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Notre Dame-UNC Pre-Game Notes

andrew jones

Hall of Famer
Staff
Jul 21, 2014
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• Carolina plays host to Notre Dame on Monday, Feb. 12th, in its second-to-last home game, and third game in five days.

• The Tar Heels are 19-7 overall, 8-5 in the ACC and 11-2 at the Dean E. Smith Center this season.

• The Irish are 15-10, 5-7 in the ACC.

• Carolina beat the Irish, 69-68, at Notre Dame on Jan. 13th.

• Notre Dame is one of four teams in the ACC the Tar Heels play twice this season. The Tar Heels have split with Clemson and NC State and won the first game against Duke.

• This is the first time UNC has played three regular-season ACC games in a span of five or fewer days since February 1991, when the Tar Heels played at NC State (2/6), NC State (2/7) and Virginia (2/9) in a span of four days. The second of those games was a makeup game from mid-January when the State game in Chapel Hill was postponed due to the start of the Gulf War.

• This is the first time UNC has had three regular-season ACC games scheduled in a fiveday span since 1980. It’s the first time any school was scheduled to do that since Georgia Tech and Virginia in 1991.

• UNC is the only team in the ACC that is scheduled to play three regular-season conference games in a five-day span this season.

• Carolina’s last seven regular-season games include five games against teams in the top 50 in the NCAA’s RPI (No. 9 Duke twice, No. 25 Miami, at No. 38 Syracuse and at No. 41 Louisville).

• When the AP rankings are released on 2/12, Carolina will likely be ranked in the AP poll for the 76th consecutive week and the 892nd time overall.

• Carolina is 10th in KenPom’s overall rankings – including 11th in offensive efficiency and 36th in defensive efficiency. Notre Dame is 37th overall in KenPom – 33rd in offense and 60th in defense.

• Carolina’s KenPom offensive efficiency of 120.0 is its third highest in the last eight years, trailing only 2015-16 (124.1) and 2016-17 (120.7).

• Carolina is No. 6 in the NCAA’s RPI (as of 2/7). UNC’s Carolina’s opponents have an average RPI of 82, which is the fourth highest in the country, and its strength of schedule is ranked the third-most difficult in the nation. The Tar Heels’ non-conference strength of schedule is the 10th best.

• Carolina’s first 26 opponents average the seventh-best offensive efficiency and the third-best defensive efficiency in the nation. Carolina, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt are the only teams whose opponents rank in the top 10 in the country in efficiency on both ends of the court.

• Joel Berry II is one of 10 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award (this is the second year in a row Berry is a finalist). Three Tar Heels have won the Bob Cousy Award, given to the top point guard in the nation – Raymond Felton in 2005, Ty Lawson in 2009 and Kendall Marshall in 2012.

• Berry passed four former Tar Heels on the career scoring list with his 16 points at NC State to move into 22nd place with 1,630 points. Berry passed Eric Montross, Justin Jackson, Jawad Williams and Hubert Davis, and is six points behind Kenny Smith, who is 21st with 1,636.

• Roy Williams has won 199 ACC games (regular season and Tournament). A win over Notre Dame would make him the fourth to win 200 ACC games.

UNC-NOTRE DAME SERIES
• Carolina leads the series, 22-7. UNC has won the last four games against Notre Dame. The Tar Heels beat the Irish eight in a row from 1958-72.
• UNC is 6-3 against Notre Dame since the Irish joined the ACC, including 1-1 in the ACC Tournament (2015 championship game and 2016 semifinal) and 1-0 in the NCAA Tournament (2016 East Regional final).
• The Tar Heels are 4-1 at home against the Irish. That includes a 3-1 record in Chapel Hill (all at the Smith Center) and 1-0 in Greensboro (the 2017 game was postponed a day and moved to Greensboro due to a water crisis in Chapel Hill, but the game is officially designated a UNC home game).
• Roy Williams is 7-3 against Notre Dame, all as UNC’s head coach.

LAST SIX GAMES
• Carolina has won its last three games (against Pitt, Duke and NC State), which followed a three-game losing streak (against Virginia Tech, NC State and Clemson). In those six games –

Carolina ...
• shot 48.6 percent from the floor in the wins and 47.2 in the losses
• shot 36.4 from 3FG in the wins and 32.4 in the losses
• had a rebound margin of plus 42 (14.0 per game) in the wins and plus 17 (5.7 per game) in the losses
• had 22 more offensive rebounds in the wins (7.3) and was even in the losses
• committed 32 turnovers in the wins (19 in one game) and 38 in the losses
• had a 55-22 advantage in second-chance points in the wins and was out-scored 53-29 in the losses
• had a 43-22 advantage in points off turnovers in the wins and was out-scored 53-29 in the losses
• had a 42-22 advantage in fastbreak points in the wins and a 16-15 edge in the losses

The opponents...
• shot 38.2 percent from three-point range in UNC’s wins and 46.7 percent in the losses
• scored 33.6 percent of their points from three-point range in UNC’s wins and 49.0 percent from three in the three wins over UNC

NOTABLE...
• Joel Berry II moved into 22nd place in UNC career scoring with his 16 points in the win at NC State. Berry has scored 1,630 points, moving ahead of Eric Montross, Jawad Williams, Justin Jackson and Hubert Davis on Saturday, and stands seven points from passing Kenny Smith for 21st place.

