University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag
December 9, 2008 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Dec. 9, 2008
By Adam Lucas
Carolina is 8-0 and ranked first in the country, but Tar Heel fans still want more. One of the most popular questions in the Mailbag this week concerned the status of Marcus Ginyard. The senior has made marked progress since Roy Williams declared him "a little behind schedule" last month. In fact, on the head coach's radio show last night, he announced Ginyard has been cleared to play. The senior will dress, but not play, on Saturday against Oral Roberts and should be back on the court by the end of the month.
I need you to settle the large wager I have with my brother over when they will have the ceremony to retire Hansbrough's jersey.
Chris Miller
By "large wager" I assume you're talking about just a wager for pride and bragging rights, since of course no one would ever bet on anything related to college sports. In the ACC era, Hansbrough is only the second Tar Heel to qualify to have his jersey retired before his final season in Chapel Hill (Michael Jordan, who was Sporting News Player of the Year in 1983, is the other). But you won't see his jersey in the rafters on senior day against Duke. Senior day is about the seniors, not an individual. Just like Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants, who returned for a ceremony when their jerseys were honored, Hansbrough will come back to Chapel Hill--hopefully during the 2009-10 season--to see his jersey retired.
My friend Billy and I decided that the perfect nickname for Larry Drew is "Larry Drew II: Electric Boogaloo." Can you mention this in the mailbag so that we can make it happen?
Chris
rooklyn, NY
Chris, you might overestimate the power of the Mailbag. Also, let's be honest: we all know that "my friend Billy" doesn't exist. You were just thinking about Electric Boogaloo and decided to pin it on someone else.
However, we do admire your creativity and, more importantly, your reference to an iconic film such as Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (which was, obviously, the sequel to Breakin'). For uneducated readers who might not have been as cool--or, as we used to say then, "rad"--in the 80s as you are now, you might be surprised to know that clothes like these were actually considered stylish. I will confess that I was not rad enough to own pink parachute pants, but there is no question that there were some parachute pants of more reasonable colors in my closet.
Oh yeah, Larry Drew II. The freshman currently has a 2.5 A/TO ratio. He comes from a basketball background, of course, and he's shown uncommon savvy for a freshman point guard. But his first two months have still been a learning experience. "I knew coming in here it would be tough, and I haven't been disappointed," Drew said. "My mentality is that I'm going to do whatever Coach tells me. What he tells me is right. He's not a Hall of Famer for nothing. If I make a mistake, I try to bounce back."
As with many Roy Williams point guards, Drew's biggest college adjustment has been learning to play at the tempo his head coach demands. "There are times I think I'm going as fast as I can, and the coaches are wanting me to go faster," Drew said. "I'm enjoying the process of learning."
The Heels just competed on the court in which they will appear in the Final Four. (Nothing like some confidence and faith in your team!) How many times in the past has that happened where we've played a regular season game on a Final Four court, and how have the Heels fared in those occasions?
Kara McAbee
Concord, NC
This is why I love our readers--this is a very reasonable question, but it had never occurred to me to look it up. The answer turns out to be very interesting...and a little disturbing.
The last time Carolina played a regular season game in the arena that would eventually host the Final Four was the 1993-1994 season, when the Tar Heels played two regular-season games at the Charlotte Coliseum. They won both of those, beating George Washington and BYU, and then won three more games at the venue in the ACC Tournament. Unfortunately, Boston College and Danya Abrams ended the chances of returning there during the NCAA Tournament. Carolina played in McNichols Sports Arena in December of 1989, but lost in the Sweet 16 and therefore didn't return for the 1990 Final Four. The Tar Heels played in Greensboro five times during the 1973-74 season, but didn't return for the Final Four. Same thing in 1970, when the ACC schedule dictated a trip to College Park, but there was no return visit for the Final Four. It happened again in 1966, when the Final Four was again held in College Park. In 1959, Carolina played two games at Louisville, but was eliminated in the NCAA first round before the Final Four was held in that city.
The sum total of all those stats? In the ACC era, the Tar Heels have never played in the Final Four venue during the regular season and then returned for the Final Four. Gee, thanks for bringing that happy stat to our attention, Kara. But it has happened once in school history--the school's first Final Four appearance. The Tar Heels played a road game at NYU in Madison Square Garden on Dec. 27, 1945. The squad would return to the Garden for three NCAA Tournament games--a 57-49 win over NYU, a 60-57 victory over Ohio State, and a national championship 43-40 loss to Oklahoma State.
