University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag
January 4, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Jan. 4, 2011
By Adam Lucas
Be honest: which debut were you more excited about this week--the Mailbag or ABC's incredibly addictive The Bachelor? We won't be giving out any roses (word has it one of this year's contestants is a UNC grad, and if anyone knows her, I'd love for her to write a Tar Heels Today basketball column if she's interested), but I'm happy to say that we'll be back in this space every Tuesday between now and the end of the Carolina Basketball season, which hopefully is a very long time away. As always, you can send us your questions about anything related to Tar Heel hoops--other than recruiting. It can be a historical question, a query about this year's team, some small detail you've noticed on TV, or anything else. Just make sure to include your name and hometown. We'll answer a selection each week here on TarHeelBlue.com and we also answer one or two questions in the Tar Heel Sports Network pregame show around 30 minutes before tipoff.
Before we get started, a quick reminder: the GAA is hosting a special 100 years of Carolina Basketball Storytellers event on Friday night in Chapel Hill. Eric Montross, Freddie Kiger and I will be telling some UNC basketball stories, watching a couple of very cool videos and talking about this year's team. If you attended the first Storytellers event at Governors Club, you already know that these are a lot of fun. Registration for GAA members is free. More information is available here.
What numbers can you post to show us how more improved this defense is this year? I am pleased with how "sticky" the Heels' D has been. It seems this year they are getting more steals, more rebounds, more blocked shots, less points per game allowed and better HUSTLE stats. What do you think is the difference?
Thad Fine
Louisville, KY
Let's start with the basic ones: Carolina's defensive field goal percentage is 40.5% so far, compared to 41.2% last season. This year's team is holding foes to 31.6% from the three-point line, compared to 34.3% last season. It's probably more fair to compare nonconference games from last year to this season's marks, but even then this year's Tar Heels are ahead (nonconference opponents shot 41.9% from the field and 33.0% from the three-point line).
Looking at some of the less basic stats, the Carolina defense is still--as Thad suggested--improved, but you also have to keep in mind that these figures tend to increase when conference play begins. According to kenpom.com, Carolina's defensive efficiency (points allowed per 100 defensive possessions) is 87.5, the effective defensive field goal percentage (which gives 50% more credit for made three-pointers) is 46%, and defensive turnover rate (turnovers divided by possessions) is 20.9%. Last season's numbers were a 92.6 defensive efficiency, 47.1% effective FG% and 18.7% turnover rate.
By the way, as long as we're talking about turnover rate, Carolina has improved in that category offensively as well, which suggests some of the turnover issues from earlier this year are slowly coming into line. This year's rate is 19.6%, as compared to 20.9% (which ranked 192nd in the country) last season. If the Tar Heels could just trim, say, two of the unforced turnovers per game from their usual total, they'd probably have a rate closer to some of the Felton/Lawson teams.
As for the cause of the defensive improvement, it's been well-established that the best Carolina defensive teams start with ball pressure by the point guard. Roy Williams has been effusive in his praise for Larry Drew's defense. "Larry was sensational defensively," the head coach said. "Defensively he's light years from what he's been in the past."
Like many, I retain a strong interest in UNC alumni and those that continue to play professionally. I must admit that a good amount of my interest in the NBA is based on Carolina connections (i.e. love my boyhood Knicks having the sense to acquire and prosper with R. Felton). What is the latest update regarding Danny Green and his NBA pursuits? I last knew he was released by the SA Spurs and remain frustrated that a NBA team doesn't have the good sense to not only acquire Danny, but to give him significant minutes. Those of us who watched him for four years know what he can bring to the game. And while I am in an asking mood (and hopefully you'll be in an answering mood as well), can you give me updates on R. McCants, the progress of Sean May (who I understand is working out in CH) and the progress (or lack thereof) of Tyler Hansbrough. His minutes have seemed to diminish and I can't find any updates to check on his health, progress, etc.
Michael Eisen
Durham
I agree with Michael--my interest in the NBA is directly proportional to the success being had by the Tar Heels in the league. I actually sat down and watched a New York Knicks game this season, one of the first times since Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls that I've watched a regular-season NBA game. Updates on the players Michael asked about:
Danny Green: Released by the Cavs and signed briefly with the Spurs before being released. He was in New York when the Tar Heels played at Rutgers last week.
Rashad McCants: It's been a strange few months for McCants, who inked with the NBDL's Texas Legends, then left the Legends with the idea of playing in China. But the contract in China didn't work out and McCants has not been back with the Legends since.
Sean May: Playing in Turkey. You can follow him on Twitter at @BigMay42.
Tyler Hansbrough: This might be the biggest mystery of any Carolina player in the NBA. He was initially troubled by some injuries, but right now his health is fine. However, his minutes have been extremely inconsistent. On Dec. 29, for example, he played 21 minutes against the Wizards and notched 7 points and 7 rebounds. Two nights later, he played just four minutes in the back end of a home-and-home against the Wizards. His per-40-minute stats are better than those of the player in front of him, Josh McRoberts, as Hansbrough is averaging 15.5 points and 10.4 rebounds per 40 minutes, compared to 11.7 points and 10.0 rebounds per 40 for McRoberts. His player efficiency rating, a measure of a player's per-minute productivity, is also better than McRoberts's (14.3 to 14.1).
