Comparing the 2011 UNC Basketball Team to the 2005 and 2009 Teams

When the 2011-2012 UNC basketball team started their season ranked number one atop the rankings this fall, the comparisons to the 2005 and 2009 national championship squads began flying in. The 2005 team ended up 33-4 (14-2 in conference play) and the 2009 team went 34-4 (13-3 in conference play).

While this season is only 10 games old, yours truly feels it is not too early to compare some aspects of all three teams. Hopefully by the time you reach the end of this piece you will feel more comfortable comparing this year's squad to the last two UNC championship teams.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the three teams comes down to scoring. The 2005 and 2009 teams scored at will. This may be hard to believe, but both of those teams ended the year with five players averaging double-digit scoring.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that Kendall Marshall, the starting point guard, is not putting up double-digit scoring as Raymond Felton and Ty Lawson did for the 2005 and 2009 teams. Although, the current team is getting more secondary scoring than the previous two teams, with five players averaging five or more points per game.

2005 team (ppg = points per game):

Sean May (17.5 ppg)

Rashad McCants (16.0 ppg)

Jawad Williams (13.1 ppg)

Raymond Felton (12.9 ppg)

Marvin Williams (11.3 ppg, from the bench)

2009 team (ppg = points per game):

Tyler Hansbrough (20.7 ppg)

Ty Lawson (16.6 ppg)

Wayne Ellington (15.8 ppg)

Danny Green (13.1 ppg)

Deon Thompson (10.6 ppg)

2011 team through 10 games (ppg = points per game):

Harrison Barnes (17.5 ppg)

John Henson (15.0 ppg)

Tyler Zeller (13.6 ppg)

Another way to look at scoring is by looking at average ppg at the team level.

2005 team: 88.0 ppg

2009 team: 89.8 ppg

2011 team: 84.1 ppg

Another way to look at scoring is by looking at how many times a team eclipses the one-hundred point mark. The 2005 team scored 100+ points six times over the course of the season, good for 16% of the games played. The 2009 team did so nine times, good for 24% of the games played. The current team has scored 100+ points twice, good for 20% of the time, but expect that number to plummet as conference play begins.

There has been a lot of talk about how the current team is not as good at rebounding as the 2005 and 2009 teams. If you look at rebounding margin, however, the numbers are a lot closer than you would think.

2005 team: +7.5

2009 team: +6.3

2011 team: +6.0

Offensively, the biggest difference in team statistics between the three teams seems to come down to free-throw shooting percentage. The current team is averaging an abysmal 64.1% from the free-throw line, whereas the 2005 team averaged 72.5% and the 2009 team averaged 75.2%. That is a staggering number when you consider that the 2005 and 2009 teams shot close to 1,000 free throws over the course of a season. If these percentages hold true, the current team will score around 80-100 less points via the free throw line than their 2005 and 2009 teams.

Lastly, let's take a look at team defense from the standpoint of ppg given up as well as the overall points margin.

2005 team: 70.3 ppg (+17.7 point margin)

2009 team: 72.0 ppg (+17.8 point margin)

2011 team: 68.2 ppg (+15.9 point margin)

While the current team gives up between two to four less ppg than their 2005 and 2009 counterparts, their scoring margin is also about two ppg lower than the championship teams.

Although it is too early to make strong comparisons between the current team and the 2005 and 2009 national championship teams, the overall trend seems to be that although the current team is not as offensively gifted, there are some strong similarities between the teams to suggest that this team could make a deep run in March. The lower point margin also suggests that Tar Heel fans should expect closer games the rest of the year.

Note: all statistics from Tarheelblue.com