Rush The Court

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the absent Morning Five yesterday. I hope a double-dose of links will help ease the pain.

1. Run The Floor: In case you can’t tell, I’m a big fan of defensive charting. Michael Rogner has charted the defensive work of Bernard James, John Henson, Josh Smith and Anthony Davis. Putting on your ACC goggles, you can also check his piece over at Tomahawk Nation that ignores the non-Seminole players. The findings are very interesting. Basically, without Chris Singleton, the Seminole defense is elite with James in the game and above average with him on the bench. With James on the court, Leonard Hamilton’s squad allows only 0.75 points per possession, but with him on the bench it allows 0.91 points per possession. That’s a gigantic difference. For comparison’s sake, Henson “only” affects North Carolina’s defense by 0.11 points per possession.
2. Durham Herald-Sun: James Michael McAdoo is off to a relatively slow start for North Carolina this season, and Roy Williams thinks it’s his lack of aggression to blame. Against UNCG, “Williams turned to the bench and said that if the 6’9″ freshman didn’t dunk the ball next time, everyone on the team would run sprints while he sat McAdoo on a lawn chair and served him lemonade.” McAdoo’s talent is undeniable, but his transition to the college level has been far from smooth.
3. Washington Post: Coaching legend Larry Brown made another short stop (zing) to visit his former player, Mark Turgeon, at Maryland’s basketball practice recently. Despite playing for North Carolina, Brown called Maryland a “special place” with a “special coach.” The only coach in history to win an NCAA championship (1988) and an NBA championship (2004) also gave some advice to Turgeon.
   


4. Basketball Prospectus: Drew Cannon evaluated Kendall Marshall as the 70th best basketball player in the country during the offseason, which was substantially below where pretty much everyone else places the unique North Carolina point guard. But Cannon realized that “[he] was evaluating players in terms of ‘how many wins would this player add to a randomly assembled team of college players?’ while everyone else was evaluating players in terms of ‘how many wins will this player add to his team?'” It’s an important distinction to make, and a valuable one. I still think he had Marshall a little undervalued (and most have him overvalued), but it certainly provides some food for thought (also, don’t be surprised to see some more content this week in a similar vein).
5. CollegeHoops.net: It’s probably not surprising that three ACC teams are in the Top 25 this week. What may be surprising is which three teams made the cut. Instead of Florida State, Virginia‘s hot start earned the Cavaliers the conference’s third spot in the AP and Coaches polls. This raises the question of which team is actually better. Florida State has played a tougher schedule, and definitely has the athletic advantage on defense. But Virginia’s offensive and defensive numbers are a little better at the moment. This debate will definitely be something to keep an eye on moving forward. The second half of today’s links is after the jump.
   
6. Associated Press (via Sarasota Herald-Tribune): Florida State got some bad news yesterday, as Leonard Hamilton announced that forward Terrance Shannon will be out for the rest of the season as he recovers from shoulder surgery. As he had only played in seven games, it’s likely that Shannon’s medical hardship waiver will be accepted by the NCAA, giving him two more years of eligibility left. The loss will definitely hurt the Seminole offense, where he contributed nearly nine points a game.
7. Duke Sports Blog: DSG argues that Quinn Cook hasn’t seen much playing time for Duke this year, but the freshman’s performance against UNCG may change that. I’m not sure I agree with this. Cook is really raw, especially on defense. His offensive skills are definitely a plus, but for a Duke team that’s surprisingly weak on perimeter defense, he’ll need to improve on that end of the floor before I expect to see Mike Krzyzewski increase his role in the rotation (though, I think Krzyzewski is definitely right giving him significant minutes in blowouts to help avoid Cook getting frustrated and transferring). That said, Cook’s 14 points in 18 minutes against UNC Greensboro was a very strong performance.
8. Washington Post: Oregon‘s athletic department website apparently got hacked after the Virginia game which led to some pretty amusing “quotes” from Dana Altman.
   

   [On Mike Scott] “All-ACC? I wasn’t that impressed. Our defense was poor, and we didn’t block out well. The way we played, that stat line doesn’t surprise me. Nice hair, though.”
   [On Virginia’s defense] “We have to pick up the tempo. We made their system look good, but it’s not that intricate of a defense to break down. We are having trouble getting to the pace we need to be at. I didn’t like our ball movement all night. Our football team could’ve scored more points.”
   [On the pre-game meal]: “There are a lot of areas to work on, all the way from the pregame meal — the spaghetti was overcooked — to our set offense. Our ball movement is not where it needs to be.”

   I love that someone spent the time to hack to athletic department’s website only to put fairly innocuous quotes (with some legitimate criticisms about poor ball movement thrown in for good measure) about a marginal nonconference game. Keep trolling, Duck fans.

9. Streaking The Lawn: Speaking of the Oregon-Virginia game, Streaking the Lawn noted that Tony Bennett (and Virginia fans for that matter) were not happy with the Cavaliers’ first half of that contest. The team struggled defensively, especially in transition, and fought foul trouble. Luckily Virginia dominated the second half, picking up a big non-conference road game in the process.
10. Fayetteville Observer: The Tar Heels may have won by 50, but Roy Williams wasn’t pleased with their performance against Nicholls State Monday. In case you haven’t checked the box score, North Carolina finished with 72 rebounds (!) including 30 on the offensive end. Unfortunately, that meant the Tar Heels missed more than 30 field goals, which Williams and Tyler Zeller attributed to a lack of focus (more specifically, Zeller cited “fenergy”, which is the combination of fun and energy as what hindered the Tar Heels). At the beginning of the second half, Williams even took out his starters so they could watch the reserves pull away from Nicholls State. That lack of focus may not have affected the team Monday, but if it plays sloppily against Texas tonight, look out.

And finally, who doesn’t love a buzzer beater? Check out CJ Leslie‘s big shot to beat St. Bonaventure last night.