MBB Welcomes Yellow Jackets To Smith Center Saturday

GAME 10: GEORGIA TECH
• Carolina returns to the Dean E. Smith Center for the first time in nearly three weeks when the Tar Heels play host to Georgia Tech on Saturday, Dec. 10.
• Tip time is 3:15 p.m. on ESPN.
• The Tar Heels are 5-4. UNC won its first five games but lost the last four, including two games in the Phil Knight Invitational and road games at Indiana and Virginia Tech.
• Georgia Tech is 6-3 and is playing its first ACC game of the season. The Yellow Jackets have won two in a row, including a 79-77 win over Georgia on December 6.
• Carolina began ACC play last Sunday in Blacksburg, Va., with an 80-72 loss to the Hokies. The Tar Heels were minus senior forward/center Armando Bacot and sophomore guard D’Marco Dunn.
• Bacot suffered a right shoulder contusion in the first half of the loss at Indiana on November 30, while Dunn broke a bone in his left hand in practice the afternoon before the game at Virginia Tech. Dunn is out for several weeks.
• Carolina’s most recent win was an 89-81 triumph over Portland on Thanksgiving morning in the opening round of the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Ore.
• Carolina has lost four straight games for the first time since it dropped seven straight ACC games in February 2020.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

• Carolina has played the 16th-most difficult schedule in the nation (per KenPom) among all teams and the third-most difficult among Power 5 conference teams.

• As of December 8 it has been the third-most difficult slate of games among teams in the Power 5 conferences behind only Michigan State and Oregon.

• The four teams that have defeated UNC (Iowa State, Alabama, Indiana and Virginia Tech) were a combined 31-4 through December 5.

• Carolina has three non-conference games left in the regular season – a home game vs. The Citadel on December 13, the CBS Sports Classic in New York vs. Ohio State on December 17 and the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte vs. Michigan on December 21.

ACC HOME OPENER

• This is the 70th season of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball.

• The Tar Heels have won 32 regular-season ACC championships and 18 ACC Tournament championships.

• Carolina is 730-302 in regular-season ACC play. The 730 wins are the most in ACC history.

• The Tar Heels are 233-65 all-time in the Smith Center in ACC play.

• UNC has won its…