Stats and stuff (Temple game)

[gary-7]

1st game so lotsa "stuff" ;}

- So... if two weeks ago someone would've told you Marcus wouldn't play and Jackson would only score 4 pts,, would you have believed we could score 91 on Temple and win by 24??? I know I would've been skeptical... however there was one factor that could (and did) make that possible (stay tuned...)

- Refs called it tight Friday (which apparently was the trend nationally). Hey, as long as it's consistent both ways I'll take tight over mayhem. Now lessee if it stays that way once the bitching (is that the noise a Rat makes?) starts...

- Tempo, tempo, tempo. We scored 14 true Fast Break (FB) points (TV actually got that right!)... but we scored a LOT off the Secondary Break (SB) (which TV seldom gets right). More below...

- They obviously couldn't handle our Bigs, especially with the zebras keeping mayhem in check, and we wisely kept feeding them the rock.

- I was a bit surprised (but not totally with Marcus out) that Pinson started. What did we learn? Well, bless his heart, Theo is not a natural 2. Sometimes he was lost and would do something that makes Roy have that ol' acid reflux look, but damn ya just gotta love Theo. His effort and enthusiasm and athleticism makes up for a lot. He hustles, gets after the ball and often comes up with a play.

- I was very proud of Nate. He played his offensive role well, and hopefully y'all could see why I have been saying he is far better off the ball. Almost the entirety of his output Friday came while playing the 2.

- So without further ado, remembering the benchmark of exceeding 2.2 PPM, hear ya go:
Team stats by Guard combo:
Berry/Pinson 2.48 PPM
Berry/Britt 2.55 PPM
Britt/Williams 1.37 PPM
Britt/Pinson 2.14 PPM

Berry at PG 2.52 PPM (12 FB pts., 28 SB pts) UNC 79 - Temple 52
Britt at PG 1.56 PPM (2 FB pts., 4 SB pts.) UNC 12 - Temple 15

- So...... going back to that initial question. MP was out, JJ scored 4, we were far from perfect on offense, and far from perfect on defense... so how the hell did we do this?
That one factor I referenced above:
Welcome to the Joel Berry era folks.

end note: JB was far from perfect himself, but pretty much every decision he made was right. The ball went where (and when) it was supposed to, the spacing and floor balance (with one exception) was excellent, and even when he didn't finish he took the shot or took it to the rack at the right time knowing he had reinforcements. Hell, a couple of times he was too unselfish, but that is quite forgivable.

 

[Steat]

I was at the game last night and really enjoyed it. Berry has so much poise and nothing seems to rattle this kid. I will stick to something I have said for the last several months and have not wavered on my position. Joel Berry is a Shane Larkin clone. I will add a couple of more things. When Paige gets back you will see the best starting backcourt in the country with Berry at the 1 and Paige at the two. You will have two lethal 3-point shooters (Paige and Berry) that will allow Jackson to move freely in the paint for his floaters with Brice , Meeks and Hicks to dominate inside. One final thing : I saw a little Chris Paul in Berry's play last night. It's only one game, and I am not saying he will be another Chris Paul but this kid is going to be special. If he stays healthy, Berry will see the bulk of the minutes at the 1 for the Heels this year. You can take that to bank.

 

[gary-7]

I was at the game last night and really enjoyed it. Berry has so much poise. I will stick to something I have said for the last several months and have not wavered on my position. Joel Berry is a Shane Larkin clone. I will add a couple of more things. When Paige gets back you will see the best starting backcourt in the country with Berry at the 1 and Paige at the two. You with have two lethal 3-point shooters (Paige and Berry) that will allow Jackson to more freely in the paint for his floaters with Brice , Meeks and Hicks to dominate inside. One final thing : I saw a little Chris Paul in Berry's play last night. It's only one game, and I am not say he will be another Chris Paul but this kid is going to be special. If he stays healthly, Berry will see the bulk of the minutes at the 1 for the Heels this year. You can take that to bank.

Bet you had a blast, Steat. I'm envious!

 

[Steat]

Bet you had a blast, Steat. I'm envious!

Gary, I live only 40 miles from Annapolis. I got very lucky and took a chance on the tickets. I bought a upper deck ticket several weeks ago at face value and sold it because I felt it was too much for the section I was in. I decided I would just arrive for the game around 6pm and see if I could buy a ticket at a lower price in a better section.There were several sellers but most of them wanted face value. They were more like runners for ticket brokers. I decided to just wait until about 5 minutes before the tip off to make a definitive move and got lucky. I was able to purchase one of those $336 seats for $90! The seat was on the opposite side of the teams about 20 rows up around midcourt. I missed the first couple of minutes of the game and when I walkd in the Heels were behind and struggling. UNC was well represented in the crowd, at least 30%+ of the crowd in my estimation. Lots of UNC blue.

 

[UNC Blue Hup]

Glad to hear I'll be in KC in 10 days and don't have any tickets! Go Heels!

