With several days between the conclusion of the regular season and start of the ACC Tournament for top seed North Carolina is a good time to grind out a bunch of numbers reflecting the Tar Heels play of late.
UNC finished the regular season 25-6 overall and 17-3 in the ACC. Plus, Carolina takes a six-game win streak into the postseason, which for it begins Thursday in Washington, DC, against the winner between Florida State and Virginia Tech, which meet Wednesday.
The Heels also moved up to No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25 this week, and graduate guard Cormac Ryan was named ACC Player of the week after scoring 14 points in a win over Notre Dame, and a career-high 31 in the victory at Duke on Saturday night.
Here are some trends, streak comparisons, and more:
*In UNC’s first ten ACC games, RJ Davis led the team in scoring eight times while tying Armando Bacot once. Bacot was the leading scorer in the other game. In the last ten games, however, Davis has led UNC in scoring only four times, with Bacot doing it three times, Cormac Ryan twice, and Harrison Ingram once.
*Two Tar Heels have achieved career-highs in scoring over the last four games, with RJ Davis pouring in 42 points in a win over Miami two weeks ago, and Cormac Ryan’s 31 points in the win at Duke. Harrison Ingram had his high game as a Tar Heel with 22 points three games ago against NC State.
Ingram was three points from setting a career-high, passing his 24-point performance in a win at Stanford over Mississippi State during his sophomore season.
*Carolina was plus-11 on the glass against Duke on Saturday night, its second-largest rebound margin since the first meeting with the Blue Devils. That night, on Feb. 3, UNC was plus-1 on the boards versus the Blue Devils, so they increased the margin by 10 in the second game.
The only game since in which the Heels had a greater rebound margin was in the home win over Virginia Tech, when the Heels were plus-12.
*Elliot Cadeau’s inconsistent play has continued right through the end of the regular season, at least with respect to his raw stats.
Over the last two games, wins over Notre Dame and Duke, Cadeau handed out three assists and turned over the ball six times. In the two games prior, home wins over Miami and NC State, he had12 assists against four turnovers.
In the last eight games, he’s had two 5-turnover performances and another with 4. But he’s also had five or more assists in five games, with totals of 9,8, 7, 6, and 5 in those contests.
*Cormac Ryan has led UNC in scoring in its last two road games, getting 18 at Virginia and 31 at Duke. Ryan has scored 15 or more points in eight games, but most are against many of the biggest-name programs the Heels have faced:
Northern Iowa 15 points, Villanova 18, Tennessee 15, Kentucky 20, at Syracuse 18, Virginia Tech 16, at Virginia 18, at Duke 31.
*In Carolina’s last three road games, at Syracuse, Virginia and Duke, Ryan is averaging 22.3 points having shot 20-for-38 (52.6%) from the field, including 16-for-28 (57.1%) from 3-point range.
*With a slight uptick, Armando Bacot would be on pace to set a new single-season record for blocked shots. His previous high is 65 two seasons ago, and he currently has 49 in 31 games. He’s averaging 1.6 per game, and at that rate would finish the season with 64 if the Tar Heels playing in the ACC and NCAA championship games.
Bacot blocked 33 shots in 32 games last season.
*RJ Davis has dished out five or more assists in ten games this season. He’s averaging 5.7 assists in those games, while only 2.5 in the 21 games in which he hasn’t handed out five or more assists. As for scoring?
Davis is averaging 21.1 points in the ten games in which he has five or more assists, and is averaging 20.0 in the games in which he does not register at least five dishes.
*The Tar Heels are 9-0 when one of the current reserves scores at least 10 points in a game. Three times, two reserves have gone for 10 or more points (UC Riverside, Charleston Southern, home against Syracuse), and just one sub has hit double figures in the other seven noted games. They are neutral site against Northern Iowa, neutral site against Arkansas, at Pitt, home against Louisville, Duke at home and Notre Dame.
*UNC now has 33 regular season ACC titles: 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2024
*Carolina’s all-time record in the ACC Tournament is 106-51, which is 67.5%.
The Tar Heels’ ACC Tournament championships (18): 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008, 2016
*If RJ Davis is named ACC Player of the Year as expected, it will be the 16th time a Tar Heel has received the honor:
Lennie Rosenbluth 1957, Pete Brennan 1958, Lee Shaffer 1960, Billy Cunningham 1965, Larry Miller 1967-68, Mitch Kupchak 1976, Phil Ford 1978, Michael Jordan 1984, Antawn Jamison 1998, Joseph Forte co-winner 2001, Tyler Hansbrough 2008, Ty Lawson 2009, Tyler Zeller 2012, Justin Jackson 2017
