UNC's Coaching Staff 'Diving More Into' Analytics to Identify Trends and Develop Players

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Spearheaded by assistant coaches Marcus Paige and Sean May, North Carolina basketball has embraced the numbers side of college athletics — analytics. 

On Monday’s edition of the Hubert Davis Live radio show, the Tar Heel head coach talked about the impact that looking into statistical data has provided for finding trends, individualizing player improvement and helping paint a better picture of what North Carolina succeeds or struggles with over the course of a season. 

“One of the things that I have changed this year is that in terms of statistics and analytics, I think it’s really important and plays a part in what we’re trying to do,” Davis said on the show. 

One way the Tar Heels have used analytics is by breaking down the season into 10-game stretches. Each morning after UNC plays its 10th game in a row, Paige formats a printout that breaks down what each player on North Carolina’s roster has done well and or needs to improve on from the previous stretch. 

The information also presents how UNC has performed as a team, highlighting trends — good or bad — that paint a picture of what happened in each 10-game block. Useful information that gives Davis and his coaching staff tangible data points to build their practices around. 

“It’s been really helpful to see trends and different things that we need to improve on,” Davis said. “(And) things that we’re doing really well, that we want to continue to emphasize.”

Long before analytics were even considered a part of the sport, Dean Smith was often a fan of a metric still used to this day, points per possession. As simple as it seems — total points divided by number of possessions — the stat offers a quick glance at the efficiency of an offense in relation to the amount of chances it has to score. 

Though Davis emulates a lot of what he learned playing for Smith, points per possession isn’t one of the things the current Tar Heel head coach worries about until after the box score is finalized. 

“Coach Smith looked at that like every half,” Davis recalled. “That was huge for him. And that’s something that I do look at, but I do not look at it during the game.” 

The stats Davis does glance at during breaks in the game, however, are ones that don’t need any impressive analytical model or number crunching to figure out. Always pointing to rebounding as the most important factor in a basketball game, Davis is quick to check UNC’s effectiveness on the glass as well as the shooting splits from the floor, free throw line and beyond the arc. 

“You know what statistic that I like?” Davis asked to the show’s host, Jones Angell. “That we made free throws and then we out-rebounded the opponent. I don’t need any math problems to understand that one. That one’s pretty good.”