March 17, 2008

North Carolina NCAA Tournament Notes

• Carolina enters the 2008 NCAA Tournament with a 32-2 record. That is the most wins ever by the Tar Heels prior to the NCAA Tournament. The previous mark was 30 in 1997-98. Carolina went 4-1 in the Tournament that year to finish with a 34-4 record. The school record for wins in a season is 34 (1992-93 and 1997-98).

• Carolina has already won the ACC regular-season title and the ACC Tournament championship. This is the 10th time the Tar Heels have won both the regular-season and tournament titles (1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1979, 1982, 2007 and 2008).

• Carolina has won 26 regular-season ACC championships and 17 ACC Tournament titles. Both are ACC records.

• Tyler Hansbrough set a single-season record by winning his eighth player of the week award when he was named Most Valuable Player of the 2008 ACC Tournament. Hansbrough's eight player of the week awards breaks the previous record of seven which was held by UNC's Antawn Jamison in 1997-98 and Duke's JJ Redick in 2005-06. Hansbrough has nine career player of the week awards - that ties him for fourth-most alltime with NC State's David Thompson. Jamison and Redick hold the career mark with 12 and Wake Forest's Tim Duncan is third with 11.

• Wayne Ellington scored 24 points in the ACC championship game against Clemson. He now has 1,012 points and is the 60th player in UNC history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. That is an NCAA record. The 24 points were the most by a Tar Heel in an ACC title game since Jerry Stackhouse had 24 in an overtime loss to Wake Forest in 1995.

• Carolina is the first school to win back-to-back ACC regular-season and tournament championships since Duke did it three years in a row from 1999-2001. This is the sixth time in ACC history a school has won both the regular season and tournament championships in at least two consecutive seasons (each of the Triangle schools has done it twice). They include UNC in 2007-08, Duke in 1999-2001, NC State in 1973-74, UNC in 1967-69, Duke in 1963-64 and NC State in 1955-56.

• Tyler Hansbrough is 17th different player to win ACC Player of the Year and ACC Tournament MVP honors in the same season. He is the fourth Tar Heel to accomplish that feat - Lennie Rosenbluth in 1957, Larry Miller in 1967 and 1968 and Antawn Jamison in 1998.

• Tyler Hansbrough and Wayne Ellington were named first-team All-ACC Tournament for the second time in their careers (Hansbrough also in 2006, Ellington also in 2007). Marcus Ginyard made the all-tourney team for the first time in his career.

• Hansbrough is the 17th Tar Heel to win ACC Tournament MVP honors. Brandan Wright was the 2007 recipient.

• Carolina is making its 40th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, tied for second alltime behind Kentucky (49) and with UCLA (40).

• Carolina has a record of 92-38 in NCAA Tournament play. That is the second-most games (130, behind Kentucky's 141), second-most wins (Kentucky 98) and fourth-highest winning percentage (.708, behind Duke's .752 and UCLA's .736).

• Carolina is fourth with four NCAA championships (UCLA 11, Kentucky 7, Indiana 5). The Tar Heels have won NCAA titles in 1957, 1982, 1993 and 2005.

• Carolina and UCLA are tied for most Final Four appearances with 16. Carolina has played in the Final Four in 1946, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2005.

• Since 1975, Carolina has reached the Sweet 16 in 21 seasons, more than any school in the country (Kentucky is second with 20, Duke third with 19).

• This is the 12th time Carolina has been seeded No. 1, more than any other school (Duke 10, Kentucky 9, Kansas 8).

• This is the 23rd time in 40 seasons the Tar Heels are playing in the East Regional.

• Carolina is 21-1 in NCAA Tournament games played in the state of North Carolina. That includes a 7-0 record in Charlotte, 3-0 in Greensboro, 5-1 in Raleigh and 6-0 in Winston-Salem.

• Carolina's 5-1 record in Raleigh includes wins over St. Bonaventure and Davidson in 1968, a win over Purdue in 1977, wins over Alabama and Villanova in 1982 and a loss to Penn in 1979. All six previous games were played in Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of NC State.

• Carolina has never played either Coppin State or Mount St. Mary's. The Tar Heels are 3-3 alltime against Arkansas and 5-7 against Indiana. In NCAA Tournament play, the Tar Heels are 1-2 against the Razorbacks (win in 1993 East Regional semifinals in East Rutherford, N.J., a loss in 1990 Midwest Regional semifinals in Dallas and a loss in the 1995 Final Four semifinals in Seattle). UNC is 0-2 against the Hoosiers in NCAA play (1981 championship game in Philadelphia and a 1984 East Regional semifinal in Atlanta).

• This is the eighth time in 20 seasons as a head coach that Roy Williams led his team to a No. 1 seed. That is the second-most in NCAA history behind Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (10). Williams has led the Tar Heels to a top seed in three of his five seasons (2005, 2007 and 2008).

• Roy Williams is making his 19th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, third-most in NCAA history (Dean Smith and Lute Olson are tied with 23). Williams is the only coach in history to win a game in 18 consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

• Williams has a 45-17 record in NCAA Tournament play. He is tied with Bob Knight for fifth alltime in wins (Krzyzewski 68, Smith 65, John Wooden 47, Olson 46).

• Williams has led teams at Kansas and UNC to five Final Fours as a head coach, tying him for fifth place in that category (Wooden 12, Smith 11, Krzyzewski 10, Denny Crum 6, Adolph Rupp 6, Williams 5, Rick Pitino, Knight, Guy Lewis and Olson also with 5).