University of North Carolina Athletics
Know Your Opponent: UNCG
December 16, 2014 | Men's Basketball
UNCG (UNCGSpartans.com)
Ranking: No. 279 KenPom, NR AP
Location: Greensboro, N.C.
2014-15 Record: 4-6 (1-0 Southern)
Carolina Series Record (Last Meeting): UNC leads 1-0 (UNC 81, UNCG 50, Dec. 7, 2013, Chapel Hill)
Coach Wes Miller's third full season in Greensboro got off to a tough start, as the Spartans lost each of their first six games against D-I opponents by 12 points or less, including an overtime loss to Longwood in the EMU Showcase in Ypsilanti.
But UNCG got back in the win column with a two-point victory at Presbyterian and opened its Southern Conference slate with an upset win at East Tennessee State Saturday. Wofford and Chattanooga are the favorites in the new-look SoCon, but ETSU was picked third in the preseason coaches' poll and the Bucs were rated 117 spots higher than the Spartans in the KenPom rankings entering the contest.
Tuesday's home contest against North Carolina is the first of four straight non-conference games against in-state opponents for UNCG before diving back into conference play full-time, and the Spartans have had to lean heavily on a thin roster because of injuries to Marvin Smith, Diante Baldwin, C.J. Coleman and Jamal Mitchell. The same five players have started all 10 games, but Baldwin returned from offseason surgery Wednesday against Greensboro College and he was the only reserve to play more than five minutes against ETSU.
Last year's SoCon Freshman of the Year Tevon Saddler has been an effective scoring point guard as a sophomore, as the Aberdeen, Maryland, product averages a team-best 16.4 points per game and has dropped 24 in UNCG's last two wins. He has been bothered by turnover trouble, however, giving the ball away 165 times in 41 career games.
Nicholas Paulos and Clay Byrd are both pretty prolific from deep, combining for 58 3s on 146 attempts so far this season. Paulos is especially dangerous (33-70) from the outside, and at 6-7 the senior wing can be a matchup problem. His effective shooting percentage of 68.8, which gives extra weight to 3-point shooting, ranks among the nation's 25 best. Redshirt sophomore RJ White is UNCG's best rebounder, gobbling up 26.1 percent of available defensive rebounds.
One random quirk of UNCG's season so far has been its free throw “defense”. Division I opponents have made 79.7 percent of their free throws against the Spartans, the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) rate in the country. Quietly, Carolina has been significantly better at the line this season, so perhaps the Greensboro Coliseum is a good place to keep that trend going in the right direction.
