While I was posting some stats this season, I had some nice responses (thanks!) and also some questions asking about why I was concentrating on Points Per Minute (PPM), and I promised I would give a more detailed answer later... so here it is.
When Roy returned to the Hill he made it clear that he wanted to "play fast". My response as a fan was "hell yeah, go ahead wit yo bad self". Because contrary to the old public perception, the essence of Carolina basketball traditionally is playing fast --- under control, but fast. And thus Roy went to work revitalizing Dean Smith's masterpiece, the transition game. Roy preached scoring on the fast break, and if not then scoring on the secondary break, and if not then score on a good shot early in the shot clock. Force the tempo then get movin'.
Roy was only able to coax his first UNC team to 82 PPG, but by 04-05 we were rocking at 88 PPG and a National Championship came along with it... and the 08-09 juggernaut fell just short of 90 (89.8 PPG)! But hey, don't forget about Dean Smith. What about the Maestro's shot-clock-era Natty? The 92-93 Heels came in at... wait for it... 86.1 PPG, and two of Dean's teams topped 90 PPG! (and all with 45 second clocks).
The point is the PPM is a good indicator for us because it speaks to Roy's preferred style of play. Roy wants a lot of possessions and he wants to be efficient in those possessions. PPM is a relatively easy-to-keep stat that combines both of those noble goals and how well we're doing at achieving them in any given stretch.
I'll have a wrap-up and looking-forward stat post later, but this is the underpinning. 88 PPG translates to 2.2 PPM. Under Roy if we can get to that level consistently, good things happen. When we fall well short of that?..... well.... I'll save that for the finale.
This post was edited on 4/1 7:07 PM by gary-7
When Roy returned to the Hill he made it clear that he wanted to "play fast". My response as a fan was "hell yeah, go ahead wit yo bad self". Because contrary to the old public perception, the essence of Carolina basketball traditionally is playing fast --- under control, but fast. And thus Roy went to work revitalizing Dean Smith's masterpiece, the transition game. Roy preached scoring on the fast break, and if not then scoring on the secondary break, and if not then score on a good shot early in the shot clock. Force the tempo then get movin'.
Roy was only able to coax his first UNC team to 82 PPG, but by 04-05 we were rocking at 88 PPG and a National Championship came along with it... and the 08-09 juggernaut fell just short of 90 (89.8 PPG)! But hey, don't forget about Dean Smith. What about the Maestro's shot-clock-era Natty? The 92-93 Heels came in at... wait for it... 86.1 PPG, and two of Dean's teams topped 90 PPG! (and all with 45 second clocks).
The point is the PPM is a good indicator for us because it speaks to Roy's preferred style of play. Roy wants a lot of possessions and he wants to be efficient in those possessions. PPM is a relatively easy-to-keep stat that combines both of those noble goals and how well we're doing at achieving them in any given stretch.
I'll have a wrap-up and looking-forward stat post later, but this is the underpinning. 88 PPG translates to 2.2 PPM. Under Roy if we can get to that level consistently, good things happen. When we fall well short of that?..... well.... I'll save that for the finale.
This post was edited on 4/1 7:07 PM by gary-7
