2007-08 North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball (San Antonio Here We Come)

[tarheeljks]

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Hey man,

I gotta go to bed. And, unfortunately, I've picked a bad time to start this, as I'll probably be unavailable to properly discuss it tomorrow as well. But I will come back to it, because I think you haven't grasped what I'm trying to say -- which could easily be my fault -- and I think it's an interesting conversation, not just as it pertains to Carolina, but to these kinds of statistics in general. Maybe someone will pick up my case in the interim.

-McGee

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hah that's cool i'll be waiting [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] fwiw you probably got your point across, i'm probably just being a fanboy.

[LurchySoprano]

I tend to agree with AcesMcGee's main point. I realize that the stats say that Carolina is a great defensive team in terms of point per possession allowed, but just simply watching games should tell you that we're not. I think we are a bit underrated defensively by the common fan, but (I hate saying this) Duke seems to be on another level defensively then we are. Part of that has to do with the pace we play and our inexperience last season. The fact that we can make that big stop now in a close game, something we struggled time and time again to do last year is already a big positive step in the right direction.

What I will disagree with is your reasoning for the losses to Gonzaga, Virginia Tech, and Maryland last season. The reason was lost is we had an inexperienced backcourt of Lawson/Ellington that had trouble containing dribble penetration from much older players. Gonzaga started Ravio (SR) and Pargo (SO with lots of PT as a frosh), VT started COllins (SR) and Dowdell (SR), while MD started Strawberry (SR) in the backcourt. These teams exploited Lawson and Ellington's inexperience and dribbled to the rim at will. I've seen a lot less of that (so far) this year which makes me think it was those two adjusting to college basketball as much as anything else.

[Pudge714]

Aces,
There is a pretty big selection bias as you are picking games they lost and than explaining why that team showed UNC had a bad defense.

[The B]

still makes me sick UNC takes credit for beating OSU last year w/ Oden on the bench...go to hell Carolina, go to hell

[Pudge714]

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still makes me sick UNC takes credit for beating OSU last year w/ Oden on the bench...go to hell Carolina, go to hell

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Please stop posting in this thread all you do is troll.

[The B]

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still makes me sick UNC takes credit for beating OSU last year w/ Oden on the bench...go to hell Carolina, go to hell

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Please stop posting in this thread all you do is troll.

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not trolling, just a Duke fan

[capone0]

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still makes me sick UNC takes credit for beating OSU last year w/ Oden on the bench...go to hell Carolina, go to hell

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Are you really this retarded? Are we taking credit for dominating Oden? I don't really see what your point is. Go jerk off to pictures of Coach K in your own thread.

[sethypooh21]

FWIW, I think Aces is pretty spot on. Against many teams, UNC will be defensively overwhelming by virtue of sheer size and athletic talent. In terms of technical defensive excellence though, they are probably middle of the pack in the ACC. They are absolutely not on the level of a UCLA or even a squad like Texas Tech. So against teams that match up athletically, and can win individual matchups, their D will tend to struggle.

[samsonite2100]

I'm not sure I understand how UNC's points per possession allowed can be best in the ACC, but their "technical defensive excellence" is middle of the pack. Is there another, more important stat I'm missing, or does this go back to what the article was talking about--the lack of "gutsy-looking" (read: Dookish) D, floor-slapping, etc. I suppose you could have a team that allowed under 1 point per possession that still turned the ball over an incredible amount, or didn't rebound at all, which would kind of render the point average stat moot in terms of winning a ball game, but 1) it still wouldn't change the fact that this hypothetical team plays good defense, strictly speaking, and 2) at any rate, the above isn't true of UNC.

I do agree that UNC's defense, at this point in the season anyway, is inferior to some of the schools listed, esp. UCLA, who are scary good.

[Pudge714]

sethy and aces both said something about how teams like Memphis and UCLA would exploit them. No [censored] they are two of the best teams in the country they exploit everyone. UNC isn't a great technical defensive team, but they are athletic and have good results. I wouldn't care if there defensive results were a byproduct of them hypnotizing the other team it is still good defense, even if there success is largely due to athleticism.