• The Tar Heels are fifteenth within the NET.
• Sport time is 5 p.m. on ESPN (Kevin Brown, Cory Alexander).
• The Sixteenth-ranked Tar Heels defeated No. 18 Kentucky, 67-64, on December 2 in Lexington. Freshman level guard Derek Dixon hit a 3 with 53 seconds to play, then broke a 64-64 tie with a driving layup with 16.7 seconds left for the win.
• It was the primary time a Tar Heel made a profitable shot with fewer than 20 seconds to play since Pete Nance with 17.7 seconds left at Syracuse in 2023.
• Henri Veesaar (17 factors, 10 rebounds) and Caleb Wilson (15 factors, 12 boards and 6 assists) led the Tar Heels to their first win in Rupp Area for the reason that 2007-08 season.
• It was UNC’s fourth highway win over a ranked workforce beneath head coach Hubert Davis (additionally at Duke in 2022 and 2024 and at Clemson in 2024).
• The Tar Heels have crushed Kansas and Kentucky in the identical season for the primary time since 1981-82.
• UNC started the season with 5 straight house wins earlier than enjoying the following thrice on the highway, the place they cut up a pair of video games in Fort Myers, Fla., beating St. Bonaventure and shedding to Michigan State, after which edged Kentucky in Lexington within the ACC-SEC Problem.
• The Hoyas additionally started the season 5-0 earlier than shedding consecutive begins in opposition to Dayton and Miami. Georgetown is coming off a 90-81 house win over UMBC on Wednesday.
• That is Georgetown’s third ACC sport of the season. The Hoyas beat Clemson at house on November 15.
• The Georgetown sport is the fourth in a four-game stretch the place Carolina’s opponents are a mixed 27-6 (St. Bonaventure 8-1, Michigan State 8-0, Kentucky 5-3 and Georgetown 6-2).
• Carolina has received 2,402 video games. UNC joined Kentucky and Kansas as the one three packages in school basketball historical past with 2,400 victories with its win over Navy on November 18.
• The Tar Heels shall be sporting retro uniforms on Sunday from the early Eighties.
CAROLINA-GEORGETOWN
• The Tar Heels are 4-5 all-time in opposition to the Hoyas. Georgetown received the primary two video games in 1920 and 1921 and the newest pair in 2003 and 2007.
• Sunday’s sport is the primary between UNC and Georgetown since 3/25/2007, a 96-84 additional time win by the Hoyas within the NCAA East Area remaining within the Meadowlands. The Tar Heels led by 10 with six minutes to play earlier than the Hoyas rallied behind Jeff Inexperienced’s 22 factors and middle Roy Hibbert’s 13 factors, 11 rebounds and 6 blocks. Tyler Hansbrough led Carolina with 26 factors.
• That is the primary UNC-Georgetown sport in Chapel Hill for the reason that third spherical of the 2003 NIT, a 79-74 Georgetown win.
• Carolina’s most up-to-date win within the collection got here on 11/23/1999, when Ed Cota and Brendan Haywood each scored 20 factors in an 85-79 win in Maui.
• On 3/29/1982, Carolina defeated the Hoyas, 63-62, in New Orleans within the NCAA championship sport, giving Dean Smith the primary of two nationwide championships.
• James Worthy scored 28 factors within the title sport to earn Most Excellent Participant honors within the 1982 Closing 4.
• Michael Jordan hit the game-winning shot, launching a jumper from the left wing with 17 seconds to play.
FRONTCOURT POWER
• Seven-foot junior middle Henri Veesaar and 6-10 freshman ahead Caleb Wilson are main the Tar Heels in quite a few statistical classes on each ends of the ground.
• The frontcourt duo has mixed for 35.3 factors and 18.6 rebounds per sport. They’ve mixed for 21 blocked photographs, 33 assists and are 70 for 97 from the free throw line.
• Wilson is averaging 19.3 factors and 10.1 rebounds, and Veesaar is averaging 16.0 factors and eight.5 rebounds.
• The final time two Tar Heels averaged no less than 16 factors and eight rebounds was in 1994-95 (Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace).
• Both Veesaar or Wilson has led the workforce in scoring and rebounding in seven of the primary eight video games.
NO ORDINARY ROOKIE
• Caleb Wilson could also be a freshman, however he’s averaging 19.3 factors, 10.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.3 blocks whereas taking pictures 52.5% from the ground and 75% from the free throw line.
• He leads the Tar Heels in scoring, rebounding, offensive rebounds, steals and free throws (made and tried).
