#2 Terps, #9 Tar Heels Set for Challenge Tuesday
11/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The No. 2 Maryland men's basketball team travels to Chapel Hill for a tilt with No. 9 North Carolina in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge Tuesday night on ESPN.
WATCH: ESPN - Dan Shulman (Play-by-Play), Jay Bilas (Analyst), Shannon Spake (Sideline)
LISTEN: Terrapin Sports Radio Network - Johnny Holliday (Play-By-Play), Chris Knoche (Analyst)
SOCIAL: Follow @TerrapinHoops on Twitter for in-game updates
storylines
• Robert Carter had 17 points and eight rebounds to help Maryland beat Cleveland State 80-63 on Saturday night. Jared Nickens added 16 points, and freshman Diamond Stone had a season-high 15 points for Maryland. Carter is the only Terrapin to record double-figure scoring in every game this season. The transfer from Georgia Tech also leads the team in rebounding (7.0 rpg) and averaged 14.3 points while shooting 60 percent from the floor in three games last week.
• In Maryland's last two wins over Rhode Island and Cleveland State, the Terps have posted 37 assists in 59 field goals made. The Terps are shooting 59 percent during that span (59-for-100), including an impressive 55 percent mark from beyond the arc (17-for-31).
• Maryland is tied for the second-most wins all-time in the Challenge, collecting 10 victories since its inception in 1999. Maryland and North Carolina will meet for the 180th time in school history in a series that dates back to 1924. The Big Ten captured the Commissioner's Cup last season, winning eight of the 14 matchups. The two conferences split the previous two events, winning six Challenge games each in 2012 and 2013.
• February 20, 2016 will mark the 30th anniversary of Len Bias' 35-point performance in a 77-72 OT win over No. 1 ranked North Carolina. The Tar Heels had never lost a game in the recently opened Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center until Maryland and Bias pulled off the upset. North Carolina was led by center Brad Daugherty, who would be the No. 1 overall pick later that June and Kenny Smith, a future No. 1 pick would go on to win an NBA championship with the Houston Rockets. But that night belonged to the Terps, who entered the a game with a 14-11 record and came out victorious.
scouting north carolina
• North Carolina is 5-1 heading into Tuesday's highly-anticipated matchup with its lone loss to Northern Iowa on Nov. 21.
• Justin Jackson (14.7 ppg) and Kennedy Meeks (14.3 ppg) lead the Tar Heels in scoring while Brice Johnson (10.3 rpg) paces UNC on the glass.
• UNC defeated Northwestern and Kansas State to win the 2015 CBE Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, a tournament Maryland won in 2014.
• The Tar Heels lead the all-time series, 122-57, including eight straight. UNC edged Maryland 75-63 in Chapel Hill in the final meeting between the two programs as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Feb. 4, 2014.
acc ties
• Rasheed Sulaimon (Duke) and Robert Carter (Georgia Tech) both have ACC ties with North Carolina while affiliated with their former schools.
• Sulaimon scored 30 points and added eight assists and 12 rebounds in four games against the Tar Heels. He recorded 13 points in 38 minutes in Durham vs. UNC during his rookie season.
• Carter posted 18 points and 20 rebounds in two meetings vs. UNC.
sharing the rock
• The Terps have had four different players lead them in scoring this season. Seven Terrapins have recorded double-figure scoring games - led by Robert Carter (6) and Melo Trimble (5).
• Maryland has four players averaging 11 or more points this season - the lone team in the Big Ten Conference to do so. Trimble (14.8), Carter (13.0), Jake Layman (11.7), and Rasheed Sulaimon (11.2) are all averaging double-figure scoring performances per game.
