Wofford was the first team to beat UNC at the Smith Center since Duke did so last season.
Some shocker in Chapel Hill Wednesday night, right? And now you’re asking one question.
Wofford?
But after the Terriers walked into the Smith Center and promptly took down North Carolina 79-75, maybe the world needs to know these guys a little better. So here goes, 20 things about Wofford . . .1. The Terriers were 0-22 all-time against ranked opponents before going to North Carolina. But not anymore. “A mountain top experience,” coach Mike Young called it. For Wofford, like maybe, Everest.
2. Guard Fletcher Magee, who had 27 points against the Tar Heels, has scored in double figures 57 consecutive games, second longest streak in the nation behind Campbell’s Chris Clemons.
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3. More Magee. He leads the nation in 3-pointers a game with 4.67, and had four against the Tar Heels. He is averaging 24.3 points this season, shooting 57 percent overall and 54.9 from the 3-point line, and has not missed a free throw in 32 attempts. “His numbers,” Young said, “have been staggering.”
4. Wofford’s 15 players come from 12 different states.
5. Included in the 8-4 record this season is a 63-60 victory over Georgia Tech. Wofford won despite shooting only 35.6 percent, while the Yellow Jackets hit 57.1. According to the Wofford sports information department, via sports-reference.com, there had been 838 Division I games from the start of the 2010-11 season to the day of the Georgia Tech contest, where one team shot 57.1 or higher, and the other 35.6 or lower. The higher shooting team was 838-0.
6. Young is in his 16th season as coach. He has led four teams to the NCAA Tournament. Wofford is 0-4 in the tournament, but three of losses to much higher seeds were by single digits.
7. During Young’s tenure, Wofford has beaten Cincinnati, Clemson, Georgia, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Purdue, Virginia Tech and Xavier. Oh, yeah. And now the No. 5 Tar Heels.
— Wofford Basketball (@WoffordMBB) December 21, 2017
8. Wofford was picked to finish sixth by the coaches and fifth by the media in the Southern Conference this season. But then, it was a rather turbulent prediction process in the SoCon. Mercer was picked to win the league by the coaches, but was tabbed sixth in the media poll.
9. The SoCon has had a big month. Wofford over North Carolina, UNC Greensboro over North Carolina State, East Tennessee State led Xavier by 22 before falling by two, and Furman chased Tennessee to the wire Wednesday. Furman’s nine non-conference wins equal its most since 1954-55.
10. Wofford went 16-17 last season but won one of the wildest games of the year – 131-127 in four overtimes over Samford. There were 22 lead changes and 17 ties.
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11. The place is called Wofford because Benjamin Wofford, a Methodist preacher who married rich, left $100,000 in his will to start a school in the mid-19th century.
12. Wofford opened in 1854, near downtown Spartanburg, S.C. It still uses the original campus, and not many pre-Civil War schools in the South can say that.
13. The enrollment is under 1700. Or less than one-tenth of North Carolina.
WOFFORD BEATS NO. 5 NORTH CAROLINA!!!!#CONQUERANDPREVAIL pic.twitter.com/zNgk4LWXcE
— Wofford Athletics (@WoffordTerriers) December 21, 2017
14. During the Civil War, the Wofford trustees took the endowment money and invested in soon-to-be worthless Confederate bonds. The bonds are still in the school vault.
15. The campus was taken over by the Army during World War II to train Air Corps officers.
16. The football team in 1948 started the season with five consecutive ties, three of them 7-7, one 6-6 and one 0-0. Wofford ended the season 4-0-5.
17. Baseball started at the school when it was introduced by invading Yankee soldiers.
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18. The basketball team has a new home – Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium, funded by the Wofford alum and Carolina Panthers founder who is now enmeshed in allegations of sexual harassment.
19. This was only the second time Wofford and North Carolina have played since 1926. The other was 2015. The Tar Heels won by 20.
20. The last team to beat North Carolina in the Smith Center was Duke in 2016. So now Wofford and Duke basketball have something in common.
