Merry Christmas BONers! I thought I'd post both UNC and Mich St. gameflows in one fanpost, but I haven't even started the MSU spreadsheet and I probably won't have time to complete it tomorrow. Might as well post the UNC one. Besides, there's a number of things I'd like to point out in the UNC game alone. Here we go...

Click here for the Texas vs North Carolina GameFlow

via i46.tinypic.com

Thoughts after the jump...

• I conjectured that Brown would lead us in +/- and he did just that. Incredible performance for that young man. He is definitely my MVP for this game, and this should tell you why: J'Covan Brown was a +21 and we won by 13 points, meaning Texas was outscored by 8 points when Brown was on the bench. In short, we needed Brown to win this game.
• Because of our free throw shooting woes, I'll put this in a separate bullet, even though it's once again about J'Covan Brown. I'll post it here since he didn't attempt any free throws in the Michigan State game. Despite our well-documented woes at the foul line, Brown is the one definite exception. Brown went 6-6 from the line against UNC, and is currently shooting an astonishing 97.1% from the free throw line for the season (34-35 made FTs). What an incredible luxury to have late in games.
• While I'm on this surprisingly optimistic note about our free throw shooting, I'd also like to state that Jai Lucas (yet to attempt a FT so far this season) shot a decent 71.4% from the line as a freshman at Florida. Assuming he's at least somewhat improved on this, it's going to be very convenient to have both Brown and Lucas as our back-court tandem when the opposing team is in a situation to foul us in crunch time.
• Alright, back to the +/- stats. To clear up a few outliers, Hill's and Lucas' +/- are mostly a result of luck more than anything. Hill happened to be on the court when UNC collapsed late in the 1st half, which includes a Gary Johnson three pointer, and an Avery Bradley steal off a lackadaisical inbound pass from North Carolina. I guess we can give him credit for not getting in the way of that run.
• Lucas on the other hand, was probably more of a victim of poor substitution patterns by Rick Barnes. This needs to be said. It feels like beating a dead horse, but having Balbay and Mason on the court at the same time just sets up the rotation for offensive ineptitude. On the flipside, what Barnes did (you can track on this on the GameFlow) in this game with his bench at certain points was a major headscratcher. It is no coincidence to me that the one unit Barnes inserted out there that accumulated a -5 is one of the absolute worst defensive rotations imaginable for this team (James, Pittman, Brown, Hamilton, Lucas). Crazy! It looks like a deadly rotation from an offensive standpoint, but Hamilton was absolute garbage in this game if you recall. In the 2nd half when UNC made their run, Lucas was once again put into the game with Hamilton, Pittman, James, and Johnson. Again, poor defense especially on the perimeter. Unless we are in absolute need for offense, Lucas should not be on the court with Hamilton. I'm fine with pairing him up with Brown for FT shooting, but otherwise I'd pair him up with Balbay or Mason.
• Don't want to go off on Hamilton, but he was flat out awful - you could call him a blackhole in this game. I think a bomb would be a more appropriate comparison. He will explode in some shape or form, but we aren't sure which team he'll hurt - our team or the opponent? Not only was he on our worst rotation, but was on the court at all times when UNC made their 2nd half run as you can see on the spreadsheet. For him, it's just better shot selection and overall efficiency. In the UNC game, it was Bad Jordan. As we saw in the Michigan State game though, he still deserves playing time, because he can still be the X-factor for this team if we want to win the whole thing.
  
• I find Pittman's +/- to be surprisingly low given his excellent box score production of 25 and 13. Was it the teammates around him like Hamilton that influenced this number? Bad luck? He was in some of our worst rotations defensively. Balbay, like Pittman took a hit with his +/- when UNC went on a run to get back within 6. I'm not going to make too much out of this. Pittman was dominant, and Balbay's defense on Drew was outstanding.
• Final thought: I love me some J'Covan Brown. Have a great Christmas everyone!