• Tyler Hansbrough (in 2005-06) is the one Tar Heel freshman to steer the workforce in each scoring and rebounding.
• Joseph Forte (16.7 ppg in 1999-2000), Rashad McCants (17.0 in 2002-03), Hansbrough (18.9 in 2005-06), Harrison Barnes (co-leader at 15.7 in 2010-11) and Cole Anthony (18.5 in 2019-20) are the freshmen who’ve led UNC in scoring.
• Hansbrough (7.8 rpg in 2005-06), Antawn Jamison (9.7 in 1995-96) and J.R. Reid (7.4 in 1986-87) are the freshmen who’ve led UNC in rebounding.
• Eighteen Tar Heels have averaged a double-double in factors and rebounds in a season, however none of them had been a freshman.
• Wilson leads the nation with 28 dunks.
• He has scored in double figures in all eight video games and has 5 double-doubles, In reality, together with his 12-rebound sport at Kentucky, he has recorded 12 or extra rebounds 5 occasions.
• The Atlanta native has the third-longest streak of double-figure scoring video games by a freshman to start a season. Solely Rashad McCants (20 in 2002-03) and Brandan Wright (18 in 2006-07) have extra.
• Wilson is twenty first within the nation in rebounds per sport (10.1), second-most amongst freshmen behind New Mexico’s Tomislav Buljan’s 11.1 per sport.
• He set a UNC freshman document with 4 consecutive double-doubles in opposition to Radford, NC Central, Navy and St. Bonaventure. Armando Bacot (twice), Antawn Jamison and Mike O’Koren had been the one Tar Heel freshmen with three in a row.
• He leads the ACC and is eighth within the nation in double-doubles (5).
• In opposition to Navy, he turned the primary Tar Heel ever to attain 23 factors, seize 12 rebounds, make three blocks and 4 steals in any sport.
• He netted 22 factors vs. UCA and 24 vs. Kansas to change into the primary Tar Heel freshman ever to attain greater than 20 factors in his first two video games.
• Wilson compiled a game-high 24 factors with seven rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals within the win over Kansas. He turned simply the second Tar Heel freshman (with Coby White in opposition to Virginia Tech in 2018-19) and the fourth Tar Heel no matter class (with Walter Davis and Mike O’Koren) to have no less than 24 factors, seven rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals in a sport.
• His 22 factors within the opener vs. Central Arkansas had been the fourth-most by a Tar Heel freshman in his debut since first-year gamers turned eligible in 1972-73.
VEESAAR’S IMPACT
• Crimson-shirt junior middle Henri Veesaar, a switch from Arizona, leads the workforce in area objective taking pictures (64.9%) and blocks (11) and is second in scoring (16.0) and rebounding (8.5).
• The Estonia native scored a game-high 17 factors within the win at Kentucky and added 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double, the primary 4 of his school profession. He’s third within the ACC and 14th nationally in double-doubles.
• Veesaar leads the ACC and is 18th within the nation in area objective taking pictures (64.9%).
• Veesaar has set quite a few profession bests in his first eight video games as a Tar Heel, together with factors (24 vs. St. Bonaventure), rebounds (13 vs. St. Bonaventure) and blocks (5 vs. NC Central).
• He has scored 20 or extra factors twice – 24 vs. the Bonnies and 20 factors vs. Kansas. He had one 20-point sport in his first two seasons at Arizona.
• Veesaar leads UNC in plus/minus at plus 126.
BY THE NUMBERS
• The Tar Heels are fifteenth within the nation in area objective proportion protection, holding their eight opponents to a mixed 37.3% from the ground. They’ve held 4 opponents beneath 35%.
• UNC is 49-4 in 5 seasons beneath head coach Davis when holding opponents beneath 40% from the ground.
• The Tar Heel protection is third within the nation in two-point area objective proportion protection (40.4%) and eighth in efficient area objective proportion (42.5%).
• Carolina is trying 24.9 three-pointers per sport, which might break the earlier college document for makes an attempt per sport, which was 23.9 in 2018-19, when the Tar Heel lineup included Cameron Johnson, Coby White, Kenny Williams and Luke Maye.
• The Tar Heels tried 28.8 three-pointers of their first 4 video games this season and 21.0 within the final 4.
• Carolina has shot 50% or increased from the ground in 4 of the primary eight video games. The Tar Heels are 39-1 beneath Davis once they make no less than 50% from the ground.
• Michigan State is the one workforce that has outrebounded Carolina within the first eight video games. The Tar Heels are 96-24 beneath Davis once they outrebound their opponents.