Do you think it is possible or likely in today's college game for a team to win a NCAA championship with a point guard who focuses on defense, distributing the ball and avoiding turnovers, but not scoring much? Jimmy Black had a lot of success with that set of skills in 1982 but what are the prospects today?
Jonathan Kaufman
Weston, Florida
As Carolina fans, we're conditioned to think of national championship point guards like Black and Derrick Phelps, for whom scoring was secondary. But as difficult as it might be for some of us to believe (Phelps will turn 40 next year and Black is--you're not going to believe this--50 years old), that was a different college basketball era. Let's take a look at the most recent national champion point guards:
2010: Jon Scheyer--Not a true point guard, as we all well remember, but he filled the role capably for the Blue Devils. As we also well remember, he could really score. His 18.2 points per game led Duke in scoring, as did his 4.9 assists per game.
2009: Ty Lawson--Enough said.
2008: Mario Chalmers is the player people think of as the true Kansas point guard, and he was most definitely a scorer. His 12.8 points per game ranked second on the team, and his 318 field goal attempts ranked third. It's worth noting, though, that the Jayhawks did have a player in their starting backcourt who exactly fits our question's description. Russell Robinson shot rarely and not often very well, but he handed out just seven fewer assists than Chalmers and made the All-Big 12 Defensive Team three seasons in a row.
2006 and 2007: Taurean Green led the Gators in scoring in 2007, a season when he shot 40.6% from the three-point line. He ranked second on the team in scoring in 2006.
2005: Raymond Felton--Like Lawson in '09, Carolina evolved from high-quality team to championship material when he figured out just how aggressive to be with his offense.
2004: Taliek Brown is probably the closest player on this list so far who fits the mold we're looking for. He averaged just 6.3 points per game and was not a threat from beyond the three-point line (he attempted just five all season). Why could Connecticut play him at point guard? Because they also started Ben Gordon in the backcourt.
2003: Syracuse started Gerry McNamara, a shoot-first point guard who deferred to Carmelo Anthony as a freshman but was still offense-minded.
2002: Sometimes you tend to think of Steve Blake as a scorer, but that was more of his role as a senior than it was during his championship junior season, when he was a catalyst for Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter. In fact, he was just the fifth-leading scorer on the team.
2001: Duke's Jason Williams took more shots than anyone on the team and with good reason--he was an incredibly effective scoring point guard who could hurt you from the perimeter (he shot 42.7% from the three-point line) or driving into the paint.
So of the last ten national championship point guards, at least eight of them have been very effective scorers, not at all cut from the Black/Phelps mold. The two outliers were paired in the backcourt with Juan Dixon and Ben Gordon. So it's fair to say that at least in the past NCAA basketball decade, you don't absolutely have to have a scoring point guard. But you do at least have to put a non-offensive minded player with a serious perimeter scoring threat.
Brownlow's Down Low
I see that Reggie Bullock is scoring quite a bit without getting a lot of minutes. Does Carolina keep an all-time list of players in this category? If so, who leads the way with the most points scored per minute played in Carolina history?
Johnny Johnson
Newland, NC
Lauren writes:
No, Carolina does not keep a list like that - but they do keep a list of minutes (which were not consistently kept until the early 1980s) and points. As for Mr. Bullock, Reggie started off his Carolina career scoring 46 points in 74 minutes (1.61 per minute) in his first five games. But in his last eight, he has managed "just" 54 points in 111 minutes (0.49 per minute). On the year, he has 100 points in 185 minutes (0.54). And Leslie McDonald is ahead of him at 0.56 per minute, as is Tyler Zeller (0.55).If average minutes aren't a restriction, then Larry Davis (1992-94) leads the way at 0.677 in his 124-minute Carolina career (84 points). Only three bench players I could find had better years; Ranzino Smith had 0.69 points per minute in 1986 (132 points in 192 minutes). Phillip McLamb had six points in six minutes in '03 and followed closely by Jesse Holley's 13 in 16 minutes in 2005. But if we're talking rotation players (Bullock certainly qualifies), then - of course - Tyler Hansbrough is the leader both in terms of season (0.69 in 2008) and career (0.65). Rashad McCants had the second-best career (0.60) followed closely by Michael Jordan (0.58), Antawn Jamison (0.57), Jerry Stackhouse (0.5672) and Sean May (0.5671).
Hansbrough also has the second-best season (0.68 in 2009), followed by Jamison (0.67 in 1998), Jordan (0.66 in 1984), May (0.65 in 2005), Jordan again (0.647 in 1983), and Hubert Davis (0.645 in 1992). In fact, Davis has the eighth-best career numbers (0.5564), slightly behind J.R. Reid (0.5567).
Since minutes were counted reliably, just 17 Tar Heels have averaged over 0.5 points per minute in their career. The usual suspects are there, but so are underrated Tar Heels like Rick Fox (0.535), Ranzino Smith (0.524), Reyshawn Terry (0.524) and Wayne Ellington (0.517). If Bullock's numbers hold up, he would be 10th behind Joe Forte (0.55) and Tyler Zeller would be 13th at 0.527.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of six books on Carolina basketball, including the official chronicle of the first 100 years of Tar Heel hoops, A Century of Excellence, which is available now. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
