University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag Feb. 22
February 22, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 22, 2005
By Adam Lucas
We get a lot of interesting emails here at Mailbag World Headquarters. We get comments, suggestions, questions, ticket requests (a lot of ticket requests)--you name it, we get it.
But we don't usually get questions like the one we recently received from Chris Coggin of Pleasant Garden, NC. Apparently, Chris made a bet with his barber (bad move, don't make a bet with someone holding scissors over your head) on the outcome of the Duke-UNC game. The loser had to shave his head. The barber (who even knew they had a hairstyling major in Durham?) offered to let Chris wear a Duke jersey for a day instead of shaving his head. Chris declined and is now sporting a Jordanesque dome around Pleasant Garden. The newly-coiffed Chris wants to know if there are any other Tar Heels with a shaved head courtesy of the game in Cameron. If there are, let us know and we'll put you crazy folks in touch with each other. Ah, the Mailbag, bringing fanatics together all across the globe.
A few housekeeping items. On the DelayPlay front, Phil Duncan's device is in the mail and we're hopeful he'll be able to use it for the first time for the Maryland game. We've received a couple of reviews from readers who purchased their own DelayPlay and so far the reviews have been very positive. Of course, Phil will be the Official Mailbag Tester. And we've got some good news: there's another DelayPlay in the Mailbag's future. Check the March 8 Mailbag for details.
Over the past couple weeks we've gotten the following email on several occasions: "Hey, do you know if somebody wrote a book on Roy Williams coming back to Carolina?" Apparently we've failed our self-promotion course. We don't know if somebody did, but we know some guy named Adam Lucas did. You can get more information here. And my wife says to stop sending other book ideas.
Don't forget that Tuesday is Tar Heel Talk day at Champps at Southpoint. Jones Angell and some other guy will be on 1090 AM and online from 12-1 today discussing this week's games, the status of Rashad McCants for tonight's game, and much more. For the football fans, we're also going to have newly hired assistant coach Tommy Thigpen on the program at about 12:20, so make sure to check in for that. And recruiting analyst extraordinaire Dave Telep will also be with us at about 12:05 to talk basketball recruiting, so get all those recruiting questions ready that you can't submit to the Mailbag and give us a call.
As the ACC Tournament approaches, our volume of questions regarding tiebreaker procedures increases. We've set up a page that we hope will help answer your questions. The short answer is this: yes, if Carolina and Wake Forest are tied in the regular season, Wake's win in the regular season is the tiebreaker.
On to the questions...
Hey Adam, my question is geared towards Reyshawn Terry and his playing time. I've noticed every time he gets in the game he always seems to do well, most notably the UCONN game. Why doesn't Roy Williams play him more? Terry's always hitting his open jumpers and seems to do a good job rebounding and playing defense.
Montrey Foreman, Ashland, VA
It may be time to crown a new King of the Mailbag. Over the past couple of weeks, that honor would undoubtedly go to Reyshawn Terry, who is starting to push Jesse Holley for the title of World's Biggest Fan Favorite (OK, let's be honest, no one is ever going to pass Holley in that category).
The R.J. Reynolds product is in a unique spot right now. He hasn't quite moved into the rotation, but he's advanced past mop-up duty status. Carolina has such a long bench that end-of-game minutes go elsewhere, so he's had to earn minutes the hard way--by elbowing his way into the regular rotation. He's got the same problem many other Tar Heel underclassmen have had: for him to earn minutes, he has to beat out a more experienced upperclassman.
"I'm basically paying my dues right now," Terry says. "I have to prove to Coach Williams that I can go out there and play and make him feel comfortable when I'm in the game. I have to make him feel like he doesn't have to worry that I'm going to hurt the team when I'm in."
He's evidently making progress in that regard. Terry has earned first-half minutes in each of the past three games, and his offensive game is much improved. In the past, he'd gun at the first sliver of daylight. Now, he takes smarter shots, and his field goal percentage is up 15 percent over last year.
Defensively, he still has some work to do, both on footwork and on understanding team defensive principles. He doesn't provide the defensive versatility of a David Noel, for example, whose physical presence has been extremely valuable against some of the ACC's better shooters. Without that asset, Terry's defense has to be close to flawless, and he's not there yet.
But keep in mind that he's not supposed to be there yet. Players like Hubert Davis and Shammond Williams only received single-digit minutes as freshmen and went on to stellar careers. Terry, whose freakish athleticism is a source of constant amazement for his teammates, hopes to follow that model, watching his minutes increase this year and then becoming a key cog next season as a junior.
"I talked to Shammond about that a lot this summer," Terry says. "He told me to keep working hard, know the plays, and do everything Coach tells me to do. He said the most important thing was to do whatever it takes to get on the floor and that's what I'm willing to do."
Since the ACC expanded not all teams play each other team two times. It is interesting to see NOW which teams have the tougher slate of ACC games. After Sunday's 2/20/05 games (including the big WFU at Duke matchup) can you list the 11 teams with opponent winning percentage in ACC action.
