, 79-70, on March 2 behind a season-high 22 points by Harrison Ingram and Elliot Cadeau’s 15 points and seven assists. The Tar Heels trailed by eight at the half and by 10 early in the second half before making a 26-6 run to take its own 10-point lead.
• Ingram has scored 20 or more points five times this season – 22 vs. NC State, 21 vs. Duke and 20 vs. Villanova, Tennessee and UConn.
• RJ Davis had five assists vs. NC State. He leads the ACC in scoring at 21.7 points per game and has 100 assists this season. Charlie Scott (1967-68), Phil Ford (1977-78), Joseph Forte (2000-01) and Davis are the only Tar Heels to average 20 points and have 100 assists in the same season.
• Davis earned his fourth ACC Player of the Week and National Player of the Week awards for his play last week vs. Miami and NC State. He joins Tyler Hansbrough, Antawn Jamison, Forte, Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson and Joel Berry II as the only Tar Heels to win ACC Player-of-the-Week honors at least four times in a season. No other player in the league has won ACC Player of the Week more than twice this season.
• Davis broke the Smith Center scoring record with a career-high 42 points last Monday and added 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists vs. the Wolfpack.
• Carolina is 15-3 in the ACC, its best 18-game league record since finishing 16-2 in 2018-19.
• Carolina’s best 20-game ACC record is 15-5 in 2021-22, Hubert Davis‘ first season as head coach.
• This is the third time UNC has won at least 15 regular-season ACC games.
• The Tar Heels have won 23 games, the program’s 64th season with 20 or more wins.
• 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.
• 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. 6 in the country behind Purdue, Houston, UConn, Tennessee and Iowa State.
• Carolina’s schedule is ranked 17th in the country by KenPom and 20th by ESPN.
• Among the 26 teams in the country with 23 or more wins, only Purdue and Tennessee have stronger strength of schedules than UNC per ESPN.
• The Tar Heels are No. 6 in the country in defensive efficiency (94.0 points allowed per 100 possessions) and No. 26 in offensive efficiency (118.0 points scored per 100 possessions).
• Overall, KenPom ranks UNC No. 9 in the country.
• Carolina is 7-2 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 seven road wins.
• From January 6-22, Carolina won seven straight ACC games by double digits, most since winning 10 straight in 1992-93. UNC has nine double-digit nine wins in its 15 ACC wins and has a scoring margin of 9.6 in league play.
• Carolina leads the ACC in scoring and rebounding, is second in scoring margin and field goal defense and third in three-point defense.
• Carolina’s defense has held ACC opponents to 39.8% from the floor and 30.4% from three-point range.
• The Tar Heels have held ACC opponents to 70 points or below in 26 of the last 36 games dating back to last season.
• Carolina has out-rebounded its opponents in 18 straight games and is plus 166 on the boards in those games, 15 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 (160 by Armando Bacot, 114 by Cormac Ryan, 110 by RJ Davis, 91 by Harrison Ingram, 67 by Jae’Lyn Withers and 58 by Paxson Wojcik).
• The lineup UNC started against NC State has started the last 22 games. Elliott Cadeau, Ryan, Davis, Ingram and Bacot has a combined 499 career starts.
• The Tar Heels went 6-1 in November, 3-2 in December, 8-1 in January and the win over Miami capped a 5-2 record in February.
• 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.
UNC-NOTRE DAME
• Carolina is 29-9 against the Irish, including 13-5 since Notre Dame joined the ACC in 2013-14.
• The Tar Heels are 9-1 in Chapel Hill, including 8-1 in the Smith Center.
• Carolina won both games last year. The Tar Heels have won two in a row, four out of five and 11 of the last 13.
• The last time these teams played was 2/22/2023 at Notre Dame, a 63-59 UNC victory. The Irish led, 27-19, at the half as the Tar Heels made just 5 of 27 shots from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. That was Carolina’s lowest percentage in a half since going 0 for 2 in the first half at Duke in 1979.
• Armando Bacot and Caleb Love led UNC with 16 points. Love hit both of the Tar Heels’ three-pointers (UNC was 2 for 23).
• Carolina pounded the Irish on the glass with a rebound margin of 52-33. Bacot (11), Leaky Black (10) and Pete Nance (10) had double-figure rebounds.
• UNC had a season-high 23 offensive rebounds which led to a season-best 23 second-chance points.
• Last year in Chapel Hill (1/7/2023), Bacot had 21 points and 13 rebounds and Love made three first-half 3FGs and scored 18.
• UNC led by 13 at the half but the Irish pulled within seven at 61-54 before RJ Davis scored four of the next seven points to double the lead.
• UNC graduate student Cormac Ryan played the previous three seasons for Notre Dame. He was team captain each of the last three seasons for the Irish and scored 964 points in 92 games at Notre Dame. Ryan played in five games for Notre Dame against UNC (and one game for Stanford vs. UNC in 2018-19), including twice for the Irish in the Smith Center.
MILESTONE WATCH
• Armando Bacot has scored 2,216 points, third most all-time by a Tar Heel … needs 75 to pass Phil Ford (2,290) for second.
• Bacot passed Wake Forest’s Randolph Childress for 18th in ACC career scoring in the NC State game … he needs 10 to pass Georgia Tech’s Matt Harpring (2,225) for 17th, 13 to pass Virginia’s Ralph Sampson (2,228) for 16th and 18 to pass UVA’s Buzzy Wilkinson (2,233) for 15th.
• Bacot has 1,635 rebounds, most ever by a Tar Heel and second most in ACC history … Bacot is 12th in rebounds in NCAA history … he needs 39 to pass Morehead State’s Kenneth Faried (1,673) 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 passed Al Wood in career field goals by a Tar Heel in the NC State game … Bacot is third in with 827 … needs 39 field goals to pass Phil Ford (865) for third.
• RJ Davis has scored 1,926 points, which is 10th in UNC history … needs 49 to pass Antawn Jamison (1,974) for ninth.
• Davis needs 74 points to become the eighth Tar Heel to score 2,000 (Bacot did that earlier this season).
• Davis has the third-most points by a Tar Heel guard … he needs 82 to pass Charlie Scott (2,007).
• Davis has made 253 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 404 assists … needs six to pass Walter Davis (409) for 17th in UNC history.
• Harrison Ingram needs one steal for 100 career steals.
• Cormac Ryan needs 27 points for 1,500 career points.
AP POLL NOTES
• Carolina is No. 7 in week 18 in the Associated Press poll (released on March 4).
• It is the 954th time the Tar Heels are ranked in the AP poll, the second most in college basketball history.
• It was the 13th time this season and 702nd time (third most) the AP ranked the Tar Heels in the top 10.
• Carolina has played the No. 2 (UConn), 4 (Tennessee), 9 (Duke) and 15 (Kentucky) teams in this week’s AP poll.
• From November 24-December 20, 2023, UNC played five consecutive non-conference games against ranked opponents for the first time in UNC history. The Tar Heels played Arkansas (20th), Tennessee (10th), UConn (5th), Kentucky (14th) and Oklahoma (7th).
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