• Freshman level guard Derek Dixon scored 24 of UNC’s 43 bench factors over the past 4 video games. That features the 9 factors he scored within the win at Kentucky. The Tar Heels averaged 24.2 bench factors of their first 4 video games this season and 10.8 over the past 4.
AP RANKING
• For the second week in a row Carolina is ranked Sixteenth within the Related Press ballot.
• UNC was ranked twenty fifth within the preseason ballot after which moved up seven spots within the November 10 ballot. That was the most important bounce from the preseason ballot by the Tar Heels for the reason that AP started rating 25 groups within the 1989-90 season.
• In 1984-85, when the AP ranked 20 groups, the Tar Heels went from unranked to nineteenth after the primary week of the common season.
• Carolina is 2-1 in opposition to ranked groups this season (with wins over Kansas and Kentucky and the loss to now Seventh-ranked Michigan State).
EARLY ACCOLADES
• Freshman ahead Caleb Wilson was one in every of 5 gamers named Nationwide Participant of the Week by the USBWA for the week of November 3-9.
• Wilson additionally was each the Co-ACC Participant and Rookie of the Week following his performances within the wins over Central Arkansas and Kansas.
• Wilson is the primary Tar Heel freshman to additionally win ACC Participant-of-the-Week honors since Cole Anthony in 2019-20.
• Wilson turned the eighth Tar Heel to win ACC Participant-of-the-Week honors as a freshman, becoming a member of Jerry Stackhouse (1994), Antawn Jamison (1996), Rashad McCants (2003), Tyler Hansbrough (2006), Brandan Wright (2007), Coby White (2019) and Anthony.
PROBABLE STARTERS VS. GEORGETOWN
0 – Kyan Evans, Junior, Guard
44 – Luka Bogavac, Junior, Guard
8 – Caleb Wilson, Freshman, Ahead
13 – Henri Veesaar, R-Junior, Heart
15 – Jarin Stevenson, Junior, Ahead
• Not one of the possible starters had been Tar Heels final season.
• Seth Trimble, who’s out with an injured left arm, began 18 of UNC’s 37 video games final season. Even with Trimble’s return, that is the primary season during which UNC didn’t return a participant who began no less than half the video games within the earlier season since 2005-06, when the Tar Heels changed all 5 starters from a nationwide championship workforce.
• Carolina’s possible starters have made a mixed 106 school begins. That features 44 by Evans, 35 by Stevenson, 13 by Veesaar, eight by Wilson and 6 by Bogavac.
PRESEASON ALL-ACC, POLL
• The Tar Heels had been picked to complete third within the 18-team Atlantic Coast Convention by the media on the ACC’s preseason media day in Charlotte.
• Caleb Wilson was voted to the league’s preseason All-ACC second workforce and the All-Freshman workforce.
• UNC was picked No. 25 within the nation within the Related Press preseason ballot.
• That is the 69th completely different season within the 78-year historical past of the AP ballot the Tar Heels have been ranked at any level within the AP ballot.
PRESEASON RECOGNITION
• The Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame included three Tar Heels on the preseason watch lists for its 5 positional awards.
• Seth Trimble is a candidate for the Jerry West Taking pictures Guard Award listing, Caleb Wilson for the Karl Malone Energy Ahead Award and Henri Veesaar for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Heart Award.
• Tar Heels have received 4 Corridor of Fame positional awards – three Bob Cousy Level Guard Awards (Raymond Felton in 2005, Ty Lawson in 2009 and Kendall Marshall in 2012) and one Jerry West Award (RJ Davis in 2024).
• Wilson can be on the preseason watch lists for the Naismith and Oscar Robertson (USBWA) Trophies.
HUBERT DAVIS: YEAR FIVE
• The 2025-26 season is Hubert Davis‘ fifth as head coach on the College of North Carolina and his 14th on the teaching employees at his alma mater. He’s the one Tar Heel head coach to win 20 or extra video games in every of his first 4 seasons.
• Davis, 55 (turns 56 on Could 17, 2026), has received Nationwide and ACC Coach-of-the-Yr honors, led the Tar Heels to a nationwide title sport look, 108 wins, a 56-24 document and 24 highway wins in ACC regular-season play, a regular-season ACC title and a No. 1 seed within the NCAA Event. Just one different workforce has received extra ACC video games within the final 4 years.
• Two of his gamers – RJ Davis and Armando Bacot – rank second and third, respectively, in all-time UNC scoring, set quite a few information and earned nationwide and All-ACC awards.
