Heisman Trophy Winner Ward & FSU Fall at Buzzer to Bacot's UNC, 78-76

Florida State's backcourt of Charlie Ward and Sam Cassell had seven steals and held UNC's backcourt of Caleb Love and RJ Davis to eight points, and Ward hit a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to tie the score 76-76. 

However when this Florida State team played in 1993 there were not many 6'9 stretch forwards putting averaging 4 of 8 per game on 3-point shots like the bearded Brady Manek did in the 1992 NCAA tournament. UNC's incredible inside outside big men dominated with Armando Bacot's incredible line of 18 points, 13 rebounds and 9 blocked shots and after a game of 3-pointers Manek got to the hoop for two points in the closing seconds to deliver a 78-76 win.

Pregame

As long as we are proceeding with all-time great basketball match-ups in the middle of college football season, we decided to put a Heisman Trophy winner on the court. Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward, who went on to play nine years in the NBA, leads a fast pace Florida State Seminole team from 1993. They face the Armando Bacot's UNC 2022 National Runners Up.

FSU looks like a 5-point favorite based on the cards. A couple of notes on the cards:

These two teams have some of the best endurance in the game, Florida State subs playing only 8 of the 220 possessions. UNC subs play only a little more with 16 of 220 possessions. Particularly unusual in recent basketball is that UNC star Armando Bacot plays the center position for 41 of 44 possessions. Normally starting centers play closer to half of games.

However, because Florida State has a high tempo rating of +4 when they play in a game there are 4 extra possessions for 48 total in the game, and for extra possessions you always play the top row of starters for half (the first two in this case) and the bottom row for half (the next two) before getting down to possession 44.

Finally, Since UNC's dunk possession adjusted by Florida State's Adj Dunk is 51-57 and UNC's is51-60, we chose to use 51-53 for UNC and 51-56 for Florida State. You always have the option of moving dunk ranges up or down a few as long as the difference between the two teams is the same as the calculation (Florida State three higher than UNC).

North Carolina 2022	Ht	Pos	Pts	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fls	Season Stats
Caleb Love	6'4	1-PG	6	4	1	1	1	15.9 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 3.6 Ast
RJ Davis	6'0	2-SG	2	1	2	1	3	13.5 Pts, 4.3 Reb, 3.6 Ast
Leaky Black	6'8	3-SF	8	5	1	0	4	4.9 Pts, 4.3 Reb, 2.7 Ast
Brady Manek	6'9	4-PF	26	4	0	0	3	15.1 Pts, 6.1 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Armando Bacot	6'10	5-C	18	13	0	9	1	16.3 Pts, 13.1 Reb, 1.5 Ast
Justin McKoy	6'8	1-PG	2	1	0	0	1	1.0 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Kerwin Walton	6'5	2-SG	2	1	0	0	1	3.4 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Puff Johnson	6'8	3-SF	2	1	0	1	1	3.1 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Dawson Garcia	6'11	4-PF	8	2	0	0	1	9.0 Pts, 5.5 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Dontrez Styles	6'6	5-C	4	2	1	0	1	2.0 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Turnovers 10			78	34	5	12	17
Florida State 1993	Ht	Pos	Pts	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fls	Season Stats
Charlie Ward	6'2	1-PG	6	5	4	0	1	7.8 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 5.5 Ast
Sam Cassell	6'3	2-SG	22	6	3	0	1	18.3 Pts, 4.3 Reb, 4.9 Ast
Bob Sura	6'5	3-SF	16	8	0	0	1	19.9 Pts, 6.1 Reb, 2.7 Ast
Doug Edwards	6'9	4-PF	12	8	0	2	4	18.3 Pts, 9.4 Reb, 2.9 Ast
Rodney Dobard	6'9	5-C	8	4	0	7	3	11.5 Pts, 6.1 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Lorenzo Hands	6'4	1-PG	2	1	0	0	1	3.3 Pts, 0.9 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Scott Shepherd	5'11	2-SG	4	1	0	0	1	1.5 Pts, 0.3 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Maurice Robinson	6'7	3-SF	2	2	0	0	1	3.5 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Derrick Carroll	6'6	4-PF	2	3	0	0	2	5.4 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Byron Wells	6'10	5-C	2	1	0	2	1	4.6 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 0.6 Ast
Turnovers 15			76	39	7	11	16
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	F
North Carolina 2022	22	14	13	29	78
Florida State 1993	22	11	23	20	76