 

[gary-7]

I was at the game last night and really enjoyed it. Berry has so much poise and nothing seems to rattle this kid. I will stick to something I have said for the last several months and have not wavered on my position. Joel Berry is a Shane Larkin clone. I will add a couple of more things. When Paige gets back you will see the best starting backcourt in the country with Berry at the 1 and Paige at the two. You will have two lethal 3-point shooters (Paige and Berry) that will allow Jackson to move freely in the paint for his floaters with Brice , Meeks and Hicks to dominate inside. One final thing : I saw a little Chris Paul in Berry's play last night. It's only one game, and I am not saying he will be another Chris Paul but this kid is going to be special. If he stays healthy, Berry will see the bulk of the minutes at the 1 for the Heels this year. You can take that to bank.

Since the first response I've scanned media accounts of the game and I SMH and chuckle that even some of the local guys who cover UNC still just don't seem to get it. But trust me when I say this, his teammates do.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

1st game so lotsa "stuff" ;}

- So... if two weeks ago someone would've told you Marcus wouldn't play and Jackson would only score 4 pts,, would you have believed we could score 91 on Temple and win by 24??? I know I would've been skeptical... however there was one factor that could (and did) make that possible (stay tuned...)

- Refs called it tight Friday (which apparently was the trend nationally). Hey, as long as it's consistent both ways I'll take tight over mayhem. Now lessee if it stays that way once the bitching (is that the noise a Rat makes?) starts...

- Tempo, tempo, tempo. We scored 14 true Fast Break (FB) points (TV actually got that right!)... but we scored a LOT off the Secondary Break (SB) (which TV seldom gets right). More below...

- They obviously couldn't handle our Bigs, especially with the zebras keeping mayhem in check, and we wisely kept feeding them the rock.

- I was a bit surprised (but not totally with Marcus out) that Pinson started. What did we learn? Well, bless his heart, Theo is not a natural 2. Sometimes he was lost and would do something that makes Roy have that ol' acid reflux look, but damn ya just gotta love Theo. His effort and enthusiasm and athleticism makes up for a lot. He hustles, gets after the ball and often comes up with a play.

- I was very proud of Nate. He played his offensive role well, and hopefully y'all could see why I have been saying he is far better off the ball. Almost the entirety of his output Friday came while playing the 2.

- So without further ado, remembering the benchmark of exceeding 2.2 PPM, hear ya go:
Team stats by Guard combo:
Berry/Pinson 2.48 PPM
Berry/Britt 2.55 PPM
Britt/Williams 1.37 PPM
Britt/Pinson 2.14 PPM

Berry at PG 2.52 PPM (12 FB pts., 28 SB pts) UNC 79 - Temple 52
Britt at PG 1.56 PPM (2 FB pts., 4 SB pts.) UNC 12 - Temple 15

- So...... going back to that initial question. MP was out, JJ scored 4, we were far from perfect on offense, and far from perfect on defense... so how the hell did we do this?
That one factor I referenced above:
Welcome to the Joel Berry era folks.

end note: JB was far from perfect himself, but pretty much every decision he made was right. The ball went where (and when) it was supposed to, the spacing and floor balance (with one exception) was excellent, and even when he didn't finish he took the shot or took it to the rack at the right time knowing he had reinforcements. Hell, a couple of times he was too unselfish, but that is quite forgivable.

Thanks for the great stats.

It will be interesting to see how these combos

Berry-Paige
Paige-Pinson
Paige-Britt

stack up against Berry-Britt, once Marcus is back.

 

[Jameishaveshistaint]

Berry is just too good to keep off the floor even w a healthy MP. This will allow a helluva bench w Nate theo KW Isiah and James. That's a solid 10. This is a final four team for sure if healthy

 

[soap - new and improved]

4 for 11 and 1.33 assist to TO ratio? I could just hear some of you guys howling if Britt or any other Tar Heel had those numbers.

 

[gary-7]

4 for 11 and 1.33 assist to TO ratio? I could just hear some of you guys howling if Britt or any other Tar Heel had those numbers.

...yet another example of why team stats matter

 

[soap - new and improved]

Another "off" game by Berry today. 6-16 and same 1.33 assist to TO ratio.

To be clear, I want Berry to be the best PG we have ever had. I want every Tar Heel player to be "the best" at their position we have ever had.

I know Berry will play better at some point. Everyone has off games.

 

[Heelicious]

Its no secret that Gary and others on our board here are big Berry fans. Nothing wrong with that.... he is THE guy to run this team at PG, I think. Who runs the point when JB needs rest is a good question. I don't think anyone wants Britt to play poorly or wants opportunities to rip on him. And I don't think we should be pitting our players against each other even in a chat board. I think most everyone here would acknowledge that Britt has looked as good as any of our guards 2 games in, and he's doing that mostly at the 2 position. I don't want him being the primary 1 guard for long stretches (ie - running the offense thru him)..... but I for one think there will be games where we don't only want - but NEED his ability to hit open jumpers. He has worked hard at it, looks quite smooth, and should be recognized for putting the time and effort in.... but those accolades don't need to be at the expense of Joel Berry.

BTW - if we want to talk about assist / TO ratios, I lve me some Theo Pinson. What a high energy human stat machine. I think he had an 8 assist / O TO game tonight. Not sure how many rebounds he had, but he could be an all around guy for us that just does everything like Danny Green (though Theo likely won't shoot as much) or a Lynch, Marcus Ginyard, etc type guy