Can North Carolina score consistently?
Can North Carolina score consistently?This has been something I and other hoops writers on Twitter have wondered since the earliest part of the season, and right now the answer appears to be no.
The Tar Heels have been living off offensive rebounds in the early part of the season. Their three poorest offensive performances -- in losses to Butler and Indiana and a win over East Tennessee State -- came in games in which the Heels grabbed 30 percent or fewer available offensive rebounds. Compounding their inability to score on initial possessions is their extremely low free throw rate. Right now, only two teams in the country get to the line with less frequency than the Heels (in terms of FTAs per FGA).
They're shooting the 3 at a decent rate, but they're well below normal North Carolina standards in terms of 2-point field goal percentage, a byproduct of the lineup they're rolling with this season. They have a freshman point guard (Marcus Paige) who is still learning on the job and their main frontcourt scoring threat (James Michael McAdoo) is converting less than 50 percent of his 2-point attempts, a poor rate for an athletic frontcourt player.
As inexperienced players settle into their roles, there may be some modest improvement, but preseason fears over a lopsided lineup with very little frontcourt pop and a rookie point guard seem to have been founded.
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/news/20121211/early-season-questions/#ixzz2EueQ2Z9g
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