GAME INFO:
March 25, 2022
9:39pmTip Off
Wells Fargo Center (Capacity: 20,155)
Philadelphia, PA
TV: CBS
UNC is given a 28.4% chance to win by ESPN
Records:
#8 UNC: 26-9 (15-5 in ACC)
#4 UCLA: 27-7 (15-5 in PAC 12)
Last Time Out:
#8 UNC: Beat Baylor 93-86 in OT to advance to the sweet 16
#4 UCLA: Beat Saint Mary’s 72-56 to advance to the sweet 16
CAROLINA IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT:
• This is Carolina's 52nd appearance in the NCAA Tournament, which is the second most all-time (Kentucky 59).
• The Tar Heels are 128-48 in the NCAA Tournament.
• Carolina's six NCAA Tournament championships are the third most all-time.
• The Tar Heels won NCAA titles in 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2017.
• Carolina's 20 Final Fours are the most in NCAA Tournament history.
• The Tar Heels are the only team to play in the Final Four in each of the last eight decades: 1946, 1957, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016 and 2017.
• Carolina has played in the second-most NCAA Tournament games (176), has the second-most wins (128) and second-highest winning percentage (.727).
• Carolina is playing in the regional semifinals for the 37th time. The Tar Heels are 27-9 in regional semifinals (including 1941 and 1946 when the regional semifinals were the round of eight).
• Carolina is one of three universities whose men's and women's basketball teams have both advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2022 (with Iowa State and Mchigan).
• Beginning in 1957, Carolina is 26-8 in the round of 16. That includes a 21-8 record beginning in 1975, when the NCAA coined the term Sweet 16. That was the first year every team had to win at least one game to reach the round of 16.
CAROLINA AS AN 8 SEED
• Carolina is a No. 8 seed for the second year in a row and the fifth time overall (1990, 2000, 2013, 2021, 2022).
• The Tar Heels are 9-4 as an eight seed, including 4-1 in the first round, 3-1 in the second round and 1-1 in the Sweet 16.
• In 1990, Carolina beat No. 9 SW Missouri State and No. 1 Oklahoma in Austin before losing to No. 4 Arkansas in Dallas.
• In 2000, Carolina advanced to the Final Four, the lowest seed in its NCAA-record 20 trips to the Final Four (seeding began in 1979; UNC has reached the Final Four 13 times since the field was seeded). The Tar Heels beat Missouri, top-seed and third-ranked Stanford, Tennessee and Tulsa to advance to the Final Four, where they lost to Florida.
TAR HEELS IN PHILLY
• Carolina is 14-6 in five different arenas in Philadelphia, including 2-0 in the Wells Fargo Center.
• In 2016, East Regional Most Outstanding Player Brice Johnson and Marcus Paige led the Tar Heels past Indiana and Notre Dame in the Wells Fargo Center to advance to the Final Four.
• Carolina also played games in Philadelphia in the Philadelphia Arena (1-0 in 1936-37), the Convention Hall (5-2 from 1937-38 to 1951-52), the Palestra (5-2 from 1947-48 to 2007-08) and the Spectrum (1-2 from 1980-81 to 1995-96).
• In 1981, the Tar Heels beat Virginia behind Al Wood's national semifinal record 39 points and lost to Indiana in the Spectrum in the national championship game.
• Twelve Tar Heels have played for the Philadelphia 76ers, including Naismith Basketball Hall of Famers Billy Cunningham, Bobby Jones and Bob McAdoo (father of current Tar Heel, Ryan McAdoo).
• Danny Green, one of four Tar Heels to win an NCAA and NBA championship, is a current member of the 76ers. Green is one of two players in NBA history (with LeBron James) to start for three different NBA championship franchises.
SERIES INFO:.
• Carolina is 10-3 against the Bruins, including wins in each of the last five games over the past 22 seasons and nine of 10.
• Carolina has the highest winning percentage (.769) against UCLA of any team that has played the Bruins 10 or more times.
• UCLA's last win over UNC was in 2000 in Chapel Hill.
• The Tar Heels are 1-1 against UCLA in the NCAA Tournament. In 1968, the Bruins defeated the Tar Heels, 78-55, in the national championship game in the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Lew Alcindor had 34 points and 16 rebounds and Lucius Allen had 11 points to lead UCLA, which overcame 26 turnovers. Larry Miller (14) and Charlie Scott (12) led UNC, which also committed 23 turnovers.
