UNC’s 39 FTs vs. NC State were their most in an ACC game since 2007 (in a very similar stat line and outcome)

I’m over on Sports-Reference.com digging through these free-throw attempt numbers, and I’m finding some pretty interesting nuggets.

I spent yesterday morning digging through NC State’s FTAs and FT disparity numbers, which I put together in this article I posted yesterday.

Today I started looking at all of UNC’s total free-throw numbers.

Sport-Reference only goes back to 2010 for game logs, but up until that point, I wasn’t finding another game where UNC shot as many or more FTs (39) than they did on Saturday.

Then I moved to ESPN, where I had to go box score by box score. Finally, in 2007, I found a game.

It was #1 UNC vs. Virginia, in Chapel Hill, on January 10th.

So, since 2007, UNC has never attempted more than 38 FTs in an ACC game.

That means UNC’s 39 FTs vs. NC State were the most since that game.

Did NC State play the most physical ACC game against UNC in 15 years?

Look, I watched the game, and I’m just going to go ahead and say that’s not the case. In fact, I thought NC State was a little softer than usual in this game. But that’s just an opinion, so go rewatch and let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, I’ll just point out a few things about that 2007 #1 UNC vs. Virginia game in Chapel Hill and show you that there were quite a few interesting parallels to Saturday’s game.

In 2007 vs UNC, Virginia shot 11 free throws.
On Saturday vs UNC, NC State shot 12 free throws. 

In 2007 vs Virginia, UNC shot 41 free throws.
On Saturday vs NC State, UNC shot 39 free throws.

In 2007, the UNC / Virginia FT disparity was +30 for UNC
On Saturday, the UNC / NC State FT disparity was +27 for UNC

In 2007 vs UNC, Virginia shot a better percentage from the floor than the Tar Heels (44% to 38%)
On Saturday vs UNC, NC State shot a better percentage from the floor than UNC (42% to 37%)

In 2007 vs. UNC, Virginia shot better from 3pt range than UNC (36% to 23%)
On Saturday vs UNC, NC State shot better from 3pt range than UNC (29% to 22%)

In 2007 vs. UNC, Virginia had more FGs in the game than UNC (26 to 25)
On Saturday vs UNC, NC State had more FGs in the game than UNC (26-20)

In 2007, UNC beat Virginia by 10 points (79-69)
On Saturday, UNC beat NC State by 11 points (80-69)

In the 2007 game vs. Virginia, UNC was ranked #1. They had Tyler Hansbrough and Brandan Wright in the middle. They were 15-1 at the time, with their only loss coming to Gonzaga. This Virginia game was their 2nd ACC game of the season. 24 of the FTs were shot by the two bigs, but the rest were spread out amongst the UNC guards, meaning this wasn’t just Hansbrough and Wright drawing contact. EVERYONE on UNC was drawing contact. Ellington, Lawson, Rashawn Terry, Quentin Thomas, and Danny Green shot the other 17.

Anyways, again, this doesn’t prove anything, but it is pretty peculiar.

I was out here looking for FT totals in ACC play and couldn’t find one that was equal to or higher than the 39 from Saturday. And it just so happens that when I do find one (allll the way back in 2007), it’s also had the largest FT disparity we’ve seen by UNC in ACC play since Saturday.

These crazy high (25+) FT disparity games don’t come often in the ACC for UNC, but when they come, they seem to come on nights when they are shooting really low percentages from the floor and they’re in need of a victory.

Take from this what you will.