| STAT | VALUE | PCTLE | HISTORICAL COMPARISON |
| Base Stats | |||
| FG% | 47 | 51 |
|
| 3FG% | 18 | 7 | 
|
| 2FG% | 62 | 88 | 
|
| FT% | 78 | 74 | 
|
| fg% | 51 | 9 |
|
| 3fg% | 37 | 39 | 
|
| 2fg% | 57 | 10 | 
|
| ft% | 73 | 36 |
|
| PTS/POSS | 0.99 | 65 | 
|
| pts/poss | 1.03 | 10 |
|
| TOTPOSS | 151 | 13 |
|
| POSDIF | -5 | 16 | 
|
| %LOB | 14 | 68 |
|
| %lob | 13 | 24 | 
|
| SmithIdx | -0.1393 | 26 | 
|
| Interesting Stats | |||
| AST/FG | 0.25 | 0 | 
|
| AST/POSS | 0.08 | 2 |
|
| %RMS | 0.15 | 3 |
|
| %FROM3 | 33.3 | 70 |
|
STAT = Statistic being reported
VALUE = Value of reported stat from the current game
PCTLE = Percentile When Compared to All UNC Games since 1996
Historical Comparison = Graphic Portrayal of PCTLE. Marks depict 20% quintiles, as well as 50%.
FG% = UNC Total Field Goal Percentage (47.0% avg since 1996)
3FG% = UNC 3-point Field Goal Percentage (35.6%)
2FG% = UNC 2-point Field Goal Percentage (51.4%)
FT% = UNC Free Throw Percentage (70.0%)
fg% = Opponent Total Field Goal Percentage (41.6%)
3fg% = Opponent 3-point Field Goal Percentage (33.8%)
2fg% = Opponent 2-point Field Goal Percentage (45.9%)
ft% = Opponent Free Throw Percentage (68.2%)
PTS/POSS = UNC Points Per Possession (Smith Method, 0.934)
pts/poss = Opponent Points Per Possession (Smith Method, 0.846))
POSS = UNC Total Possessions (Smith Method, 85.6)
POSDIF = UNC Advantage in Total Possessions (Smith Method, 2.03)
%LOB = UNC Percentage Loss of Ball (TO/POSS, 15.9)
%lob = Opponent Percentage Loss of Ball (to/poss, 16.4)
MOV = Margin of Victory (9.43)
%FROM3 = UNC Percentage of FG Attempts Taken From 3 (35.6%)
AST/POSS = UNC Assists Per Possession (Smith Method, 0.20)
AST/FG = UNC Assists Per Field Goal (0.59)
AST/TO = UNC Assists Per Turnover (1.4)
%from3 = Opponent Percentage of Shots Taken From 3 (33.8)
ast/poss = Opponent Assists Per Possession (Smith Method, 0.16)
ast/fg = Opponent Assists Per Field Goal (0.52)
ast/to = Opponent Assists Per Turnover (1.1)
poss = Opponents Total Possessions (Smith Method) (83.6)
TOTPOSS = Total Possessions in the Game(Smith Method, 169.3)
SmithIdx = UNC Total of Pts/Poss minus Offensive Goal (0.95) + Defensive Goal (0.85) minus Opponent Pts/Poss (avg: -0.01)
VALUE = Value of reported stat from the current game
PCTLE = Percentile When Compared to All UNC Games since 1996
Historical Comparison = Graphic Portrayal of PCTLE. Marks depict 20% quintiles, as well as 50%.
FG% = UNC Total Field Goal Percentage (47.0% avg since 1996)
3FG% = UNC 3-point Field Goal Percentage (35.6%)
2FG% = UNC 2-point Field Goal Percentage (51.4%)
FT% = UNC Free Throw Percentage (70.0%)
fg% = Opponent Total Field Goal Percentage (41.6%)
3fg% = Opponent 3-point Field Goal Percentage (33.8%)
2fg% = Opponent 2-point Field Goal Percentage (45.9%)
ft% = Opponent Free Throw Percentage (68.2%)
PTS/POSS = UNC Points Per Possession (Smith Method, 0.934)
pts/poss = Opponent Points Per Possession (Smith Method, 0.846))
POSS = UNC Total Possessions (Smith Method, 85.6)
POSDIF = UNC Advantage in Total Possessions (Smith Method, 2.03)
%LOB = UNC Percentage Loss of Ball (TO/POSS, 15.9)
%lob = Opponent Percentage Loss of Ball (to/poss, 16.4)
MOV = Margin of Victory (9.43)
%FROM3 = UNC Percentage of FG Attempts Taken From 3 (35.6%)
AST/POSS = UNC Assists Per Possession (Smith Method, 0.20)
AST/FG = UNC Assists Per Field Goal (0.59)
AST/TO = UNC Assists Per Turnover (1.4)
%from3 = Opponent Percentage of Shots Taken From 3 (33.8)
ast/poss = Opponent Assists Per Possession (Smith Method, 0.16)
ast/fg = Opponent Assists Per Field Goal (0.52)
ast/to = Opponent Assists Per Turnover (1.1)
poss = Opponents Total Possessions (Smith Method) (83.6)
TOTPOSS = Total Possessions in the Game(Smith Method, 169.3)
SmithIdx = UNC Total of Pts/Poss minus Offensive Goal (0.95) + Defensive Goal (0.85) minus Opponent Pts/Poss (avg: -0.01)
Well this was a weird one. Without Armando Bacot or D'Marco Dunn, the Heels entered Blacksburg, a traditional failing point for this program, with a hand tied. At halftime the Heels found themselves in an understandable 10-point hole, only scoring 0.77 points per possession while allowing VT to score 1.03. I liked what I saw in the second half, however. Facing a 16-point deficit, the Heels rallied with in-your-face defense and inspired rebounding, and cut the deficit to 3. That's the first time this season we've seen this team play inspired ball, and was the takeaway from this game, really.
While I wasn't surprised that UNC's pts/possession increased from 0.77 in the first half to 1.18 in the second half, I was shocked to see that VT was 1.03 in both halves. It really felt like UNC disrupted VT more in the second half, especially in the final 13:00.
Offensively the Heels had another woeful game with assists, tying their horrible 0.25 AST/FGM rate seen in Indiana. It's the 8th time since 1996 that's happened and the 3rd time this season. The offense looks no different than it did on the long trip, but once the defense changed, we saw better offensive play. We only had 2 assists at halftime.
Also of note was atrocious offensive rebounding, of the 3rd percentile variety. Without Bacot in there, there were several possessions where we were playing 5-around-0 while shooting 18% from 3 and taking a third of our shots from there. It's amazing that we weren't down by 30, to be honest, because VT shot 51%. Thankfully UNC was, once again, excellent inside the arc, shooting 62% there.
This team is a mess, and the coaches have a lot of work to do. Entering last season with the loss of Walker Kessler, how were we going to have an inside presence when Bacot wasn't in the game? Bacot played 31.6 minutes last season, and Manek did a decent job of holding down the inside during those 8 minutes. This year Bacot is averaging 33.8 mins/gm and we are seeing that Pete Nance has a long, long way to go to be what we need to spell Bacot. The answer for 4-around-1 is that you feature good 3-point shooting. This team, however, is shooting 29% from behind the arc, way down from last year's 36% clip. I started tracking this stuff in 1996, and since then we have not had a team shoot below 30% from 3 until now. (The previous worsts were 2020 and 2021 with 30 and 32%).
Next up? Well just change sports. Maybe Women's Soccer can do what the Football and Basketball teams haven't done in a while; win a game. Basketball doesn't play until Saturday when they host an awful Ga Tech team. Heaven help us.