• In 1989, second-seed Carolina beat the No. 7 Bruins, 88-81, in Atlanta in the second round. Kevin Madden led five Tar Heels in double figures with 22 points and Steve Bucknall had 19 points and 11 assists. Senior Jeff Lebo, an assistant coach now for the Tar Heels, had a dozen points and four assists in his final collegiate victory. Freshman Hubert Davis did not score in five minutes.
• The teams played most recently on 12/21/2019 in Las Vegas, a 74-64 UNC win. Freshman Armando Bacot had a team-high 15 points and 12 rebounds, Carolina forced 22 turnovers and made 22 of 35 free throws in the victory.
Want more stats? Go to this link: https://goheels.com/news/2022/3/24/mens-basketball-tar-heels-to-meet-ucla-in-sweet-16-friday.aspx
Team Leaders
Points:
UNC: Bacot (16.4 PPG)
UCLA: J. Juzang (15.7 PPG)
Rebounds:
UNC: Bacot (12.5)
UCLA: J. Juzang (5.7)
Assists:
UNC: Davis (3.7)
UCLA: T. Campbell (4.2)
Baylor Notes:
RJ Davis had 30 points on 8-17 shooting, 5-10 from 3, 9-10 FT, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 TOs, 1 steal
Brady Manek had 26 points on 8-13 shooting, 4-8 from 3, 6-8 FT, 5 rebounds, 2 assists
Armando Bacot had 15 points on 4-10 shooting, 7-15 FT, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 TOs, 3 blocks, 1 steal
Caleb Love had 5 points on 1-6 shooting, 1-4 from 3, 2-2 FT, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 6 TOs, 1 block, 1 steal
Leaky black had 4 points on 2-3 shooting, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 TOs, 1 block, 1 steal
Dontrez Styles had 9 points on 4-7 shooting, 1-3 from 3, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 TOs, 2 steals
TEAM STATS:
49.1% FG (28-57)
44% 3 PT (11-25)
70.3% FT (26-37)
47 rebounds
22 assists
21 TOs
5 blocks
7 steals
17 points off turnovers
12 fast break points
13 bench points
Carolina is back in the Sweet Sixteen and they made the short flight to Philly on Wednesday night. The heels will face off against the Bruins of UCLA in the late game Friday night at Wells Fargo Arena (still looking for reasonably priced tickets btw). Carolina and UCLA were scheduled to play earlier in the year, but Carolina ended up playing Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic due to UCLA backing out due to Covid issues within the program. Well I guess CBS is going to finally get their matchup, just a lot later than they expected. This will be a better between two of college basketball’s blue blood programs.
I think we all know how Carolina got to Philly: defeated #9 Marquette 95-63 in the round of 64 and then knocked off defending national champs #1 Baylor 93-86 in OT in the round of 32. UCLA defeated #13 Akron 57-53 and then defeated #5 Saint Mary’s 72-56. Jaime Jaquez Jr’s health is the big story coming out of that second round game. He sprained his ankle in the second half and didn’t return to the game. He did return to the bench with an ice wrap around his ankle. Jaquez Jr had 15 points before his exit and looked very comfortable scoring in a variety of ways. I will get more into the details of those matchups and Jaquez’s health a little further down. Relevant stats for key players for those matchups are below:
NCAA Tournament So Far (Akron | Saint Mary’s)
Campell: 16 points, 3-6 from 3, 5 assists 2 TOs | 16 points, 4 assists, 1 TO
Jaquez: 15 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists | 15 points
Bernard: 10 points 2-6 from 3 | 14 points 3-5 from 3, 5-11 from 3 for tournament
Juzang: 9 points 3-11 shooting | 14 points, 6-11 shooting, 9-22 FG shooting for tournament
3 POINT STATS:
8-22 from 3 (Akron)
4-9 from 3 (Saint Mary’s)
12-31 (Total)
38.7% (Total)
Campbell and Bernard account for 8 of the 12 makes
Riley, Jaquez, Juzang, and Watson each have 1 make
The Bruins have had an up and down season. Carolina and UCLA actually have the same conference record. The Bruins have some good wins over Villanova, Gonzaga and Arizona (all teams that are still in the tournament). They were swept by Oregon and lost to Arizona State in triple OT. The breakdown is below:
SCHEDULE NOTES:
Beat Villanova 86-77
Lost to Gonzaga 63-83
