UNC vs. Hofstra: Beyond the Box

Dominance.  With an eFG% of 64.8, the Heels had their best shooting night in almost two years, as UNC had not broken the 64% barrier since the Championship team’s shellacking of of UNC-Asheville in November of 2008.  In the Lipscomb BTB I mentioned how dominant UNC is when they shoot better than 50% (now: 152-10).  As one would expect, when the plateau is raised to 60% UNC reaches an entirely new level of dominance.  Actually, they reach perfection: 47 – 0.

To add insult to injury, even though the Heels rarely missed last night, when they were off the mark they were able to rebound more than half of their misses.  This is potentially a great sign, as a team (even after you account for the talent gap) really has to remain focused and aggressive to grab that many offensive rebounds when they are shooting as well as they were, in a game as lopsided as it was.

Statistical Highlights

• North Carolina had a team offensive rating of 144.6.  As dominant as the 2009 team was, you have to go back to the 2007-2008 season to see a number better than that for a game.

• The sharing of the ball was phenomenal, with a team assist percentage of 72.5.  Equally outstanding was the team’s 2.42 A/T ratio.  This is only the 34th time UNC has had an A/T better than 2.0 under Roy; they have won 33 of those games.

• Rebounding was much more of a team effort than it was against Lipscomb.  John Henson (OR%: 35.8) and Justin Knox (OR%: 30.1) lead the way on the offensive boards, while Tyler Zeller did most of his work on the defensive end (DR%: 28.0).

• UNC’s +/- leaders (scholarship players only), based on Roland Rating, were Harrison Barnes (+38) and Dexter Strickland (+30).  On the opposite end of the spectrum were Reggie Bullock (-36) and Justin Knox (-30).  All of the scholarship athletes did have a +/- that was positive when they were on the court.