For much of the season, there has been a significant debate as to whether Dexter Strickland should begin to eat away at some of Larry Drew’s minutes at PG. In essence, this debate has boiled down to the explosiveness of Strickland versus the better assist-to-turnover ratio of Drew. Of late, this debate has been somewhat muted, not because one player has clearly separated himself, but rather, it is because a new question has arisen: Should Larry Drew II and Dexter Strickland see more minutes together?
To start, let’s first examine each players total performance over their first 5 ACC games:
| P/40 | R/40 | A/40 | S/40 | A/T | FG% | 3P% | FT% | eFG% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Larry Drew II | 14.1 | 5.0 | 9.7 | 1.4 | 2.06 | 0.459 | 0.429 | 0.846 | 0.541 |
| Dexter Strickland | 16.7 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 1.00 | 0.560 | 0.333 | 0.750 | 0.600 |
My first thought after seeing these numbers is that they are not half-bad and if UNC could get that type of production every game, then they would be in pretty good shape. This, of course, is a good example of how statistics, especially those derived from a small sample size (5 games), can be misleading, for as we all know, UNC has not gotten this type of production every night. In fact, in five games, each player has had two excellent games, and three games that were… well… not so much. Obviously, the topic of this team’s (in)consistency is a horse that has been beaten to a bloody mess, and my reason for bringing it up is not to discuss the litany of reasons for this inconsistency that have been suggested (inexperience, lack of leadership, lack of talent, etc.), but cannot be changed. It is to look for something within the team that can be changed.
So instead of looking at each player’s total numbers, let’s look at how those numbers change for each player in the presence or absence of the other. The first comparison presented is that of Dexter Strickland with and without Larry Drew:
| P/40 | R/40 | A/40 | S/40 | A/T | FG% | 3P% | eFG% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| w/ Drew | 20.6 | 2.3 | 3.4 | 4.6 | 1.50 | 0.800 | 0.333 | 0.850 |
| w/o Drew | 14.1 | 3.1 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 0.75 | 0.400 | 0.333 | 0.433 |
And next, Larry Drew with and without Dexter Strickland:
| P/40 | R/40 | A/40 | S/40 | A/T | FG% | 3P% | eFG% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| w/ Strickland | 19.4 | 2.3 | 9.1 | 0.0 | 2.00 | 0.714 | 0.667 | 1.000 |
| w/o Strickland | 12.4 | 5.8 | 9.8 | 1.8 | 2.08 | 0.400 | 0.250 | 0.433 |
Again, it is a small sample size, but even with that qualifier, the numbers are very telling, and what they are saying is that UNC is much stronger when Drew and Strickland are playing together. Over the first five ACC games, both players are shooting better than 70% when they are in the game together, Drew has hit 4 of 6 from three (versus 2 of 8 when he is alone), and not surprisingly, their scoring rates jump