Lost to Oregon twice (81-84 OT, 63-68)
Beat Arizona 75-59, Lost to Arizona 66-76 (each team won at home), lost to Arizona 76-84 in PAC 12 tourney
Lost to Arizona State 84-87 3OT
Lost to USC 64-67, beat USC 75-68 (each team won at home), beat USC 69-59 in PAC 12 tourney
UCLA returns the core of their final four team from last year. They have a ton of experience with only 2 underclassmen in the rotation (both off the bench). They will rotate 9 guys and the main rotation is below:
STARTERS:
C. Riley F (R-SR 6-9) (7)
J. Jaquez Jr. G (JR 6-7) (24)
J. Juzang G (JR 6-7) (24)
T. Campbell G (R-JR 5-11) (22)
J. Bernard G (SR 6-7) (24)
BENCH:
M Johnson C (R-SR 6-10) (1)
P. Watson G (FR 6-8) (3)
J. Clark G (SO 6-5) (7)
D. Singleton G (SR 6-4) (3)
Clark, Singleton, and Johnson have all started games. UCLA starts 4 guards and 1 forward but 3 of their guards are 6-7. They are long, but do not have a great matchup for Bacot. Neither Riley nor Johnson are counted on for scoring.
Their balanced scoring jumps out at you right away as Jaquez, Juzang, and Bernard all have 24 double figure games. Campbell isn’t far behind at 22. Clark is their best option off the bench and their bench scoring has dipped significantly in the postseason. Clark is an All PAC 12 defender though.
The strength of UCLA is their guards. Campbell, Bernard, Juzang, and Jaquez can all take their man off the dribble and go iso. They can be a little iso heavy at times. Bernard and Juzang are good off screens and are more the shooters of the group.
Campbell is not a score first point guard but don’t confuse that with his actual ability to score. He can score and he can knock down the 3 ball. He also likes the mid range jumper and can knock that down pretty consistently. He is smart with the ball. He doesn’t turn it over. UCLA, as a team, doesn’t turn the ball over. They have only had 11 double digit turnover games in 34 games. They had 6 turnovers against Saint Mary’s. It’s a good thing Carolina doesn’t really rely on turning the opposing team over because it won’t happen with the Bruins.
UCLA plays at a very deliberate pace on offense. Their adjusted tempo is 271st in the nation. Campbell will walk the ball up the floor. Expect a low possession game if Jaquez can’t go or is severely limited.
Jaquez’s health is probably the biggest factor for UCLA in this game. Juzang may have carried this team last year but Jaquez has been the star this year. He has dealt with nagging ankle injuries all year. He had 15 points against Saint Mary’s before injuring his ankle. He looked very comfortable with his back to the basket or taking his man off the dribble. He does have one move that he favors and I'm sure it will be in the scouting report. He likes to get to the left side of the basket and turn baseline for a mid range fadeaway. This is a shot he can knock down pretty consistently. How effective will that move be with his ankle? And really how effective will he be at all?
So if Jaquez can’t go or is limited then who needs to step up for the Bruins? The obvious answer is Juzang. Juzang has also had ankle problems all year. He injured an ankle at the end of February and the injury caused him to miss a game. He hasn’t quite been himself since then. He did look better against Saint Mary’s. He had 14 points on 6-11 shooting with 8 rebounds.
The Bruins’ weakness is definitely their post play. Riley was beaten soundly by Akron’s Enrique Freeman. Freeman posted a double double with 14 points on 5-6 shooting and 10 rebounds. Yes those aren’t huge numbers, but Freeman also isn’t Bacot. Johnson has started some, but is less of a scoring threat than Riley. Could the Bruins double team some? Maybe. They are a schematic team. They game plan different defenses. They may go to and then go away from it. Either way that’s a battle Carolina has to win. Play through Bacot and crash the boards.
So who could step up off the bench for the Bruins? Clark was an All PAC-12 Defensive team selection so expect to see him a lot. He averages the most minutes off the bench (along with Johnson) at 18 minutes a game. Watson provides even more length at 6-8.
