Not surprising:
- we defend the 3 really, really well
- our overall efficiencies are generally stellar
- tempo fluctuates a lot with personnel
- JJ is good at free throws
- Zoubs was an OR% beast
- the '07 underclassmen turned the ball over a lot
- there really was something unique about Paulus + the '06 seniors. We all know that Greg never came close to defending his ACC assist title after his freshman year, but his predecessors in the backcourt were actually worse, despite having roughly the same offensive firepower on the receiving end of the ball.
Surprising:
- Shelden's teams were terrible at rebounding. Looks like all those blocks came at a high cost. 2006 is particularly confounding: we added McRoberts to the front line, yet got worse, especially at the offensive end. Only theory I have is that Markie (at barely 6-1) was even more critical on the boards than we realized. He was injured much of '06, but came back to average 5.4rpg the following year.
- The two years we truly "lived and died by the 3" were 2005 and 2008. Can't say I would have guessed those.
- It's hard to correlate defense with roster. Seems silly to argue that replacing the NDPOY with a bunch of frosh led to a big improvement! I think you can tease out a few correlations, though: Ewing and Scheyer good, King Taylor bad. Big men -- even dominant big men -- don't seem to matter as much in our scheme. At best, you might find evidence for McClure's health & maturation after redshirting, and Zoub's late career heroics.