• Berry is second all-time at UNC in three-pointers with 236. Berry has made 62 threes in 24 games this year, the fourth most per game (2.58) ever by a Tar Heel.

• Berry has attempted 635 three-pointers, second most by a Tar Heel (Paige 798).

• Berry went 1 for 1 from the line in Raleigh. He leads the ACC in free throw shooting this year at 89.2 percent, second highest in UNC history. Shammond Williams set the record at 91.1 percent in 1997-98, which was also the last time a Tar Heel led the ACC in free throw percentage.

SINGLE-SEASON FREE THROW PERCENTAGE
.911 – Shammond Williams, 1997-98
.892 – Joel Berry II, 2017-18 (83 of 93)
.878 – Jeff Lebo, 1987-88
.877 – Marcus Paige, 2013-14
.876 – Steve Hale, 1984-85
.871 – Darrell Elston, 1973-74
.868 – York Larese, 1959-60
.867 – Joel Berry II, 2015-16

• Luke Maye (18.7) and Joel Berry II (17.4) lead Carolina in scoring. The last time two Tar Heels averaged 17 points or more in the same season was 1983-84, when Michael Jordan (19.6) and Sam Perkins (17.6) were UNC’s top scoring duo.
• Maye is on pace to become the sixth Tar Heel to average a double-double in the last 40 years with Brice Johnson (2016), John Henson (2011), Tyler Hansbrough (2008), Sean May (2005) and Antawn Jamison (1998).
• The Tar Heels lead the country in rebounds per game (43.3) and rebound margin (11.7).

REBOUNDS PER GAME
43.3 – North Carolina
42.6 – Duke
42.0 – Wichita State
41.8 – Texas A&M
41.8 – Bethune-Cookman

REBOUND MARGIN
11.7 – North Carolina
10.8 – Wichita State
10.1 – Michigan State
9.5 – Duke
9.3 – Gonzaga

• Carolina has had a plus-10 or more rebound margin four previous times in its history – three of those four seasons have come in the Roy Williams era (2007-08, 2011-12 and 2016-17 under Williams and the undefeated season in 1956-57).

• Roy Williams’ teams have finished in the top 10 nationally in rebound margin in 14 of his previous 29 seasons as a head coach, including ninth, ninth and first in the last three seasons.

• Carolina is third in the country in rebounding its own missed shots. The Tar Heels grab 38.7 percent of their own missed shots.

• Carolina has finished first, third and fifth in the country in offensive rebounding percentage in the previous three seasons.

OFFENSIVE REBOUNDING PERCENTAGE
.406 – Duke
.390 – Cincinnati
.383 – North Carolina
.369 – West Virginia
.363 – Loyola Marymount

• Carolina is 28th in the country in protecting its defensive backboards. The Tar Heels are rebounding 75.6 percent of the opponents’ missed field goals and free throws.
• Luke Maye has led UNC in both scoring and rebounding 10 times this season, including Saturday at NC State when he scored a career high 33 points and had 17 rebounds. UNC is 9-1 when Maye leads in both categories (the lone loss at Virginia Tech).
• Maye leads UNC in blocked shots with 32. At 6-8, Maye would the shortest Tar Heel to lead the team in blocks since Danny Green (6-5) in 2006. Maye has blocked nine shots in the last four games.

• Carolina is attempting 34.0 percent of its field goals from three-point range. That is the highest percentage in the Roy Williams era. The previous high was 31.7 percent in 2005- 06.
• This is the fifth time in the last 15 seasons UNC attempted at least 30 percent of its field goals from three-point distance. UNC attempted 39.9 percent from beyond the arc under head coach Matt Doherty in 2002-03.
• The opponents have made 10 or more three-pointers in 17 of 26 games, including nine of 13 in ACC play (neither Duke nor NC State made 10 threes in the last two games). UNC is 12-5 when the opponents make 10 or more threes. The opponents have made 136 threes in league play; no other team has allowed that many.


Notre Dame at UNC
Monday, Feb. 12, 2018
7 p.m.
Dean E. Smith Center
Chapel Hill, N.C.
TV: ESPN (Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas, Allison Williams)
Radio: Tar Heel Sports Network (Jones Angell, Eric Montross)
Satellite Radio: Sirius/XM 83 (Drew Bontadelli, Mike Wozniak)
 
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