065: 🏀 Efficient offense
North Carolina has yet to score under 1 point per possession in a game this season, plus ACC records against other conferences.
North Carolina beat Pittsburgh 70-57 Tuesday night. The Heels improve to 2-0 in the league and pick up its first road win of the season.
It took North Carolina almost six minutes of game time to score its first points on Tuesday night. Despite a season-low 40.5 effective field goal percentage, Carolina scored 70 points in 68 possessions or around 1.03 points per trip.
The Heels have yet to score under 1 point per possession through 13 games this season. This is the longest such streak to start a season without scoring under 1 point per possession since the 2016 season.
It took 22 games into the 2015-2016 season before Carolina scored 0.92 points per possession, a 71-65 loss to Louisville on February 1, 2016.
During the 2009 Championship season, Carolina never scored under 1 point per possession in any of its 38 games1.
Here is how this season’s streak compares to previous seasons since 2008:
Prior to this season, North Carolina had scored under 1 point per possession in 20 of its 72 games under Hubert Davis or about 28 percent of those games. That number is zero thus far this season2.
The Heels have remained efficient this season by avoiding turnovers3, getting to the foul line4, and continuing its above-average shooting numbers.
On the flip side, seven of Carolina’s 13 opponents have scored under 1 point per possession in a game this season, including its last three opponents.
ACC record against other conferences
I got a question via Twitter about the ACC’s record against other conferences so far:
The P5 or Power 5 leagues is somewhat of a dying term in college sports, especially in basketball. It’s been closer to a Power 6 with the Big East, and in the future, maybe it will be Power 2 or Tiers for all other sports?
Anyhow, here is the ACC’s record against teams from other leagues this season:
# ACC Record against leagues so far
Conf W L
Big 10 3 2
Big 12 9 3
Big East 2 5
Pac-12 3 3
SEC 12 18The Big 12 number absolutely surprised me, however, context is really important. The nine ACC wins over Big 12 teams have come against:
West Virginia (2)
Baylor
Iowa St.
Kansas St.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
TCU
UCF
Teams from the ACC haven’t played any of the top two Big 12 teams (Kansas, Houston), however, that is still a solid record against what again is considered the best conference by lots of metrics.
I suspect that conference to conference records are a dangerous way to assess the strength of a league, so use with caution. I still think a downside for the ACC is the volume of conference games.
There are 274 games remaining between two ACC opponents this regular season. This is over 20 more games than the Big 12 and the SEC (252), Big Ten (250), Pac-12 (216) and Big East (192) have remaining in its regular season.
Carolina’s lowest efficiency number in a game that season was a 92-89 loss to Wake Forest. Yes, a game in which it scored 89 points in 89 possessions.
Fully acknowledging the jinx here before Carolina plays at Clemson on Saturday. Apologies in advance.
Since turning it over on ~21.1 percent of possessions against Kentucky, Carolina has recorded just 22 turnovers over its last 215 possessions or about ~10 percent.
UNC has made 263 free throws and opponents have attempted 215 free throws, good for a +48 margin. Dean Smith approves.