University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Notebook
March 25, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
March 25, 2009
By Adam Lucas
Two different coaches, two very different methods of preparation. By Monday afternoon, Gonzaga head coach Mark Few had already watched the complete game tape of his team's 2006 victory over North Carolina. Roy Williams, meanwhile, still had the tape sitting on his desk--unwatched--as of Tuesday afternoon, and likely wouldn't get to it before at least Tuesday evening.
Both teams have lost the players who scored approximately 40 percent of the points for each side in that game (and Tar Heel players have also lost something that was present in the last meeting), but some familiar faces remain. Josh Heytvelt shot 8-of-13 from the field, scored 19 points, and grabbed eight rebounds in the 2006 matchup. However, the Bulldog big man doesn't consider that matchup to be relevant to Friday's battle. "Both of our teams are completely different teams," he said. "I know they are really physical and rebound well. They're a transition team. We will work as hard as we can to slow those guys down."
By the way, if you want to know more about Few, this is a very worthwhile Seattle Times feature from 2006. It's easy to be impressed with the Gonzaga coach, both on the court and off of it.
By the numbers: When reviewing an upcoming opponent, Williams looks at two categories immediately--offensive field goal percentage and defensive field goal percentage. Gonzaga shoots 48.9% from the field and allows opponents to shoot just 37.2%. The head coach's reaction: "You look at that and say, `Wow.' That's a spread of plus-12, and that's almost unheard of."
Williams also noted the Bulldogs have three players with assist/turnover ratios of at least 2:1, as Matt Bouldin, Jeremy Pargo, and Steven Gray all fit that description. "We've played some teams who are pretty good who don't even have one guy at 2:1," Williams said.
Perhaps indicative of the strength of the South region, Gonzaga isn't the only team in the bracket with three players at 2:1. Oklahoma also has three players--Austin Johnson, Cade Davis and Omar Leary--in that category.
Defensive demons: Gonzaga's defense has been an important part of their success. Western Kentucky shot 51.6% from the field in the second-round NCAA game, becoming the first team all season to make 47 percent or better against the Bulldogs. The `Zags rank fifth in the nation in effective field goal percentage defense.
Part of that statistic can be attributed to the weak opposition in the West Coast Conference. But in Gonzaga's marquee nonconference games, they have held Maryland to 37.3%, UConn to 42.6%, Oklahoma State to 37.3%, Arizona to 44.2%, and even Memphis--in a blowout loss--to 44.2%.
"They play you in every area," Williams said. "They guard you, they stop dribble penetration, they wall you in the post, they don't let you get second shots, and they do a great job boxing out."
"We have a group of guys who have done the best job of any we've had as far as really adhering to the play we set out defensively," Few said. "We're a long team, so we switch a bunch of screens and do some things differently than we have in the past. People have had to shoot over us a lot. We're not very big, but we're long."
Homecoming: Memphis is proving to be a difficult trip for Tar Heel fans, but it won't be much of a challenge for many Tyler Hansbrough fans. His hometown of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, is just 163 miles from Memphis. That makes the South regionals the second-closest Hansbrough has played to his hometown in his career, with the closest coming in his designated "home" game, a 69-48 victory over Saint Louis in December of 2006.
"I've had to ignore some people on my cell phone because I knew they needed tickets," Hansbrough said. The Tar Heel big man, by the way, apparently confirmed suspicions that he is from another planet and therefore capable of supersonic travel, as he described Memphis as "about an hour and a half" from his hometown. That's a speedy way to cover 163 miles.
Briefly: How good was Ed Davis in the two opening rounds of NCAA play? He won or shared six of the 14 awards given out by the Tar Heel coaches for those two games...Mark Few on Lawson: "He's the consummate trigger man for the most high-octane offense in the country."...Given Carolina's struggles against the flex offense this year--both Boston College and Maryland run that offense--it's not particularly good news that Few has produced an instructional DVD entitled Flex for Success and Bulldogs assistant coach Leon Rice has an instructional DVD entitled 12 Quick Hitters for the Flex Offense...Check back late Thursday afternoon for an on-site notebook from Memphis, plus Friday we'll have Lauren Brownlow's Game Guide.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
