Jeff Goodman of Fox lists Mason as having said that he'll be back.
http://jeffgoodman.yardbarker.com/bl...h_list/4552755
Well I'm taking it like this, no news is good news.
Of course UNC ran their offense through Zeller because they could trust that he would do something good with it. That jump hook thing that Zeller does is pretty special. He turns with it quickly and he has a soft touch so it goes in even if it catches rim. Mason's little hook shot move is sort of almost there. Whenever he goes to it I sort of hold my breath because I know he can convert it...sometimes but he often doesn't.
I love the Plumlees. They are our guys and they do some very good things. They just aren't quite Zeller level and that's ok. I'm sure UNC fans like their Dexter Strickland even if he's no Nolan Smith.
I disagree with the notion that UNC ran their offense through Zeller. I didn't watch very many of their games, but there was frequent complaining among UNC fans that Zeller didn't get the ball enough. They would just sort of forget about him for long stretches. He's a really efficient scorer, but doesn't take a lot of shots. Not trying to knock him because I really like him as a player, but just wanted to raise the point that he was not the focal point of their offense, he was more like one really important building block.
Well, Duke clearly ran its offense through (a) Nolan (who usually had the ball) and (b) Kyle.
Then who the heck did North Carolina run the offense through? I watched the Heels a lot, and while Barnes was effective the last half of the season, he still did a lot of standing around. Marshall would drive and dish to Zeller or Henson. The preferred defense was to make him shoot by defending the pass. And no one else for the Tar Heels was a consistent shooter, much less scorer. None of the guards averaged more than 7.5 per game.
UNC's scoring came primarily from inside: Zeller, Barnes, Henson, and Knox scored 61.5% of the Heels' points. Comparable figures for Duke (bigs plus Kyle) are 45%. Omitting both Barnes and Singler makes the comparison even starker -- 41% inside scoring for UNC vs. 24% for Duke.
I sound like a broken record (do they still make those vinyl things?), but when Duke emphasizes the inside game more, Mason and Ryan (and Miles) are gonna score a lot more. The question is, how efficient will they be.
sagegrouse
BTTT -- this thread is mentioned in today's SI article (Duke preview)