• Carolina received its a centesimal sport beneath Davis within the 2025 ACC Event, making him the third-fastest coach in UNC historical past and the sixth-fastest in ACC historical past to win 100 video games. Solely Duke’s Vic Bubas, UNC’s Roy Williams and Frank McGuire, Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser and Maryland’s Lefty Driesell reached 100 wins in fewer video games than Davis (who received his a centesimal in 143 video games).
• Over the earlier 4 seasons, UNC had the Tenth-most wins amongst groups within the ACC, Large East, Large Ten, Large 12 and SEC.
• Below Davis, Carolina is 8-3 in NCAA Event play, together with wins in opposition to three nationwide championship-winning coaches (Baylor’s Scott Drew, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo) and three different coaches who’ve taken groups to the Closing 4 (Marquette’s Shaka Sensible, UCLA’s Mick Cronin and San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher).
• Davis has led the Tar Heels to 16 wins over nationally-ranked opponents, together with eight over top-10 groups (No. 4 Duke, No. 4 Baylor and No. 9 Duke in 2022; No. 6 Virginia in 2023; and No. 10 Tennessee, No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 7 Duke and No. 9 Duke in 2024).
2025-26 SCHEDULE NOTES
• In ACC play, the Tar Heels play host to Florida State (Dec. 30), Wake Forest (Jan. 10), Notre Dame (Jan. 21), Syracuse (Feb. 2), Duke (Feb. 7), Pitt (Feb. 14), Louisville (Feb. 23), Virginia Tech (Feb. 28) and Clemson (March 3).
• Carolina performs at SMU (Jan. 3), Stanford (Jan.14), Cal (Jan. 17), Virginia (Jan. 24), Georgia Tech (Jan. 31), Miami (Feb. 10), NC State (Feb. 17), Syracuse (Feb. 21) and Duke (March 7).
• UNC isn’t scheduled to play Boston Faculty.
• This can mark the primary season since 1919 the Tar Heels will not be enjoying NC State in Chapel Hill.
• The Tar Heels performed Kansas to Chapel Hill for the primary time ever. Final yr, the Jayhawks defeated UNC in Lawrence. The November 7 sport was simply the third on-campus matchup in 14 video games between the Tar Heels and KU.
• The Tar Heels are making their first journeys as ACC opponents to SMU, Stanford and Cal. UNC is 1-0 all-time in opposition to the Mustangs in Dallas (12/30/1986), 2-0 vs. the Cardinal in Maples Pavilion (12/3/1983 and 11/20/2017) and 1-0 vs. the Bears in Haas Pavilion (12/22/1972, when its was Harmon Fitness center).
• UNC performs Ohio State in Atlanta on December 20 within the CBS Sports activities Basic. The Tar Heels are 7-4 within the annual occasion, together with 3-0 vs. the Buckeyes.
NEARING 500 WINS IN THE SMITH CENTER
• That is the forty first season the Tar Heels are enjoying their house video games within the Dean E. Smith Heart.
• Carolina is six wins shy of 500 with an total document (not counting preseason or exhibition video games) of 494-90.
• The Tar Heels are 237-19 within the Smith Heart in opposition to non-conference opponents.
• The Tar Heels have performed 46% of their house video games all-time within the Smith Heart (584 of 1,268).
• Central Arkansas, Kansas, Navy and USC Upstate every shall be enjoying within the Smith Heart for the primary time.
• Navy was the 153rd completely different opponent to play a regular-season or NIT sport within the Smith Heart in opposition to the Tar Heels.
• Carolina has received 494 video games within the Smith Heart, 210 in Woollen Fitness center (1939-65), 170 in Carmichael Auditorium (1965-86, 2010), 130 within the Indoor Athletic Courtroom (1924-38) and 63 in Bynum Fitness center (1911-23).
TAR HEELS IN THE NBA
• Eleven former Tar Heels had been on NBA Opening Day rosters, together with Cole Anthony (Milwaukee), Harrison Barnes (San Antonio), Tony Bradley (Indiana), Harrison Ingram (San Antonio), Cameron Johnson (Denver), Walker Kessler (Utah), Caleb Love (Portland), Pete Nance (Milwaukee), rookie Drake Powell (Brooklyn), Day’Ron Sharpe (Brooklyn) and Coby White (Chicago).
• Powell averaged 7.4 factors as a freshman final season and was chosen by Atlanta with the twenty second choose within the 2025 NBA Draft. His rights had been traded the night time of the Draft to the Brooklyn Nets. Powell was the fifty fifth Tar Heel chosen all-time within the first spherical.
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