UCLA’s length could cause problems for Carolina, specifically Caleb Love. Campbell and Davis are most likely matched up against each other. Leaky Black is pretty long himself and isn’t a huge threat to score. He has also had similar sized opponents guarding him all year. Bacot and Riley are probably matched up against each other. My guess is Jaquez and Manek get each other. That leaves either Juzang or Bernard on Love (Black more than likely gets Juzang on defense). Both players are significantly more lengthy than Caleb. This means it can be hard for him to get his shot off. He really likes those step back 3’s. Those shots are going to be harder to get off over longer defenders. Length on the perimeter also means a lot more hands in the passing lanes. Carolina turned the ball over way too much in the second half against Baylor. And yes I know there were other things that contributed to that, but Carolina needs to be smart with the basketball. Everyone saw how much Carolina struggled with Baylor’s press, but the whole world also criticized the lack of foul calls against Baylor when they were pressing. Regardless, you can bet UCLA took some notes. Again they are a game plan team so will they press? UCLA also doesn’t necessarily want to speed the game up, but they can run when the opportunity presents itself.
That length will also be on the floor most of the game. UCLA’s guards dominate the minutes category. Their starting forward, Riley, averages 8 less minutes than Bernard who plays the fewest minutes of the starting guards at 29.9 a game. Campbell leads the team at 32.1 a game. Juzang and Jaquez Jr both also average over 30. Riley averages 21.4. Clark and Johnson average 18. Singleton averages 16.7. Watson averages 12.7.
UCLA is not necessarily a volume 3 point shooting team. They only shot 9 against Saint Mary’s. I would consider Carolina a volume 3 point shooting team by comparison. Juzang and Bernard are the shooters on the wing. Both shoot a respectable percentage. Campbell shoots it the best of the 4 guards at 41.3% and he has the second most attempts on the team. This is why I said don’t get it twisted when I say he isn’t a score first point guard. He scores, it’s just in rhythm with the offense. He doesn’t go forcing or searching for his shot a lot. Jaquez has almost half the attempts as the other guards as he rather work closer to the basket. His percentage is also a lot lower as well. Singleton shoots it well off the bench. Their percentages are listed below:
3 POINT PERCENTAGES
Juzang 35.5% (43-121)
Jaquez Jr. 28.8% (21-73)
Bernard 33.5% (54-161)
Campbell 41.3% (50-121)
Riley 50% (4-8)
Clark 23.1% (6-26)
Singleton 45.1% (37-82)
Watson 22.6% (7-31)
The magic number for me in this game is 70. UCLA is 21-0 when holding its opponents to 65 points or less. They are 1-5 when teams reach 70. In 5 of Carolina’s 9 losses, they have failed to reach 70 points. Carolina hasn’t had any trouble scoring in the NCAA tournament so far, but this game has the potential to have a completely different pace. Carolina has to execute its offense in the hal fcourt and play good team defense if they want to advance to the Elite 8.
KEYS TO THE GAME:
Jaquez Jr’s Health (This will play a huge factor for both teams. Jaquez has been the star as of late. How limited he is will determine how difficult his match up is. I think Manek gets him, so a gimpy Jaquez would make Manek’s job significantly easier. Jaquez would also be easier to attack on defense. I think he plays, it's just how effective he can be.)
Manek Friday (Manek had a huge game against Marquette and was on pace to score 40 against Baylor before his questionable ejection. It’s pretty clear now how important Manek is to this team. Manek needs to stay hot. His cutting and passing abilities are very underrated but Carolina needs him to continue to hit shots from behind the arc.)
Carolina’s Guard Play (Love had a great game against Marquette and then was no existent against Baylor. He ended up fouling out and left RJ Davis to close it out. Davis didn’t have a good scoring game against Marquette but had 12 assists. He had the game of his life against Baylor going for 30 points. It would be really nice to have these guys on the same page even though it’s been nice being able to win when the other hasn’t played well. Both need to stay mentally locked in the whole game.)
Carolina’s Team Defense (Defense won Carolina the game in OT against Baylor. The bears were 1-11 in the extra period. They were very solid on defense against Marquette and were good against Baylor before that second half collapse. UCLA has 4 guys that can take you off the dribble. Each guy has to be committed to keeping their man in front of them. Good defense has to lead to offense, not the other way around.)
Dominate the Post (The Bruins don’t really have someone that is capable of hanging with Bacot the entire game. The Bruins’ length on the perimeter could make entry passes difficult and they can’t be forced, but the ball still needs to go down low. Carolina is also a way better rebounding team. If the Heels don’t win that battle then there is something seriously wrong.)
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