The win moves UNC up to 107th in our all-time rankings, leaving them as the 11th best ranked team that has already won a game in the current tournament. Only the top 11 teams get a bye to the Sweet 16  - which is unlikely since some of the eight games listed first will likely leave teams ranked higher than UNC. Larry Bird's Indiana State now drops to 12th on the winners, meaning they will play the second round.

 

Rnk	Card	Team	Win	Lost	Score	Allow	SoS	Card Rnk	Rate	tour
74	76	Texas - 2023 - Marcus Carr	0	0				-1.0	-1.0	SDSt 23
81	94	Iowa St. - 2014 - DeAndre Kane	0	0				-2.0	-2.0	BC 06
82	95	SMU - 2017 - Semi Ojeleye	0	0				-2.0	-2.0	FlAt 23
92	110	Washington - 2006 - Brandon Roy	0	0				-3.0	-3.0	Mia 23
102	124	Arkansas - 2021 - JD Notae	0	0				-4.0	-4.0	NW 17
103	127	St. Mary's - 2023 - Logan Johnson	0	0				-4.0	-4.0	PS 18
118	134	Kansas St. - 2023 - Markquis Nowell	0	0				-5.0	-5.0	TCU 23
119	135	Stanford - 2008 - Brook Lopez	0	0				-5.0	-5.0	Xav 23
120	136	Xavier - 2023 - Jack Nunge	0	0				-5	-5.0	St 08
127	145	TCU - 2023 - JaKobe Coles	0	0				-6.0	-6.0	KS 23
128	144	Penn St. - 2018 - Tony Carr	0	0				-6.0	-6.0	StM 23
129	143	Northwestern - 2017 - Vic Law	0	0				-6.0	-6.0	Ark 21
140	157	Miami - 2023 - Norchad Omier	0	0				-7	-7.0	Wa 06
141	156	Florida Atlantic - 2023 - Johnell Davis	0	0				-7.0	-7.0	SMU 17
142	155	Boston College - 2006 - Jared Dudley	0	0				-7.0	-7.0	Ia St 14
157	167	San Diego St. - 2023 - Jaedon LeDee	0	0				-9.0	-9.0	TX 23
37	46	Connecticut - 2023 - Adama Sanogo	1	0	77	39	-19.0	2.0	2.8	Won
42	87	Rutgers - 1976 - Phil Sellers	1	0	97	77	-9.0	-2.0	2.3	Won
45	60	Houston - 2021 - Quentin Grimes	1	0	102	50	-16.0	0.0	2.0	Won
46	64	Tennessee - 2023 - Santiago Vescovi	1	0	75	67	-4.0	0.0	2.0	Won
51	41	Duke - 2015 - Justise Winslow	1	0	75	72	-11.0	3.0	1.3	Won
57	86	Gonzaga - 2023 - Drew Timme	1	0	86	74	-7.0	-2.0	0.8	Won
63	63	Kansas - 2022 - Ochai Agbaji	1	0	87	81	-7.9	0.0	0.5	Won
68	122	Marquette - 2023 - Tyler Kolek	1	0	90	81	-1.8	-4.0	-0.2	Won
75	107	Marquette - 1994 - Jim McIlvaine	1	0	80	78	-1.4	-3.0	-1.1	Won
89	108	Duke - 2022 - Wendell Moore	1	0	85	78	-13.0	-3.0	-2.8	won
107	158	North Carolina - 2022 - Armando Bacot	1	0	78	76	-2	-7	-4.3	Won
111	115	Indiana St. - 1979 - Larry Bird	1	1	71.5	73	-5.5	-3.0	-4.6	Won
146	173	Creighton - 2023 - Ryan Kalkbrenner	1	0	79	78	2	-13	-8.0	won