I think we will see which teams have had to face the tougher schedule of ACC opponents (I doubt UNC will be in the top 3).
Thad Fine, Columbus, OH
Thad, the crack research staff's fingers were smoking trying to figure out the answer to this question. It turned up some surprising results. First, here's the list of teams only faced once by each ACC school:
Carolina: Wake Forest, Miami, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech
Wake Forest: UNC, Clemson, Maryland, Virginia Tech
Duke: NC State, Clemson, Virginia, FSU
Maryland: FSU, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Miami
Virginia Tech: UNC, Wake Forest, FSU, Georgia Tech
Miami: UNC, Maryland, NC State, Virginia
Georgia Tech: Maryland, Virginia Tech, Virginia, UNC
NC State: Duke, Miami, FSU, Clemson
Virginia: Duke, Miami, Georgia Tech, Clemson
FSU: Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech, NC State
Clemson: Wake, Duke, NC State, Virginia
Now, we've ranked the ACC according to opponents' winning percentage in league games only:
NC State: 108-94 (.535)
Virginia: 107-93 (.535)
Duke: 106-95 (.527)
Clemson: 106-95 (.527)
FSU: 104-97 (.517)
Miami: 100-100 (.500)
Maryland: 99-101 (.495)
Georgia Tech: 98-103 (.488)
Virginia Tech: 95-106 (.473)
Wake Forest: 92-108 (.460)
Carolina: 89-112 (.443)
Two things hurt both Carolina and Wake: they get no games against themselves and only one game against the other of the duo. That means that of four potential games against the top two teams in the league, they're playing just one of them. Not coincidentally, Virginia Tech has the next-fewest games against the top two (they play each team twice), and they're just above the Deacs and Tar Heels.
I believe we currently have 5 McDonalds All-Americans on the roster (Jawad, Raymond, Rashad, Sean and Marvin). Who was our first McDonald All-American? Since its inception which Tar Heel Teams have had the most McDonald's All-Americans on the roster?
Daniel Guy, Chapel Hill, NC
This is where we make our obligatory, "McDonald's All-Americans don't mean everything," comment. The stats prove it. At least three Carolina teams have boasted eight McDonald's All-Americans: 1984, 1987, and 1994. The 1987 team actually had eight plus one, as Kevin Madden was redshirting that year.
The combined number of Final Fours for those three teams: zero.
For the record, the 1982 national championship team had six McDonald's All-Americans and the 1993 team had five.
An interesting note: since 1979, every NCAA champion except one (2002 Maryland) has had at least one McDonald's All-American.
I've noticed that Coach Williams seems very hesitant to pull the starters from the game in a blow out, usually not doing so until there is about a minute left. I realize that their minutes have been cut already since we have such great depth, but I would hate to see one of our guys get injured when they didn't need to be in and thereby hurt our championship chances (a la Kenny Smith). Has he always had this tendency or is there a reason he keeps the main players in so long this year?
Chip Gurkin, Washington, D.C.
First, although that Kenny Smith wrist injury against LSU did happen late, it didn't happen in a blowout--the Tigers led that game 37-34 at halftime and the Tar Heels only won the game 90-79. But we catch your drift.
The starters did get an unusually high number of minutes against Virginia, which is what we suspect prompted this question. But with the pace the Cavaliers were playing and the fact that the Tar Heels employed some point zone, there simply weren't as many tired signs flashed by the starters as you'd see in a typical uptempo game.
We decided to compare the minutes per game for this year's team to the 1993 squad for two reasons: first, the teams are similar depth-wise. And second, both enjoyed impressive average margins of victory, so the minutes should be more comparable.
The minutes for the 1993 squad:
Eric Montross: 28.3 mpg
Derrick Phelps: 28.1 mpg
George Lynch: 30.2 mpg
Donald Williams: 24.3 mpg
rian Reese: 24.0 mpg
Pat Sullivan: 16.7 mpg
Henrik Rodl: 19.5 mpg
Kevin Salvadori: 13.3 mpg
And the minutes for the current Tar Heels:
Sean May: 25.0 mpg
Raymond Felton: 30.2 mpg
Rashad McCants: 26.0 mpg
Jawad Williams: 24.2 mpg
Jackie Manuel: 21.4 mpg
David Noel: 16.2 mpg
Marvin Williams: 22.0 mpg
Melvin Scott: 14.3
The 1993 team averaged 134.9 minutes/game from the starters. This year's team is at 126.8 minutes/game, which will probably increase over the next month. In other words, the numbers don't seem to bear out the assertion that the starters are playing too much.
In fact, the Carolina starters are averaging the second-fewest minutes in the league, behind Florida State at 114.6 cumulative minutes per game. That category, incidentally, is led by Duke. The Blue Devil starters are playing 150.8 minutes per game, easily the tops in the ACC.
Adam Lucas will answer your questions about the Carolina men's basketball program this season in an exclusive column published each Tuesday on TarHeelBlue.com. Lucas, editor of previous Mailbags--please make sure to include your first and last names and hometown.