In the first few years Coach Williams was back, most of us fans learned to spout the taking point that it was ok we had a lot of turnovers because we had a lot more possessions. I know it is still early in the year, but this team seems light years ahead of others in terms of discipline, fundamentals and taking care of the ball. Turnovers seem to be increasingly rare. Do the stats back up that observation and has there been a historical relationship between turnovers and win percentage?
Jeff Donald
Washington, DC
First of all, Jeff, thanks for giving me the chance to point out that Lauren Brownlow charts this season's points per possession and % loss of ball in every edition of Tar Heels Today. That's the email that's sent every Monday to Rams Club members. Am I saying you should join the Rams Club just to get her points per possession stats? No, but I am saying that just by joining you get a free subscription to Tar Heels Today, a free subscription to Tar Heel Monthly, and you help put those players you cheer for in the Smith Center through school--plus it's tax-deductible. Pretty good deal and a unique Christmas gift idea for your favorite Tar Heel fan, too.
Now, back to points per possession. This year's team is cruising along at a 1.05 clip, which is astronomically high and certain to decline as the competition increases. Turnovers have only been kept in the UNC record book since the 1982 season, but of the three lowest single-season totals since then, two of them (1982 and 1995) ended in the Final Four. The flip side? Two of the five highest totals ended the season as the national champion (1993 and 2005).
Brownlow's Down Low
With Hansbrough having a chance (I believe he will) to break JJ Redick's ACC scoring record, I was wondering if you would compare the two, how many more times did Hansbrough put the ball through the nets compared to Redick, since Hansbrough mostly scores with fouls shots and two pointers and Redick mostly (I assume the majority) scored with three pointers?
Ben White
Myrtle Beach, SC
Lauren writes:
Tyler Hansbrough needs 514 points - well, 513 points to tie. Redick had 2,769 points and Hansbrough has 2,256 points. Carolina has 22 regular-season games remaining and at least two postseason games; assuming somehow Carolina was to lose in the first round of both tournaments, Hansbrough would need to average 21.4 points. But if Carolina were to win the ACC Tournament and reach the Finals of the NCAA Tournament, that would mean Hansbrough would need to average 16.6 points per game. His health notwithstanding, it's certainly within reach.Redick got 49.5% of his points from the three-point line (1371 out of 2769) and 23.9% from the free-throw line (662). From two-point range, he scored 736 points (26.6%). Hansbrough has scored 1,470 of his 2,256 points (65.2%) from two-pointers. Only 32.9% of his points (744) have come from the free-throw line. Redick averaged 1.45 points per shot; Hansbrough has averaged 1.66 points per shot. The two have averaged identical points per shot from field goal attempts alone (1.11 points per attempt), even with the three-pointers by Redick.
The interesting difference between them was that Redick scored 964 points to break the record his senior year. He took 643 shots to get there (1.5 points per shot) and played a staggering 37.1 minutes per game. He significantly improved both his field-goal percentage and three-point percentage from the previous season, going from 40.8% to 47% from the floor and 40.3% from three-point range to 42.1%. Hansbrough's best season was last year as he averaged 22.6 points and a career-high 33.0 minutes. He likely won't see quite that much time this season.
Redick played in 139 games and averaged 19.9 points. Hansbrough has played in 112 games and has averaged 20.1 points. Redick averaged 13.7 shot attempts, 5.2 free throw attempts and 8.1 three-point attempts. Hansbrough has averaged 12.2 shot attempts and 8.8 free-throw attempts per game.
Here's an interesting fact, although considering the positions the two played it doesn't matter too much - Tyler Hansbrough had more offensive rebounds in three seasons than J.J. Redick had total rebounds in all four seasons. Again, one is a forward and one is a guard but if nothing else, it shows Hansbrough's relentless rebounding ability, particularly on the offensive boards. Hansbrough did average a double-double last season. Redick did have a few good seasons in terms of assists, dishing out 2.6 per game in his junior and senior seasons. Other than that, Redick was primarily a scorer, although one of the best the league has seen. Hansbrough could also pass Redick in steals - he has 141 and Redick had 152.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
